Check out a video of a thunderous dunk by Josiah Turner Friday night at our partner site WILDABOUTAZCATS.com

Arizona's Class of 2011 point guard recruit Josiah Turner led his team in scoring in his first game in North Carolina on Friday night

Josiah Turner‘s debut with Winston-Salem (N.C.) Quality Education Academy was an impressive one Friday night as the Arizona-bound point guard led his team with 17 points in a 74-59 win over Upper Room Christian Academy in Raleigh, N.C.

It was Turner’s first game with QEA (19-2) since his transfer two weeks ago from Sacramento High School, where he was dismissed from the team by coach Derek Swafford for missing practices and games while sorting out personal issues.

Reports have circulated that Turner and his mother Doris Ward were unhappy with how Turner was utilized at Sacramento, where his scoring average dropped from 27 points as a junior to 22 this season. Ward nor Turner, however, have publicly commented on the matter.

Turner started for QEA, which has six players destined for major-college programs. In addition to Turner, the others who will play for Division I programs are Wake Forest-bound point guard Anthony Fields, DePaul-bound shooting guard Charles McKinney and a pair of players headed to St. John’s — Dominique Pointer and Dwight Meikle.

The team’s leading rebounder, 6-foot-11 Lekan Ajayi is still undecided. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Ajayi is considering Wake Forest, Florida, Oklahoma, Seton Hall and Loyola-Marymount.

Arizona’s coaching staff has some history with QEA. Fields, who will now share time at the point guard spot with Turner, was ironically recruited by Arizona last year. The UA coaches went a different path and Fields ultimately decided to stay close to home and play for the Demon Deacons.

In an interview with BoxofMess.com in May, Fields said he communicates with Arizona sophomore guard Lamont “MoMo” Jones.

When asked if Arizona would have a successful Class of 2011 recruiting effort, Fields said: “I really do think so. Sean Miller was a new coach and he had some adjustments to make. But, after him being there for a year,things should turn around. Arizona is PG Capital and that’s a place you couldn’t turn down if the situation was right. Mo Mo Jones and I talked as my AAU coach Tony Begeron is his former high school coach and he said he loves it! So if they turn up the heat I would love to get up there.”

Louisville-bound Class of 2012 shooting guard Rodney Purvis had 27 for Upper Room Christian Academy in its loss to QEA Friday.

In other Arizona-related recruiting news, Class of 2012 target Ben Carter of Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman recorded a triple-double Friday night (21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) in the Gaels’ 94-63 road win over Spring Valley. Carter (6-8, 210) is coming off an impressive 17-point, 8-rebound performance against Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep last weekend.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 29th, 2011 at 4:49 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Ben Carter, Josiah Turner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.