Shootout’s Semis Don’t Disappoint
Ron Bailey, Publisher
May 22, 2006 – Yesterday, Oxon Hill High School’s (Oxon Hill, MD) was the site of non-stop hoops action, with the Triple Threat and Mt. Royal both having strong showings. A recap of the tournament’s semi-final games follows:
Triple Threat's 16 and under team at the Shootout
16 -u: Triple Threat 45, Monmouth Power 36
Stan “Nu-Nu” Childs, coach of Triple Threat’s 16 and under team, expressed after the victory, "We have to do a better job of executing…We have to stay more focused”. He also indicated that having worked with this group for two years now, allows him to “coach each kid differently”, and thereby maximize the kid’s potential.
Childs also shared “Sometimes you have to accept some criticism as a coach to learn…Sometimes you have to sit back and evaluate yourself as a coach”.
His learning curve with this team was evident during the game, as whatever button he pushed seemed to work. Leading the Triple Threat attack was Will Alston, (10 points) a 6’6” forward who attends Montrose Christian in Rockville, MD, who was a stalwart on the inside, basically opening up the perimeter for Southern Maryland Christian Academy sophomore Jasper Williams (7 points), and Mt. Zion Academy freshman, Maurice Creek (9 points). Alston characterized his focus as "I just tried to crash the boards, since we were in those zones. Crash the boards and put it back up”.
Will Alston (leaning), shown here against Monmouth
Alston went on to reveal that last season, his playing time at Montrose was limited due to academic and other concerns, but “I’m coming back strong”, and everything is “good now”, after addressing those issues. Alston thinks the time away from playing has been beneficial, since “All last season when I didn’t play, I just worked on my game and got better”. During this AAU season, Will is determined to “to try and prove myself during this AAU circuit”.
Childs agreed that Will’s not playing allowed him to “learn a lot”. He also thinks the young man’s “time will come”.
17 -u: Monmouth Power 64, Maryland Hurricanes 62
Monmouth Power 17's, after the win
In what arguably was the best ending in the tournament, Monmouth Power snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by capitalizing on a Hurricane error, capping their comeback with an at the buzzer three pointer by Mike Williamson (17 points).
Monmouth’s coach, Chris Tarver, was understandably proud of his team’s comeback, in which they trailed by over 10 points over the last five minutes of the game. “These guys have worked all year”, he said. “We had some guys leave – some focal points – but these guys, they don’t stop playing. They play hard, every single game”.
“When you look at this game on paper, we shouldn’t have been within 20 points. The great thing about this sport is that we don’t play this game on paper; we play it on the court. These guys have a lot of intestinal fortitude and heart. They are just a tremendous bunch of guys”.
Williamson epitomized that, dropping jumpers on foes all tournament in additon to sinking the final dagger into the Hurricanes. After his teammate, Slava Kotylavski (15 points) sunk three trey-balls narrowing the Hurricanes’ lead to a single point, Monmouth saw itself playing defense, with less than 20 seconds left. An ill-conceived alley-oop attempt by the Hurricanes around the 11 second mark was rebounded by Monmouth, who immediately pushed the ball up the floor. Mike received the ball on the right side of the court, and calmly sank a 21 footer at the buzzer, sending the Monmouth faithful into delirium.
Mike Williamson with his father (blue shirt) and Tarver in the background
When asked after the game, the current 5’11” sophomore guard responded “I have not clue, it just happened” when asked to share his though process during those critical moments. “It was just instinct…It was the biggest shot of my life”.
He then went on to state that his offensive prowess is a work in progress, as at Bishop Ahr High School in Edison, NJ, “I was all defense”. Tarver is extremely happy to coach Williamson, stating “Mikey came onto our team this year. He’s just an absolute wonder to have. He’s filled a lot of voids for us when we lost some scorers. He’s an absolute trooper”.
Seniors Cliff Dixon (16 points) and Joel Barber (16 points) led the Hurricanes in scoring.
Cliff Dixon during the game