By Dylan Butler
No, not that Villanueva.
While a bevy of Division I coaches are tripping over each other trying to land former Newtown standout Charlie Villanueva, who is entering his senior year at Blair Academy, the Queens College men’s basketball team received a commitment from the other Villanueva, Charlie’s older brother, Robert.
Robert Villanueva, a 6-foot-7 swingman out of Sage College of Albany, averaged 25 points and 13 rebounds per game for the Sabers. The Woodhaven native was the team’s captain this year and led Sage to a 27-4 record while garnering first team all-region honors.
Before there was a Charlie Villanueva though, there was Robert, who as a junior led Franklin K. Lane to the PSAL ‘B’ title over Grover Cleveland, 68-50 in 1999.
Villanueva, who chose Queens over Adelphi, St. Francis College joins Shaun Bertin, a 6-foot-6 forward from Nazareth High School in Brooklyn in Queens’ impressive recruiting class. The Knights won its first-ever New York Collegiate Athletic Conference title this year and advanced to the NCAA Division II tournament for a second straight year.
Also at Sage are Josh Puello, a former standout guard at Van Buren, Marlon Marshall, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Francis Lewis and Malcolm Stanton, a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard.
More commitments
The saga of David “Jeep” Hilton continues.
Homeless at age 15, the Queens native went from the streets to the Hyde School in Connecticut to the University of Hawaii where the 5-foot-11 point guard started 18 games his freshman year for the Rainbow Warriors.
Hilton, who went to four New York City high schools, including John Bowne in Flushing, left Hawaii and enrolled in Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla. where he averaged eight points and seven rebounds per game.
Hilton will return to Division I basketball next year, signing a national letter of intent to play for Bruiser Flint at Drexel next season.
Taylor Murphy, a 6-foot-4 forward from John Adams, will attend Monroe College, a junior college in the Bronx this fall.
The TimesLedger All-Queens second team selection was second in the city in rebounding, averaging 18.4 caroms per game. He also scored 18.1 points per game to lead the Spartans to the PSAL ‘A’ playoffs after moving up from the ‘B’ division last year.
Nicole Iannotto, co-captain of the Francis Lewis girls’ basketball team, will attend FDU-Madison next year. The 5-foot-11 forward averaged 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds for the Patriots, who lost to Murry Bergtraum in the PSAL ‘A’ finals for a second straight year. During Iannotto’s four years at Lewis, the team compiled a record of 88-18.
SJU’s George finishes 16th at NCAAs
Senior Sheba George finished 16th in the hammer throw at the NCAA Championships held at Louisiana State University last month. Her throw of 182’4’’ is good for seventh place on the St. John’s all-time list.
George set a new Red Storm record with a toss of 193’1’’ at the Big East championships. She holds four of the top-10 all-time St. John’s marks in the hammer throw.
Smart and Lee lead USA fencers
St. John’s graduate Keeth Smart and senior Ivan Lee led the U.S. fencing team to a fifth place finish at the Peabody World Cup Sabre Championships last month in Boston, Mass.
Smart, a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team and two-time NCAA Sabre champion, earned a bronze medal by beating Hungary’s Domonkis Fodor, 15-13.
Lee, a two-time IFA and NCAA Sabre champion, finished 14th to give the St. John’s duo the highest individual finishes among American men. Smart and Lee currently are ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, in the United States in the Sabre, according to the U.S. Fencing Association.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
