'Nobody better'

James leads team's charge to district championship

LeBron James scored 40 points for the fifth time this season. AP

CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- LeBron James snipped the last strand on the net, yanked it from the rim and scurried down the ladder holding the nylon and scissors.

"Where's momma?" he asked, going in search of Gloria James.

Once he found her, James draped the nylon as well as his district championship medal around his mother's neck.

He didn't have any sweeter assist Saturday.

James scored 41 points with 14 rebounds and top-ranked Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary took home another trophy with an easy 83-56 rout of Akron Central Hower in a Division II district final.

Wearing a pair of green and white Nikes while his teammates wore Adidas sneakers, James again showed why he's the nation's best high school player.

"LeBron? Whew," said James' coach, Dru Joyce II. "What more can you say about him? There's nobody better."

James, projected to be the No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft, scored 15 points in the first quarter, had 27 at half and 38 by the end of the third.

The 6-foot-8 senior went scoreless for the first 7:40 of fourth period, scoring his 40th point with 20 seconds left on a 3-pointer from the corner. It was the fifth time this season James has scored 40 or more points in a game.

The Fighting Irish (21-1) advanced to next week's state regionals in Toledo by settling a score with one of their biggest rivals.

Central Hower (22-2) came in hoping to end St. Vincent-St. Mary's season as well as James' storied career. James, though, isn't ready to move on to the NBA just yet.

"We were looking forward to this game," James said. "We didn't want to look ahead, but we did. We finally got them."

As usual, James' final game in Northeast Ohio -- he'll be in Toledo and Columbus for the rest of the playoffs -- caused a circus-like atmosphere inside and out of the 5,000-seat Memorial Fieldhouse.

Scalpers were asking $100 for a $5 ticket, and there was no shortage of customers as the parking lot outside the arena was filled more than an hour before tipoff.

Tempers flared on the floor and in the stands during a heated first meeting between the schools since last year.

At one point, Canton police came down to step in between two groups of fans jawing at each other across the aisle in the first half. Then, as the halftime buzzer sounded, St. Vincent-St. Mary's Willie McGee and Sedale Cook exchanged shoves.

 

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