Rosario dedicates performance to Joe Brown

South Orange – After the U-17 Playaz claimed this year’s Joe Brown Memorial championship - a 66-37 victory by way of submission against Team Breakdown of Florida on the campus of Seton Hall University– Mike Rosario separated himself from the pack to find the scorers table and see if his stats were indeed for real.

Oh yes, Mike, the stats were certainly for real.

You managed to hit a flurry of five second-half 3s - all of which were seemingly from your hot spot, the left corner – in shredding the defense of Team Breakdown like a Thanksgiving turkey.

And you did manage to post a game-high 23 points in the championship game, raining an amazing seven threes for the game.

And yes, Mike, you did this all while Rutgers head coach Fred Hill stood and watched as his prized recruit energized the crowd with every catch-and-shoot motion.

Rosario later missed a three-pointer short from the left-corner (“I didn’t put my legs into it”) to a big groan from the crowd. But the shooting guard bound for Rutgers missed little. He finished 7 of 13, or better than 50 percent, from downtown.

Jimmy Salmon, the director of the Playaz, said he wasn’t surprised to see Rosario go Reggie Miller on Team Breakdown during the championship. “He does it often,” said Salmon. “Mike goes on one of those streaks where he can hit four, five in a row. He’s a hot-and-cold shooter.”

Rosario dedicated the Playaz championship and his performance to Joe Brown. “All of my motivation comes from my team and the whole Playaz program,” said Rosario. “I wanted to especially win this whole tournament for Joe Brown, who died. Unc, the one that was supposed to be here with us this past year but couldn’t because he passed (on).

“I was doing it for him.”