KIMA Earns WISE 8 Championship
Ron Bailey, Publisher
Northwest DC school gets the goods.
March 23, 2010 – Galludet’s Model Secondary School hosted the Washington Independent School Elite 8 Tournament Championship last night. This event, brainchild of Frank Simpson and Kevin Wills, provided an opportunity for select independent schools in the D.C. area to play for a championship. As Wills noted earlier, competing for a ‘chip’ is part of the high school hoops experience. Simpson previously opined WISE 8 could grow into a true regional event.
Based on its action over three days, that should happen on merit, and is hoped to occur. WISE 8 is the type of event that deserves not only future editions but widespread support.
KIMA (DC) took the crown in exciting fashion over Princeton Day (MD), while Chavez (DC) bested Friendship Collegiate (DC) for third place. Reports are below.
Per Wills and Simpson, the WISE 8 All Tournament team is:
Louis Bell, senior guard, Friendship
Markee Mazyck, senior forward, Chavez
Eric McKnight, senior forward, Princeton Day
Stephane Manga, senior swingman, Princeton Day
Vincent Roux, senior guard, KIMA
Eugene McCrory, senior forward, KIMA – MVP
Third Place Game
Chavez 81 Friendship 67
Chavez led by six early in the second quarter, never looking back, marching
that lead to 14 at the half. Driving that was feeding the ball inside,
including to the Brothers Mazyck: Markee, a swingman who dropped 21 points
in the game drove the pill and shot it, while his younger brother Larry,
a junior forward who has made an oral commitment to play football at Maryland,
posted around the cup and was fed repeatedly.
Friendship started the game somewhat listlessly, contributing to their woes. Given the tumult that institution has faced recently, including roster reductions and coaching/administration changes, it’s somewhat understandable. Junior forward Joe Lundy led the team with 17 points, while senior guards Louis Bell and Antoine Bell dropped 13 and 11, respectively.
Larry Mazyck converts a jump hook during first half action.
“I want to congratulate my team, for helping me get this ‘W’. I think we went out there and played hard” commented Larry Mazyck afterward, before continuing “I had a mismatch down low. They went small, we kept me in, and I just got buckets”.
His post-game interview is here, while his brother Markee talks about a myriad of subjects, including his time at Chavez.
Joe Lundy tries to finish at the rim.
Junior guard, Malcolm Clarke who scored 17 points in this win, on Chavez’ WISE 8 performance: “This weekend, we did good, we played as a team. And all the teams we played against were tough. So we came together as a team, we lost one, won twice. But all together we played good”. His interview is available here, a session in which he dubbed Markee Mazyck “probably the backbone of our team”.
Malcolm Battle, Chavez’ coach assigned this crew’s play to “a commitment that the kids have had since September”, including 6:30am workouts, and cited the squad’s perseverance through injuries and academic challenges. He specifically acknowledged the senior class, including Markee Mazyck, along with James and Jermaine Powell (10 points), a group who along with two others that didn’t participate, “will be attending college”.
Championship Game
KIMA 76 Princeton Day 68 (OT)
In yet another WISE 8 thriller, KIMA led slightly at halftime, before Princeton Day’s freshman guard Chris Thomas (15 points) awoke, scoring back to back fastbreak dunks, giving his team a 37-35 advantage. Thomas’ offensive assertiveness was key to any PDA comeback, per its coach Vann Whitfield at halftime.
At this point, KIMA played to its advantage, feeding the senior forward tandem of Jon Arledge (16 points) and Eugene McCrory (18 points). That plan continued into the fourth quarter, where both repeatedly got to the foul line early in the stanza, being fouled in the process – Arledge converted three of four foul shots, while McCrory went 4-4 from the charity stripe himself – over almost four minutes.
Eugene McCrory on the attack.
“I just told the players to give me the ball, so I can do what I do” stated McCrory of that stretch. “I was scoring at will down there. When they started double teaming me, I started finding Jon and the other players outside for the jumpshot”.
“Well basically we were running set offense, going into the post, pounding the middle” added Arledge, a George Mason recruit. “Because they really, had nobody that could stop us down there, and we were just getting to the free throw line, making out free throws” (Click here for his interview).
Chris Hampton gets between All-Tourney team guys, Jon Arledge (right) and Vince Roux.(Starghill)
Their teammate, junior guard Kareem Story (19 points) was key soon thereafter, scoring on a drive with 35 seconds to go, and again via a foul shot at the 16.6 mark, giving KIMA a 56-54 lead. PDA, on two free throws by senior guard Chris Hampton (11 points), pushed the game into overtime.
In bonus time, Arledge, Story and others outscored PDA 20-12, securing the WISE 8 ‘chip’ in the process.
“I feel great, coming home with that championship win” shared McCory afterward.
All hail the victor, which in this case is KIMA. Who will it be in 2011?
Click here for Day 1 and 2 recaps