July 26, 2006
By Van Coleman
Special to CSTV.com from Hoopmasters.com
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Van Coleman
Van is one of the nation's premier recruiting experts. |
Here's one final breakdown of all the action across
It was a crazy week came to an even-crazier close as the fifth day had quarterfinals, semi-finals, and finals all going on at the same time at the three tournaments. We elected to split up and have one observer, Chris Monter from College Basketball News at the Cox Pavilion for the Super 64 and Main Event finals, while I stayed at the Reebok Big Time to cover all the action from the Elite Eight through the championship game.
Reebok Elite Eight
Spiece Indy Heat 79, H Squad 71
The Spiece Indy Heat continued to use their solid backcourt play and ability to knock down open jumper to upend a solid H-Squad unit, 79-71, in the opening quarterfinal at Foothills High. The game was close early, and H-Squad held the slimmest of leads, 31-30, at the half. But Indy Heat stepped up and hit the big shots down the stretch to pull away late and take a 79-71 decision.
The Indy Heat was led by 6-1 Stephen Thomas with 23 points and his running mate 6-2 Jeffrey Teague who chipped in with 21 points. 6-5 Tommy Freeman added 10, while 6-9, 260-pound Aaron Pogue had a double-double with 10 points and a glass-cleaning 14 boards. The H Squad's top gun was 6-7 Darrington Hobson with 17 points (despite only hitting 6-of-17 attempts from the field). 6-6 Andre Hardy and 6-0 Darian Norris added 16 and 15 points respectively for the H-Squad.
Meanstreets Express 74,
This was a war for 28 minutes as the Lightning held a 53-50 lead with 4:02 left in the contest. At that point Superman arrived in the form of 6-3 Derrick Rose, as the
The explosive Mr. Rose finished with 19 points including three 3s. He was as good as anyone this summer during his game-changing run in the second half. 6-5 Tim Flowers did a yeoman's job inside and finished with 10 points and seven boards. 6-1 combo Brandon Hall chipped in with 11 points. The Lightning was led by 6-0 Villanova commit Corey Fisher with 17 points (despite struggling from field with 6-21 shooting). He got solid support from6-0 running mate Akeem Bennett with 13 points, while 6-8
Southern California All Stars 72,
The So Cal All-Stars survive another Midwestern challenge by holding on late as the Minnesota Elite rallied to cut the lead to 65-60 with a minute left before Kevin Love grabbed a couple of key boards, outletted the ball to Brandon Jennings for a pair of quick buckets to seal away a 72-63 final. It was a close one in the first half with ended with Kevin Love hitting two free throws to tie it at 35 points. So
So
This one went to the wire as 7-2 James Tyler made a jump hook for the Squires-Richmond squad to send it into overtime tied at 52 apiece. The Houston Jr. Hardballers had the final possession in the overtime and got the ball to 6-8 Carlton Scott who was fouled going to the rim. He coolly stepped up with 1.5 seconds on the clock and dropped two free throws to win it for the squad from
The Houston Jr. Hardballers were led by 6-9 junior power forward Steve Tchieugang who finished with 17 points and 6 boards. Carlton Scott finished with 15 points including 4-4 from the foul line. Christopher Jones added 10 points in the win. Squires top scorer was 5-7 George Johnson who had 14 points while big man James Tyler finished with 10 points in this heartbreaking loss.
Reebok Big-Time Final Four
Mean Streets 74, Spiece Indy Heat 57
The Spiece Indy Heat came out on fire, hitting three of their first four three-pointers to build a 26-12 lead midway through the first half. They were letting their former teammate Eric Gordon that maybe he made a mistake switching teams, but Gordon and his new teammate Derrick Rose righted the ship and started to claw their way back into it, cutting the Indy heat lead to 38-32 at the half.
It was still tight at the 10-minute mark with Mean Streets taking their first lead at, 47-46, but the next five minutes belonged to Rose and Gordon, as the squad ignited behind their leadership and went on an 18-8 run to go up 65-54 -- alead they never relinquished in route to a 74-57 victory over a hard-working Spiece Indy Heat squad.
Mean Streets was led by their dynamic duo of Gordon and Rose who had 25 and 22 points, respectively. Kevin Johnson and Tony Topps added 10 each in the win for the Streets. Spiece Indy Heat was led by Jeffrey Teague with 15 points and his backcourt running mate Stephen Thomas who added 14 points.
Southern California All-Stars 60,
The Southern Cal All-Stars got a slow start, and the Houston Jr. Hardballers came out on fire to amass a 29-15 lead midway through the first half. But a couple of timely timeouts and some pointed words for Joedy Gardner put So Cal back on track, and they chipped away at the Houston lead and trailed by only 34-29 at the half.
The second half was close early, but a 14-6 run starting at the 12-minute mark put it away for the Southern Cal All-Stars as they built a 55-46 lead with just 2:26 left.
So
Reebok Big-Time Championship Game:
Make no mistake about it, this one lived up to the hype, as two summer club heavyweights did battle for the Reebok Big Time tourney title. As the Southern Cal All-Stars keepi their winning streak with Kevin Love alive, nipping the Mean Streets club and Eric Gordon and Derrick Rose by a 69-63 final margin.
The Mean Streets Express behind Eric Gordon and Derrick Rose broke out to a 21-8 advantage behind the passing of Rose and the unbelievable shooting of Eric Gordon. But, Mean Streets went from a stellar passing game to a one-on-one isolate and attack offense that slowed the tempo and allowed So Cal to catch their breath and re-group. Behind the rebounding of Kevin Love and some surprise offense from 6-5 Daniel Hackett the So Cal All-Stars cut the lead to 36-34 at the Half.
The second half started with So Cal staying focused, taking their first lead at the 11:30 mark when Kevin Love made two free throws. The two teams traded leads until Taylor King nailed a long three to put So Cal up 57-54 with 5:41 to play. It stayed close until the end, until Kevin Love's monster block on a breakaway with just 21 seconds left led to a transition bucket that put it away as So Cal.
So
Mean Streets was led by the stellar high-flying play of Eric Gordon with 25 points. He got solid support from Tony Topps and the ultra quick Derrick Rose who both finished with 12 points. Rose had a game high 10 assists. He proved to many in attendance that he is the real deal at the point!
It was a great game and a fitting ending to a great week in
Adidas Super 64 Championship Game
Pump N' Run Elite 86, DC Assault 80
This game was more a battle of survival as Pump N' Run jumped out to an early nine point lead 21-12, only to see DC Assault's dynamic inside-out duo of 6-5 Austin Freeman and 6-9 Michael Beasley bring the Assault back to take a 41-40 half-time lead. The second half started with a 16-2 run for Pump N' Run to open up a 56-43 margin. They traded baskets for much of the rest of the half until a late run in the last two minutes cutting the lead to five with 53 seconds left, then James Hardin finished them off making 5-6 from the foul line down the stretch for the final 86-80 margin.
Pump N' Run was led by Tourney MVP James Hardin with 34 points including 14-19 from the foul line. He got solid support from junior lead guard 6-2 Larry Drew who finished with 16 points, while 6-9 Austin Daye and 6-8 Drew Viney who chipped in 11 and 10 respectively. DC Assault was led by Michael Beasley with 30 points and Austin Freeman who finished with 25 in the loss.
Nike Main Event Final Four:
This one came down to the wire as Houston Hoops survived a real scare from Team Stat to move to the Nike Main Event final 59-57 behind 6-6 Mike Singletary who finished with 16 points and 6-7 Gary Johnson who added 15 in the win. 5-10 Jai Lucas ran the show and chipped in 12 points for the Hoops. Team Stat's top gun was Dominique Jones who had a game high 25 points.
Nike Main Event Championship Game:
This one was over before shortly after the half which ended with
The Houston Hoops squad was led by 6-7 power man Gary Johnson with 17 points. He received lots of help in this championship win, as Mike Singletary added 14 points and Tommy Mason-Griffin and Jai Lucas added 9 and 8 respectively to the win.
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