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After taking a two-day official visit to the Arizona campus, the 6-foot-9, 210-pound senior was on the basketball court at Long Island University-Brooklyn by 8 p.m.

He still had enough energy to throw down a monstrous two-handed dunk in the final minutes as Rice, the top Catholic League team in New York City, beat Boys & Girls, the top public school program, 56-44, in the 3rd Annual SNY Invitational.

"I'm exhausted," said Jack, who put up 12 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks in front of assistant coaches from Miami and Providence. "I just had to come out and play my best and I think I played better the second half."

Rice (12-3) will meet Cardozo (12-6) in the championship on Saturday (4 p.m., SNY). Cardozo advanced with a 74-32 rout of Long Island Lutheran in the first game.

Boys & Girls (16-4) will face Lutheran (11-4) in the consolation game (2 p.m. SNY).

"I think it's going to be a very exciting game," Jack said of the championship. "They are going to be good but we're going to come out and I think we're going to have better defense [Saturday]."

Rice outscored Boys 16-8 in the final period, making 10 of 14 from the line. The Kangaroos managed just two field goals in the period.

"We got something we call four-minute wars. And we had two four-minute wars in the fourth quarter," Jack said of his team's defense.

Devaughn Reid added 11 points for Rice, making 9 of 12 from the stripe, and junior Jermaine Sanders, who is being courted by a slew of Big East and ACC schools, added 10 points.

Boys junior guard Mike Taylor, his team's best player, was ejected in the fourth quarter after his second technical and finished with 8 points on 3-for-13 shooting. Junior Leroy Isler scored a game-high 15 points for Boys.

Boys got to within 45-42 on a three-point play by Calvin Sterling, but Rice rattled off an 11-0 run, highlighted by Jack's dunk, to ahead 56-42.

"We've been playing so well," Rice coach Maurice Hicks. "One of the fears was that [Jack] was going to come out here and be a little sluggish. He was that in the first half, But he got it together a little bit in the second half."

While Boys didn't have much size to combat Rice's front line, Cardozo does.

Dwayne Brunson, a 6-7 junior forward, put up 22 points on 11-for-13 shooting and 10 rebounds and 6-8 senior Ryan Rhoomes added 7 points and 12 rebounds.

"It was one of my best games, especially a game that we won," said Brunson, who has only been playing organized ball for two years. "The good games that I had we always lose. The good games that I have, I gotta give more."

Norfolk State-bound senior point guard Reynaldo "Junior" Walters led the Cardozo attack with 16 points, 5 steals and 4 assists.

Cardozo had gone through a rough stretch, losing three of its last five games. But 6-5 senior guard Malcolm Brooks missed those three losses because of an illness. He returned to score 12 points.

Cardozo jumped all over LuHi early, taking a 20-2 lead after one period. The Judges looked ready to go when the cameras went on, while the Crusaders appeared overwhelmed by the bright lights.

Walters and fellow Cardozo guard Chris Gayot created havoc defensively, getting five first-quarter steals and triggering easy buckets in transition. Brunson had eight points in the period, including a dunk triggered by one of Walters' four steals in the period. Walters also had six points in the quarter.

By halftime, the Judges led 42-10 thanks to Brunson's 12 points, Brooks' 8 and Walters' 7.

Cardozo was unstoppable in transition, outscoring 19-2 LuHi off turnovers. LuHi made just 2 of 22 field goals in the first half.

"We just played as a team and did what we had to do," Brunson said.

On a night when he could have taken over in front of the TV cameras, Villanova-bound junior guard Achraf Yacoubou had just 3 points for LuHi at the break.

He scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, when the game was out of hand. Yacoubou added 8 rebounds and 7 turnovers.

While Cardozo enters the final on a hot streak, they will face a rested Jack.

The Rice senior said he doesn't plan on taking any more official visits right before games.

"Never," he said. "Never again."