Bang with the Big Boys’ First Day Settles Score and Provides Thrills

Ron Bailey, Publisher

May 20, 2007 – The Baltimore Stars’ 5th Annual Tournament of Champions – aka Bang with the Big Boys – has run throughout this weekend, boasting competition ranging between boys 12 and under through 17 and under competition with squads from Baltimore, D.C., Philly, and New York participating. It also allowed the most current round of the friendly yet competitive rivalry between the Stars and their rivals to the north, the Westchester Hawks, to play out.

Leading up the 17 and under classification showdown between those organizations at 6:00 pm in Dundalk Community College’s gym, their principals were quite expressive verbally. “Troy Franklin is a beautiful person but his team has no chance of winning this 17 and under game” stated Butch Graves, a Hawks official and its 15 and under team’s coach. “But there is now way they beat the Westchester Hawks”. (See i95Ballerz.com message board thread Baltimore Stars’ Tournament for additional pre-game comments).

People are many times motivated by the small things, and a gesture of appreciation from Franklin, a Stars’ coach and the event’s organizer, became just that: As a way of saying thank you for bringing six teams to Baltimore for the tourney, Franklin offered the Hawks of bushel of Maryland’s finest seafood offering, steamed blue crab.

Given the two organization’s rivalry, which started during pool play in last year’s AAU Nationals, the Hawks rejected receiving the culinary delight without winning this grudge match. Alas, a stage was set for excellent travel team play – over 10 future Division I players participated – with a friendly motivational push behind it. Tom Jennings, one of the Hawks’ founding members, was confident he would dine on crabs for dinner before hand, stating while taking yet another jab at not only B’More but also the Stars, “They are not good at anything else, they might as well just hand over the crabs”.

The Westchester Hawks with their succulent, hard earned crabs.

Though the Stars didn’t just roll over, they did lose the match up 82-81 in overtime. This battle was so highly contested the score would never be separated by more then four points, with both teams enjoying leads, despite missing players.

For the contest, Westchester’s Hawks were led by forward Mookie Jones’ (28 points) clutch foul shooting, and his teammates’ Tyshawn Taylor (23 points) and Sean Kipatrick (12 points) timely jumpers and drives. The trio are all presently highly recruited high school juniors.

The Star’s were buoyed by the slashing of junior Devon Branch (27 points), along with fellow third year high school player Henry Sims’ (10 points) unselfish post play. Sophomore Isaiah Armwood (9 points) punished the rims and prowled the baseline for the team, in spite of also competing with Stars’ 16 and under squad (and being drawn away to do so late in the game), due to a lack of participating athletes.

With 8:03 to go and the score knotted at 52, the teams settled in for what most assumed would be a photo finish, as players from both sides battled tooth and nail, hitting contested put backs, taking charges, and nailing jump shots: Each squad seemed to know for the most part every possession was crucial.

Rob Rizzo, the Hawks’ coach, shared his team definitely did, and that knowledge has been hard earned. “All of our players have been together for a couple of years” he noted. “On any given night, any of them can beat you…To play with poise and closeout games; we had to learn that (over time). I’m proud of my team for stepping up again. I’ll take my chances with these guys”.

It was Jones this time around that rose to the occasion, as the Hawks spread their offensive formation down the stretch and into overtime using Jones as a point forward, forcing the Stars to leave their match up zone. For his efforts, Jones found open people, scored, or got to the foul line where he went five of six in the extra period.

Afterward, Franklin, the Stars’ coach and official, was gracious in defeat, handing over the crabs, but possibly not the tournament’s title to Jennings, Graves and the rest of the Hawks 17 and under team (via the tourney’s bracket structure, there was still a possibility both squads would meet again Sunday in the championship). “They won, and they get the crabs, that I offered to them as a token of appreciation at first” stated Franklin of the proverbial pot sweetener. “It’s all about good competition, which they gave”.

*Note: The Stars would in fact meet and defeat the Hawks on Sunday. Read about it in i95Ballerz.com message board's post, titled Stars avenge loss to Westchester Hawks

While the game above was definitely the day’s headliner, it was by no means the only exciting contest. Following are brief discussions of two others:

R.A.I.D.E.R.S. 61 Squash All Beefs 59 (16 and under division)

The R.A.I.D.E.R.S (Reebok Allen Iverson, Dedication, Education, Respect and Sportsmanship) hailing from greater Philadelphia, defeated D.C.’s Squash All Beefs, after being down at 44-35 with around nine minutes to play. Playing patiently, and on many possessions running their offense through sophomore Paul Reynolds (17 points), the R.A.I.D.E.R.S. sent ahead 54-51 on sophomore Andre Wilburn’s fade away jumper.

What transpired next is a testament to how hard these young men played: Squash all Beef’s Josh Smith (16 points) a sophomore, hit a 15 footer, with his opponent Reynolds followed that by sinking his own shot. Soon thereafter, Smith’s teammate Percy Woods, himself a sophomore (26 points) knotted the score at 56, draining a three pointer while being fouled with 1:24 to go (he missed the charity stripe attempt).

The R.A.I.D.E.R.S.' Travis Robinson and H. J. Gaskins (rt.), listen to instructions.

Not to be undone, freshman H.J. Gaskins (7 points) of the R.A.I.D.E.R.S hit a deep corner three-ball from the right, a shot that proved to be a nail in Squash All Beef’s coffin. Though his teammate and fellow first year high school student Travis Robinson (10 points) following that up with a shot, Squash All Beef’s Smith immediately drained a top of the key three to narrow his team’s deficit to 61-59. Unfortunately for the team his backcourt mate Woods’ missed at the buzzer: Woods, who is very adept at hitting clutch shots, would not be the hero this time.

Team Melo 46 Baltimore Stars 45 (15 and under division)

In what Team Melo’s coach, Carlton Carrington labeled “a neighborhood game” due to both teams hailing from the Charm City and as such being very familiar with one another, Team Melo snatched victory from the jaws of defeat via an inbounds play with 4.3 seconds to go.

The final sequence was definitely a memorable one: Being down 45-44 and in bounding just inside half court, Carrington called for his charges to position themselves around the three point line, with freshman forward John Graham (19 points) the sole player around the free throw line. Posting up there, Graham stepped up to clear space, spun and received a lob he caught on the baseline. At that point he put up a jump hook-ish shot, that went in as time expired. Pandemonium then ensued.

Team Melo's Roscoe Smith (15 points) has continued to improve.

Though he liked the execution of that play, Carrington thought the game was won previously. “Their offense was to clear out and attack, basically playing Barry Farms ball” said the longtime B’Mo coach, alluding to D.C.’s Goodman League, a bastion of clear out, perimeter isolation hoops. “Young kids, when they see somebody trying to take them, they get insecure and want to show they can play. So I had to convince them to play team ball, and we sent double teams at the ball. We just had to get that in our minds”.

The Stars’ C.J. Fair (17 points), a freshman, led that team in scoring.