DC Pro Am Championship Day Recap
Ron Bailey, Publisher
June 26, 2006 – As has been the case for 16 years now, the DC Pro Am tournament just rovided an opportunity for hoop fans to get up close and personal with some of the best basketball in the East. Keeping in line with the last several year's trend, AAU teams have taken front and center. Following is a recap of the venerable event’s championship action yesteday.
Baltimore Select 70 - GC Ballers 61
Select held on to best the GC Ballers, in large part due to the exploits of Jermaine Cooper (26 points). His teammate, Corey Hutchinson (13 points) was also a factor, while for GC, Ramon Smith (18 points) and DJ Wright (11 points) led the way.
Ramon Smith (right) and DJ Wright form a potent duo for the GC Ballers, and their coach, Jeff Bishop.
Keith Goodie, Select’s coach, attributed their win to “For a change, there were no untimely turnovers and we made our free throws”. According to him those two forms of miscues had plagued his team all tournament.
GC Ballers did not have the services of their soon-to-be-All American, Johnny Flynn. The high scoring, unselfish Flynn is trying out for USA Basketball 18-under team.
Keith Goodie, Baltimore Select's head coach.
Washington Marriott Consolation Game
Boo Williams 69 - DC Assault 58
Trailing all game long, Assault took their first lead, 54-53, with 4:20 remaining in the fourth quarter on a Jordan Brooks (6 points) layup. Boo Williams finished the game on a 15-5 run, sparked in part by Keith Wright (12 points), Darran Pellham (26 points), and the team’s effective match up zone.
Reached via telephone on Sunday night, Assault’s director (who did not coach the team during this contest) Curtis Malone, attributed the outcome to several factors. “I don’t think they had everything” during the game, he said. “A lot of times, when kids aren’t playing for a championship, it’s hard for them to get up for the game. There are not excuses though; we should have won the game.
Assault got key contributions from Marques Simmons (16 points) and Jamar Samuels (11 points).
Both squads were missing significant pieces, due to USA 18-under (Assault’s Smith and Beasley), and NBA Players Association (Boo Williams’ Ed Davis, Patrick Patterson, Cameron Long, and Chris Early) camp obligations.
3rd Place Game
Cecil Kirk 94 - BABC 74
Cecil Kirk and BABC fought tooth and nail, until around the three minute
mark of the third quarter, at which point Cecil Kirk went on a 43-19 run
to close the game. Prodigious defensive pressure created and sustained
that scoring advantage, with Jamar ‘J.Y.’ Young (35 points,
11 in the third, 13 in the fourth) leading the way with steals and breakouts.
Jamar Young, is seen here at the foul line. Young was instrumental in Cecil Kirk's game winning, second half run.
From a tactical standpoint, Cecil Kirk’s coach, Anthony Lewis employed a 1-2-1-1 full court press, and then backed that up with match up zone and man-to-man looks during their game sealing run. He also had some choice words for his squad, which was nursing a slight lead at intermission, but in his estimation, were not acting like it. “We (he and fellow coach and administrator, Calvin Dotson) simply said at halftime we are up one. What are we fussing for? They’re down, and they’re elated. We’re up, and we’re fussing”. He then implored his charges to “focus on what we’re doing, before we beat ourselves”.
Anthony Lewis (left), providing wisdom at haltime to his charges. Calvin Dotson is standing.
Leo Papile, founder and head coach of BABC, attributed his team’s finish to youth. “We have a chance to be 15 (and under) national champions”, as they have “three freshman and an eighth grader starting”. In his estimation a defeat such as this “brings them back to reality”.
The eighth grader in question was Phil Pressey (14 points). Papile told this precocious floor general that Cecil Kirk’s backcourt, being stronger “just strong-armed you, in a clean way”. In his estimation, this entailed running “traps at him”, of which Pressey had “difficulty getting in and out of the traps”. Resultantly, Papile shared “I told him to go home and watch the film. And learn”.
Papile (left), is shown here receiving the 16th Annual BET Pro Am's 4th place trophy, from a tournament official.
Cecil Kirk’s Lewis would later indicate his team’s 1-2-1-1 was utilized to “disrupt” Pressy. “The little kid was coming down, finding his players” he said. “We wanted to disrupt that. Push him out a couple of steps further from where he usually operates. Force them (as a team) to shoot further out from the perimeter where they usually operate”.
BABC was paced in scoring by Jamel Coombs (26 points), while Cecil Kirk’s Johnny Higgins (17 points) led his team’s offensive attack, in the first half.
Johnny Higgins (left), and Phil Pressey (right), both proved themselves talented performers. Higgins will be attending Notre Dame Prep next year, while Pressey will be starting his first year of high school.