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Payin' the Bills |
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Payin' the Bills |
FEB.
19
PUBLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Simon Gratz 49, Engineering
& Science 31
The Bulldog
express has dropped off another passenger. This
wasn’t the flashiest performance Simon Gratz has presented this season, but it really
didn’t have to be, which should be a serious concern for those who stand in the way
of the PL championship. Absent were the
usual multitude of transition fast breaks and monster slams that have symbolized many of
their games in the past. Instead, a
combination of tough pressure defense, superior rebounding and a patient half court
offense kept the point total down, but the final result the same for the undefeated
Bulldogs. Early in the first quarter though,
the Engineers were poised to make things interesting.
When sr. G Kechan
Myers
(10 points, 4 boards and 2 assists) nailed the first of
his two treys to extend the E&S lead to 12-6, Gratz seemed to be suffering from what
head coach Leonard Poole likes to refer to
as an “occasional lack of focus.” Clearly,
as the players walked towards the bench down 16-9 to end the first, coach Poole glared at
them as if to say “we’re going play tight defense and run the half court offense
today.” As soon as the Bulldogs broke
the huddle to start the second, they began to put on the pressure—big time. So much so, that the Engineers had trouble simply
getting the ball in play, often-needing two or three chances due to the Bulldogs'
continued deflections of inbound passes. Along
with the inbound pressure, they intensified their approach on Myers, disrupted his
trajectory and instigated frustration as Gratz held E&S to a mere three points for the
quarter (second Myers trey) while chipping away at the lead with the half court offense. Sr. F Mark Tyndale (23 points, 11
boards, 2 blocked shots, 3 steals and 3 assists) tied the game with a smooth one-handed
slam, and sr. G
Tyrone Smith (8 points, 2 boards and 3 assists)
put Gratz up 24-19 at the half by pouring in his second finger roll. Among the other items mentioned on this site about
Tyndale’s remarkable ability, add a defensive tenacity that can’t be taught or
shouted from the bench. He had one hand
in the opponent's face most of the time and avoided getting the second too involved thus
inducing the easy foul call, and he can do this regardless of the direction he’s
moving—unbelievable. Gratz maintained
the pressure and held the Engineers to four and eight points in the third and fourth
quarters respectively while scoring inside almost at will.
Much of the credit for this goes to sr. F Jason Hickenbottom (7 points 8 boards, 3 assists and 3 steals) who, along with sr.
C Matthew Walden (7 points, 9 boards and 2
assists), showed that they’re quite capable of unselfish “dirty work” to
ensure victory. In a losing effort, E&S
sr. PG Tramaine Jackson (10 points, 4 boards and 2
steals) was under considerable pressure to move the ball up the floor the entire game and
he responded with the force of two players at times.
Net Notes:
Some
final game statistics
Gratz
FG percentage—46%
FT percentage—63%
E
& S FG percentage—26%
FT percentage—67%
In
an obscure yet rare occurrence, Tyree Williams (#21) scored the
Engineers 21st point and Tramaine
Jackson (#31) scored their
31st and final point. Those wishing to see a
sample of what the Simon Gratz brings to the table, this game will reportedly be broadcast
on CN8 this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Tune in and
catch glimpses of yours truly and Tom “Hockey Puck” McKenna battling it out just
beyond center court in an attempt to score a
game together for the first time.
FEB. 17
PUBLIC LEAGUE ROUND OF 16
Germantown 58, Roxborough 55
(OT)
Classic first
round PL playoff game. Both teams have
talented players, yet both have, at times, failed to bring their “A-game”. What better way to ensure each team would bring
their best than with a win or go home overtime thriller in front of a packed house. Germantown so. G Corey James (10 points, 4
boards, 3 steals and 2 assists) scored the only
points in the extra frame on a clutch three-pointer and spared head coach Otis Hackney the task of
explaining how his team let a comfortable 11-point fourth quarter lead slip away to force
overtime. The Indians, by virtue of five
dramatic steals in the fourth, had the home crowd on their feet and a chance to win from
the free throw line in their grasp, but too many missed shots throughout the contest left
them no room for error when it mattered the most. While
Roxborough tried to gain their shooting touch in the first quarter, Germantown found
success from sr. forwards Corey Bethea (16 points, 4
boards, 2 assists and a steal) and Ivan Evans (12 points, 8
boards, 2 blocked shots and a steal), who continually worked inside for high percentage
shots. The Indians 11-8 first quarter deficit
could’ve been a lot worse had jr. C Ameer Ali (14 points, 9
boards, 3 blocked shots and 2 steals) and sr. F Miles Smith (3 points and 5
offensive boards) failed to convert rebounds into scoring chances. Smith’s rebound and bank-in at the buzzer in
the first seemed to take some of the sting out of an earlier trey by the poised James and
an open two-handed slam by Evans. When Ali
found sr. F Donte
Robinson, who led
all scorers with 20 points (4 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals) on a fast break for a quick deuce to open the second,
Roxborough’s scoring drought appeared to over. Bad
went to worse though as the Indians could only manage five more points for the remainder
of the half while the Bears began to pull away behind Bethea’s nifty drives through
the soft zone defense for easy lay-ups. Every
time Roxborough seemed to gain momentum, G-town would counter with the equalizer—case
in point; with the Bears lead finally cut to single digits with 0.9 left in the half, jr.
G Blaine Gholson (9 points, 2 boards) bolted down
the floor and nailed a trey with 0.4 left. Down
27-15 to start the third quarter, Roxborough abandoned the outside shooting for the time
being and relied on the inside work of Ali and sr. G Shaheed Rucker (16 points, 2 boards and 3 steals) and they produced the
Indians first double-figure scoring quarter of the game.
The combination of Bethea, Evans (second trey of game) and sr. C Brian
Carroll (4 points—all in the third quarter)
responded in kind and finished the third with only a single point chipped from their lead. With tournament elimination just eight minutes
away, the Indians came to life with a full-court press that forced G-town out of position
or into low percentage unnecessary shots. For
most of the fourth quarter, the Bears fought themselves and the capacity crowd. Meanwhile, the Indians fed off the crowd, found
their lost shooting touch and starting draining quick baskets off misses and steals. With 3:13 remaining, Rucker and sr. G Tyrone
Ryales (3 boards, 5 steals and 2 assists) pulled off
consecutive steals at half court, which were converted to cut the G-town lead to three
points. Following a
bucket by Gholson to put the Bears back up by five, the Indians grabbed another steal and
Robinson executed a rare four-point play to trim the lead to a single point as the crowd
went wild and began spilling onto the court. The
Bears regained their poise and as Roxborough struggled at the line in an attempt to take
the lead, Bethea and sr. G Darnell Simmons (1
point) hit three of four free throws to lift the
Bears to a four point lead. With 1:14 left
though, Ryales lanced another steal, dished a beautiful pass off to Rucker who followed
with a three-point play (two points and the foul shot), closing the gap again to a single
point. On the ensuing possession,
Gholson drove hard and was fouled, but connected on both free throws for a 55-52 Bears
lead. In almost a carbon copy of the
Gholson drive, Rucker worked through heavy traffic and was also fouled. Still in the one-and one, Rucker missed the first
shot, but sr. F Terrance Clark alertly snatched
the rebound and hit the easy bucket to pull within a point (again!). When G-town missed the front end of a one-and-one
on the next possession, Rucker went back to the same spot and was fouled, but he could
only muster one free throw to send the game into overtime.
Despite gaining the opening tip-off in overtime, the Indians turned the ball
over which led to James’ three-pointer to seal the win. Whew, what a game!
Net Notes:
Never
underestimate the value of free throw shooting. Although
defense gave the Indians a chance at victory, their FT percentage cost them dearly (76%
for G-town, 40% for Roxborough). As this is
my final game with the Roxborough group, I want to thank head coach Terrell Burnett,
manager/scorekeeper Laiya
Skinner,
players Bradell Ruff and Chris Mitchell for helping me make
the conversion from football to basketball. I
couldn’t have done it without you.
FEB.
11
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Gratz 70, King 37
Any
lapses following a tough game with Germantown yesterday were few and far between as the
Simon Gratz Bulldogs barely broke a sweat (and at times looked bored) on their way to an
easy win against the Cougars. Led again by
the efforts of sr. forwards Mark Tyndale (23
points, 5 boards and 3 assists) and Jason
Hickenbottom (10 points 4 boards, 2 assists and 2
steals), the Bulldogs posted a higher point total in the third quarter
alone than King was able to generate in three quarters.
The 29-point third quarter outburst featured numerous opportunities to
observe the outstanding transition game the Bulldogs possess. So lethal in fact that off three straight Cougar
misses, Hickenbottom, via the pinpoint feeds from sr. G Tyrone Smith (8 points, 7 assists, 2 boards and 3
steals), answered with monster rim-prying slams in less than four seconds after the missed
shots. Clearly, the Bulldogs will just about
jump out of their shoes to get into transition. Even
after inbound passes, they moved up the floor so fast that they were in their base offense
while the Cougars were still figuring out where to stand.
When there was a missed shot, sr. C Matt Walden (11 points, 9 boards) seemed to always be in position to lay in
the rebound. Granted, speed remains the great
equalizer, but what separates Gratz from any team I’ve seen so far is their ability
to consistently box-out, which ensures transition will operate at peak efficiency once the
rebound has been fed to the outlet. At the
very least though, it keeps coaches from screaming for part of the game and for those of
us who sit near them, that’s a good thing. Apart
from the usual group of stars, the Bulldogs received solid contributions from the junior
reserves. Abdullah Moon (5 points, 5 boards, 2 blocked shots and an assist) and Syheem
Perkins (6 points and 3 boards), kept up the pressure
during their limited time on the floor. As
for King, they had chances to stay close in the first quarter but, despite some timely
rebounding, were unable to get a critical shot to fall and could only muster four points
in the second quarter. Leading the way for
the Cougars was sr. G Ricardo Liang (10 points,
4 boards, a steal and a blocked shot), who showed off some great moves to get in close the
entire game, but finding the bottom of the net proved just out of reach, often times by
inches. His eight-point third quarter
(including a trey) however, insured at least one quarter of a double figure point total
for the team. Sr. F Sean Amos (7 points, 4 boards, 2 assists and a steal) has great form on
his jump shots, but he seemed to suffer from the same inch or two either way. Sophomores Darnell
Moore (5 points, 4 boards and a steal), Curtis
Jackson (2 points, 3 boards and a steal) and
Zane Oxley (2 points, 4 boards) along with jr. Brandon Connelly (5 points, 2 boards) showed that King may be able to get some
revenge come next season.
FEB.
6
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Southern 65, Roxborough 31
The Rams beat the
Indians off every turn and left them in the dust on the straightaway. In addition to clinching the 2004 PL Division D
title, they clearly demonstrated that, despite the mis-adventures of the pro team,
defensive-style basketball is alive and well in South Philly. If 13 forced turnovers and 10 steals weren’t
enough, the Rams capped their near-perfect effort with a second half FG percentage that
approached 90 percent. A test of perimeter
shooting dictated the early action and Southern jr F Kashief Carr, who led all
scorers with 19 points (3 steals and 2 boards), and sr. G Keith Grimes (13 points, 2 steals
and 2 boards) each nailed a pair
of first half treys. Grimes give Southern a quick 6-0 lead by hitting two of his three
treys on the first two possessions. Unable to
match the outside shooting, Roxborough jr. C Ameer Ali
(8 points, 9 boards, 1 blocked shot and a steal) and sr. F Terrance Clark (career high 13 points along with 4 boards) took advantage of
some loose Southern rebounding to close the first quarter deficit to six points. This
would be as close as they would get. Roxborough head coach Terrell Burnett tried to slow the pace early in the second quarter, but the
Rams strapped on the defensive armor, attacked the Indians guards at half-court and turned
every lazy pass and an overall failure to work back to the ball into scoring
opportunities. Carr (11-second quarter points) and sr. PG Antoine "Doo Dirty" Brown (10 points, 4 steals, 3 boards and 3 assists) connected on
easy backboard slapping lay-ups and open treys that looked destined for the bottom of the
net when released to extend the Rams lead to 16 by halftime. Southern sr. F Shawn Sabb (14 points, 2 steals and 3 boards) unveiled his defensive and
offensive prowess and outscored the entire Indians team (10-9) with transition lay-ups or
converted free throws off steals and turnovers in a 21-point third quarter to put the game
away. To add a final exclamation point, Carr
finished the Southern scoring blitz with a mighty “tomahawk” slam.
Net notes:
Southern
student, Aziza Sidberry treated the sparse
crowd to an exceptional rendition of the national anthem.
Her impressive vocal/octave range reverberated through the rafters and darn
near blew the roof off the place. With
defensive basketball becoming a lost art in some respects, it was refreshing to see the
discipline Rams head coach George Anderson
has instilled within the team. In a style Temple head coach John Chaney would be proud of, the
Rams forced the Indians to dish the ball to the open, but isolated, player and, with a
suffocating combination of double or triple team efforts, either read the supposedly safe
outlet pass or stole the ball outright. With
most of the elite teams evenly matched in terms of scorers, the PL championship may be
decided by the demoralizing effect of a great defense.
JAN.
22
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Roxborough 49, Prep Charter 45
(OT)
Formidable
indeed. Prep Charter gave the Indians
all they could handle in this overtime “test of will” that was unsurprisingly
decided by free throws. The 43+ fouls called
had the entire building frustrated at times, but this seemed to help Roxborough by slowing
the pace and therefore limiting Charter’s opportunities to kick in their aggressive
transition game. Equal to the task though,
Roxborough sr. PG Shaheed Rucker stepped up
again and led all scorers with 17 points (12-19 FT), including clutch buckets near the end
of regulation and overtime. As opposed to
previous games, Roxborough came out ice cold in the first quarter and the combination of
jr. guards Cordell Powell (11 points, 2
boards), Haven Wroten (9 points, 4 boards) and
so. F Rodney Greene (9 points, 3 boards, 2
steals and 3 assists) wasted little time unveiling their speed and execution in a 19-7
run. With no answer for the transition game,
the Indians tested the trend of whistles and repeatedly fed the ball inside to jr. C Ameer Ali (16 points, 12 boards and 2 blocked
shots). He went 7 for 8 from the line,
connected on an easy bank-in and led the Indians to a 16-4 run of their own in the second
quarter, which tied the game at 23-23 into the break.
Stiff defense, turnovers and missed shots on both sides dictated
action in the third quarter and neither team came close to posting double figure point
totals. Charter jr F Jason Dogan (12 points, 7 boards, a steal and an
assist) did most of the dirty work inside the entire game and, by being the only Charter
player to record points in both the second and third quarter, gave the team a brief lead. With 1:57 left in the third though, Ali hit a
three-pointer that put Roxborough ahead by a point going into the final quarter. The fourth quarter became a battle between
Rucker and Powell. Powell started with
a pair of successive three-point plays to vault Charter in front, but Rucker answered by
driving hard to the basket and followed up with four straight foul shots to pull the
Indians to within a point, 37-36, with 3:10 left in regulation. Wroten and jr. Bilal Rodgers proceeded to match Rucker’s foul shooting and, with a
41-36 lead, Charter seemed well on their way to a win.
In what was the last chance to stay close, Rucker, off some a nice passing
from his teammates, calmly delivered a critical trey with 1:10 remaining. The Indians defense forced a Charter miss (barely)
on the next possession, went back to Rucker who drove hard, drew the foul and nailed the
two free throws that tied the game. With 0:50
to go in regulation, Charter held for the last shot only to see the potential game-winner
fall painfully short. Charter never
seemed to recover in overtime. The Indians however, took advantage of their newfound
opportunity and, following a quick basket inside by Ali, Rucker and Miles Smith (5 points—all free throws, 2
boards and a blocked shot) nailed 6 of 8 shots from the line to seal the victory.
Net Notes:
Looking
back on this game, had Roxborough jr G Tyrone
Ryales failed to make his first quarter trey, the Prep Charter momentum may have been
too strong to overcome. Reserve sr. G Shykee Sills, who performed well off the bench
against Lamberton, did some crucial dirty work to help the team maintain possession when
they needed it the most in this game. Clearly,
Roxborough doesn’t have a consistent game-breaker and, in order to come away with a
stake of the PL Division D lead next week versus Southern, they must rely on coach Terrell Burnett’s well-conceived offensive
set and the team defense that has gotten them to this point. With only a pair of seniors on the
roster, Prep Charter has a lot to look forward to next season. Most teams probably can’t match their
transition game that can put up eight points off missed shots before anyone knows what hit
them.
JAN.
20
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Roxborough 71, Lamberton 52
The
Roxborough Indians' march up the PL Division D standings continued towards a key Thursday
division matchup against formidable Prep Charter. Unlike
the last few opponents the Indians have faced, the Blue Devils, to their credit, came in
with a plan to shut down Indians jr. C Ameer Ali
and were successful, limiting him to seven points (5 boards, 1 steal). With their big man on ice, perhaps the least
likely player to top the scoring sheet stepped up with a career high game. Despite a heavy dose of Blue Devil defensive
pressure throughout, sr. PG Shaheed Rucker
tossed in 24 points (80% from the line) and ran the offense with usual efficiency. Roxborough’s ability to get out of the
gate fast has been the deciding factor over the last few games and this one was no
different. As the Blue Devils spent
most of the first quarter standing around, senior forwards Donte Robinson (14 points) and Miles Smith Jr. (6 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, 1
blocked shot and a steal) drained six points each in a 17-4 first quarter blitz. Sr. G Tyrone
Ryales (4 points, 7 boards, 2 steals and a blocked shot) seemed to be at the right
place at the right time and turned in some unexpected rebounding while taking some
pressure off Rucker in moving the offense up the floor.
Facing a potential blowout, Lamberton, behind sr. F Chris Clahar (13 points, 5 boards) and jr. G Tim Barlow (8 points, 4 assists) effectively drove the lane and
helped post a 18-point second quarter while converting on six of eight shots from the
line. Barlow answered a Robinson
three-pointer late in the second quarter to cut the Indians lead to 31-22 at the half. Having just a pair of free throws in the first
half, Roxborough’s Ali moved away from the post and scored both of his field goals
(including a rare trey) for the game in the third quarter.
Blue Devil sr. F Harold Hall (10
points, 4 boards, and 2 steals) tried to keep the game close with his second
three-pointer, but in an attempt to turn up the defensive pressure, the Lamberton FG
percentage began to drop. Brief lapses of
discipline on the Roxborough side combined with desperation by Lamberton tested each
team’s foul shooting in the fourth quarter and, while the Indians held their own
(8-14), the Blue Devils failed miserably (2-9).
Net notes:
Roxborough sr. F Terrance Clark continued to excel off the bench
and made the most of his playing time in this game. In
addition to draining four field goals (in four attempts), he quietly chipped in four
rebounds. If Blue Devil jrs. G Robert Phillips (9 points, 3 boards, 2 steals and
2 assists) and C Cameron Brickle (4 points, 3
boards) work to get themselves in better shooting position, they will be forces to reckon
with in the near and distant future.
JAN.
15
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Roxborough 60, Furness
43
(Editors note:
statistics other than points scored are approximate)