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UDC Report

UDC Schedule

UDC Standings & Stats

8/22

I forgot to thank a couple of people for their participation in the tournament. One is Frank who caught a lot of the action on his camera, and all the college coaches and scouts that came out to enjoy the action as well as the sponsors, without whom their would be no UDC.

8/21

    Sorry I took so long to put up the championships reports. The Super Biddy game was never to competitive. The Gauchos jumped out to an early 8-2 lead over Riverside and would never be really tested. The reason for this is Riverside's and the divisions leading scorer Lenny McNeil never got on track and only finished with 9 points. The Gauchos got great play in the second half from Jeffrey Azu who at one point went on a personal 6-0 run. Azu finished with 14 points and was named the MVP.
    The Biddy game was between the Gauchos and Dyckman. The Gauchos jumped out to a early lead in this game as well, and would eventually build a 16 point lead in the first half led by Jonathan Ruiz who scored 21 of his 31 in the first half. The third quarter was dominated by Kenny Widgeon and Lou Guzman from Dyckman. Guzman scored 10 of his 14 points in the 3rd quarter, and Widgeon scored 15 in the quarter and finished the game with 29. Dyckman would end up cutting the lead to single digits. The last 3 minutes of the 4th quarter was dominated by Sean Weaver who scored 6 straight points in the final minute to finish with 19. The final score of the game was 79-62. Jonathan Ruiz was named the MVP and Kenny Widgeon came away with the Sportsmanship award.
    The Girls championhsip was a better game than anticipated by myself. Mika battled all the way with Riverside and made for an exciting game. Annie Deroy and Elana Green played excellent for Mika to keep them in the game while, Rena Dean and Cigi McConlin allowed Riverside to stay on top. Whenever RIverside would get up by 8 or 9 Mika would make run to close the lead to 2-4 points but Riverside would always answer or Mika would make costly turnovers. Mika could never take the lead and would up falling in the end by a score of 52-46. Rena Dean was named the MVP, Annie Deroy won the Sportsmanship award. Tiffany Crippen ended the year as the divisions leading scorer.
    The Midget championship was a rematch of a regular season classic where the Guachos came out on top. Riverside was hoping they could get revenge. The started out as if the Gauchos were going to blew the Church away as they pulled out to a 15-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. But the Church would then go on a 21-8 run to take a 28-23 lead. Gauchos would respond immediately by tying the game up at 28. The game would stay competitive the whole way with the Gauchos hanging to a 4-6 almost the whole second half. The Gauchos were able to keep the lead behind great play from Russell Robinson and excellent point guard play from Ronald Ramon. AJ Price allowed Riverside to stay in the game with his 18 points and deadly 3-point shooting. But in the end the Gauchos would never lose their composure and would in the game 54-48. The Gauchos were able to win despite just 9 points for the divisions leading scorer Sundiata Gaines. The biggest reason for the Gachos winnnig was the 14 points that Nick Carter and Tyrell Biggs combined for, Carter ended with just 6 and Biggs only 8.
    The Junior game was an all Riverside final. One thing I found interesting in this game was the number of players who attend the same school but played on opposite Riverside teams. Quincy Douby and Kimani Blaize go to Grady but Douby plays on the A team while Blaize the B team. Jason Wingate and Keydren Clark both attend Rice but Wingate is on the B team whil Clark is on the A team. Anwar Baptiste and Kevin Johnson are at St. Ray's but once again play on opposite Riverside teams with Baptiste on the B team and KJ on the A team. And Finally Ricky Soliver and Bobby Santiago go to All Hallows and Ricky is on the A team whil Bobby is on the B team. The first half of the game was dominated by Kelvin Nelson, of the A team. The Hawks (A Team) held the lead at half time because of the struggles of Jason Wingate of the Future Stars who only scored 4 points on 4 free throws. The Future Stars made a couple of runs at the Hawks in the second half behind the awakening of Wingate who scored 10 points in the half. But in the end the Hawks were too much and hung on for a hard fought 64-56 win. Nelson earned the MVP for his 17 point effort, while Bobby Santiago ended the game with 15 points for the Future Stars to earn the Sportsmanship award. Ryan Ewers of Holy Cross ended the season as the divisions leading scorer.
    The Senior game was the most exciting game of the day, between Riverside and the Brooklyn Beasts. The game started off as if the Church would blow away the Beasts as they opened the game with a 10-0 run. But the Beasts would storm back to take a 15-14 lead, the rest of the half would seesaw with Riverside taking a 5 point lead into the half. The Beasts fell asleep in the 3rd quarter to allow Riverside to take a 15 point lead at 64-49 heading into the final period, pending overtime. The Beasts woke up from their deep sleep to storm back in the 4th quarter to pull within 2 with about 2 minutes left. The cause for the comeback was sloppy play by the Church who could not handle the press unless Tyquawn Goode had the ball in his hands. The Beasts trailing by 2 came down on 3 straight possesions and shot 3 pointers which all came up empty. Trailing by 4 the Beasts missed a shot and Rashaan Simmons of the Church got the ball and seemed as if he had an open a dunk. But out of nowhere Mike Thomas seemingly blocked the dunk cleanely but was called for a questionable foul. The reason for the foul was the appearance of the play the impact of the block sent both men to the fall but neither made contact with each other. Simmons would make 1 of 2 from the line. The Beasts got the ball back but could not score, and had to foul. Shaheen McNair was sent to the line and he made 1 of 2. Dwayne Lee made a half court 3 at the buzzer to make the final score of 79-76. Lee ended the game with 21 to earn the sportsmanship award. Tyquawn Goode ended the game with 18 to win the MVP. Kason Mims was the leading scorer for the Church with 19. But Goode's handling of the pressure was key. The key to the Beasts falling in the contest was Mike Thomas's struggles from the 3-point line, despite scoring 13 points he did it on poor shooting. The leading scorer in the division was leading scorer in the tournament, Lenny Cooke who averaged 28.3 points per game for the Wolfpack.
    The College game was one sided which I expected but surprisingly it was Next Level who led the whole way. The Home team got great play from Kingsley Edwards who is better known as "Bulla" (headed to St. John's). Bulla ended the game with 29 on a variety of ways, 3-points shooting fancy driving layups and as usual dunks to bring the crowd to their feet. The highlight of the game came from Dany May of Next Level who caught a one handed alley-oop dunk over a Globe player. Next Level held a 8-10 point lead almost the whole way. But late in the second Manix Auriantal brought Globe back to within 3, but Globe could get no closer. The main reason thy could get no closer was Eddy Campbell's poor shooting, Campbell made 2 3's on about 10 attempts to finish with 13 points. Andre Stanley pitched in 19 for Globe. Dany May scored 21 points to help Next Level maintain their lead and ended the UDC 2000 season with a 360 dunk as time expired. Next Level received solid point guard play from Rob Magge, and Mars Mellish. Bulla was named the MVP and was also the leading scorer. Manix Auriantal earned the Sportsmanship award for his 21 points.
    I would like to congratulate and thank all of the teams who competed in the championship as well as the teams who couldn't make it this and wish them the best next year. Through the Summer I saw many players at UDC who I had not seen or heard about that opened my eyes. I would like to thank Adrian and Pete who were there every second of the tournament as well as Vince, Andy, Mike and Michelle who were also there much of the time to maintain order, make sure things went well and run possibly the best tournament in the city. See all of you next year and I hope to meet some new people out there.

8/19
    Both Super Biddy games were blowouts with Riverside and Gauchos getting the wins. The championship will be tomorrow at 8:45. I'm going with Riverside in this game to be the Super Biddy champs. In one of the Biddy semifinals Gauchos won in a blowout. The other semi may have been the best game of the day. The matchup was Riverside and Dyckman. Riverside jumped out early to build a two, six point leads one at 8-2 and another at 12-6 at the end of the first. But Riverside could never pull away as Gino Weaver kept Dyckman in the game with his 21 points. Rory Hicks allowed Riverside to hold on to their slight lead for most of the way. Dyckman behind two 3-pointers from Eric Weikert were able to hold a slim lead with under a minute to go. Riverside had the ball for the last possesion trailing by 2, and everyone knew the ball was going to Rory Hicks but he was not to be denied as he put in the game tying shot as time expiered. Riverside would not have been able to send the game to overtime if it wasn't for Marques Cox handling the Dyckman pressure. The overtime belonged to Dyckman and Eric Weikert who hit 2 more 3's in the overtime period to finish with 5 for the game and 17 points overall. Riverside fell behind early in the OT and stayed behind to lose by 4. Rory Hicks led all scorers with 25 while teammate Marques Cox added 14. In the Biddy championship I feel Dyckman will come away with the championship.
    In the Midget games Riverside Hawks played Riverside Future Stars. The game was closer than I expected with the Hawks pulling away late in the game to win 64-54 behind 19 points from Nick Carter. The Midget game was not closer than I thought it would be as the Gauchos defeated Wake-Eden by a score of 65-40. Sundiata Gaines led all scorers with 23 and Russell Robinson added 18 for the winners. Serge Clement led Wake-Eden with 11. This should be the most competitive game on Championship Sunday with da Choz winning a close one.
    Both Junior games were Riverside vs. Gauchos the game on court A was between the A teams and the game on court B was between the B teams. The game between the A teams started out as a Riverside blowout as they opened up a lead as big as 19 at 42-23 in the third quarter, partly because of the late arrivals of Kenny Eusey, Isaiah Davis and Benny Utley. The Gauchos, however would not fold and battled all the way back to take a 61-59 lead with slightly under 4 minutes left in the 4th quarter. But turnovers would haunt the Gauchos as they contributed to the 16-3 run Riverside used to put the game away. The final score of the game was 78-69. Ricky Soliver led a balanced attack with 14 points, Shamar Green added 13 and Kelvin Nelson scored 10. Kenny Eusey led all scorers with 18 while Benny Utley scored 14 and Isaiah Davis provided 10 points.
    In the Senior division Riverside met the high flying Renaissance Warriors. But Renaissance was missing their best player, Sammy Mejia. The game wasn't as exciting as anticipated but it did have its moments, especially when Jose Cabreja had a reverse dunk over a Riverside defender. Riverside would hold a slight lead throughout the contest to win the game by the score of 60-52. The Church was led by Tyquawn Goode with 24 points. Tahir Hinds led Renaissance with 21. The other Senior game was dominated by the Brooklyn Beasts. This should be an exciting championship with two teams that like to push the ball but I still think the Beasts will win the game. My College favorite forefeited to Next Level. The other game was a blowout with Globe winning by a score of 86-51. My new pick to win the champion is Globe and I believe they will make Sunday a repeat of Saturday and win by a lot.

8/18

Here are my predictions for all of the playoff games except the Super Biddy and Biddy (because I did not see any of these teams play). For the Girls games Im going with a Riverside vs. Mika championship. Mika is the 2 time defending champs and should handle Next Generatoin easly but got handled by Riverside early in the year. Riverside will blow the Lady Hawks out. In the Midgets game I believe the finals will be Gauchos B vs. Riverside A. Gauchos B will defeat Wake-Eden easely behind the big 3 of Sundiata Gaines, Ronald Ramon and Russell Robinson. Riverside may have a closer game against Riverside B but they will still win by 10-15, setting up a rematch of the 1 point thriller the Gauchos won by in the regular season. In the Junior division my feeling is there will be a rematch of the championship with Riverside playing Riverside. I think Riverside A will win a hard fought battle against Gauchos A unless Kenny Eusey, Isaiah Davis and Ron Wyatt all bring their A game. In the semifinal the Future Stars (Riverside B) will beat Gauchos B by about 10-15 points. In the Senior division the Brooklyn Beasts play Minus and Riverside plays Renaissance. If the Beasts have their whole team the game will not be close but if they are missing a couple of players they will win by a close margin. In the other semi-final Riverside will beat Renaissance but it will be tough and I wouldnt be surprised if Renaissance wins. The College division games are between Riverside and Next Level and Globe and the Sun Devils. Riverside already blew Next Level out and that was when Next Level had Kevin Johnson but now that he is in school Next Level will probably lose by even more. I never got a good looke at the Sun Devils but I did get a good look at Globe so I think Globe will win this but not by a lot.

Here are my predictions for the championhip games. Riverside will win the girls championship but they won't beat Mika by as much as they did last time. I dont the game will close but Riverside will jump out early and coast the rest of the way and win by 8-10 points. The Midget game will be a classic between Gauchos B and Riverside A. The game will be guards vs. big men and I think the guards will win. As usual Russell, "Yada" and Ronald will have big games and will keep them in the game. But Arturo Dubois and Tyrell Biggs will be able to keep Riverside in it. But the X factor in this game will be Nick Carter. If he can play well on both ends Riverside will win and if he doesnt they wont. I think Nick is a very good player but he will not be able to contend with Ronald or Yada on the defensive end and Yada will be able to shut him down on offense. The Junior championhsip between the Riverside teams should be won by the A team but the B team has better big man. But I think Ricky Soliver, Keydre "Kiki" Clark and Kelvin "Petey" Nelson will be enough to defeat Jason Wingate, Rushid Simmons and Eric Martin. The Senior championship game will be very exciting with the Beasts and Riverside. The Beasts have 3-points super threat Mike Thomas, Malik Haney, John Polance and St. Anthony's Dwayne Lee. Riverside will depend on great guard play from Kason Mims, Rashaan Simmons and Shaheen McNair but they will not win unless Jomo Belfor plays good. Even if does play good the Beasts may still win. In the end I'm taking the Brooklyn Beasts to win the championship in a close hard fought game. The College game may be a blowout if all of the Riverside players are present for the game. But I'm not sure who will be in school and who will be present. If anybody has to be in school it will be Zach Williams, Mike Boynton and Reggie Brown. I think even if these players are not present for the game Riverside will still win a close game.

8/17

The first set of games were both Midget games in one game Riverside A blew out Renaissance. In the other game Gauchos A played Wake-Eden. The game got off to a slow start with the score 10-8 at the end of the first quarter in Wake-Eden's favor. The cause for the slow start on the Gauchos part was because their 4 best players were not there, Jerrell Mills, Terrell Elleston, Mike Franklin and John Forbes. That would begin to show in the second quarter as Wake-Eden pulled out to a 10 point lead at half time. The second half was completely dominated by Wake-Eden but Jack Fullerch, Serge Clement and Elvis Laro. Fullerch ended the game with 26, Clement ended with 22, 14 in the second half and Laro scored all 7 of his points in the third. The final score of the game was 63-35. Wake-Eden will play Gauchos B which sports 3 of the top 5 players in the 2004 class, Sundiata Gaines, Russell Robinson and Ronald Ramon.

In a Junior division game the Brooklyn Bridge and Gauchos B met. The Gauchos got off to a quick start and jumped out to a 16-7 lead, but it would not last. The Bridge would fight back to take a 23-20 lead. The Gauchos would regain the lead and led by 4 at the break behind great play from Sean Banks and Chris Bernard. Banks and Bernard would continue to play well in the second half and with the ejection of Mitchell Beauford spelled the end for the Bridge who fell in this game by 7. Sean Banks ended the game with 31 and Chris Bernard scored 26. Cassius Carpenter scored 22 and he kept the Bridges hopes alive after Beauford fouled out with great 3-point shooting. Da Choz will play Riverside B in the semis at 2:30 on Saturday. In a Senior game Renaissance blew away Spring Valley and will meet Riverside in the semis at 4:00 on Saturday.

8/16

Unfortunately I was not present for the games last night which had to be moved to the Gaucho Gym. But I found out Riverside blewout Next Level 94-69 in the College division, this game was a continuation from Sunday. Kyle Cuffe had a dominating 33 points 16 of which came in the first 12 minutes of the game. Today I was only present for 1 game, which was Gauchos A vs. Holy Cross in the Junior division. I knew from the start the game would be a track meet and I was not dissapointed. Holy Cross played great in the first half and led almost the whole half behind great play from Amil Thomas, Lamar White and crisp passing from Mark Hill. Despite the play of these 3 Holy Cross still trailed by 1 at the half. The second half was completely dominated by da Choz. Kenny Eusey played terrific the entire game to finish with 28, while Donnie McGrath was sidelined in the first half with foul trouble he still managed 16 points, 12 in the second half. The final score of the game was 90-63. Thomas scored 20, White scored 14 and Ryan Ewers added 13 in defeat. The Gauchos will play Riverside A in the Semis at 2:30 on Saturday. In a Senir division game the Wolfpack forefeited to team Minus. The Wolfpack were my favorites to win the championhip. I will make predictions and a regular season report of the happenings at UDC tomorrow. Playoff Schedule, Final Standings

8/13

The first game of the day was a Midget game between Riverside and St. Joeseph's. The game was close for about the first 2 minutes before Riverside went on a 11-0 run to put the game away. The Church ended up winning 70-46 behind 15 points from Rice bound Arturo Dubois. In a Junior game Riverside played or should I say destroyed the Basketeers by a score of 100-52. Four players scored at least 15 points for Riverside led by James Brown with 18. John Jammott and Keydren Clark each scored 16 and Ricky Soliver scored 15. In the Senior division the Sun Devils played the Washington Heights Warriors in a meaningsly game as both teams could not make the playoffs. But this was one of the most exciting games of the tournament. The Warriors led almost the whole game but a late 4th quarter serge by the Sun Devils sent the game to overtime. In the OT the Warriors were able to get a 4 point lead but back to back buckets tied the game up. The Warriors led by 1 with 15 seconds left and Sun Devils ball. Jamal Wright of the Sun Devils made his move to the basket with 5 seconds left and dished the ball off to Emo Ofori who converted the lay-in with 1 second on the clock to give the Sun Devils the win. The last two set of games were postponed til Tuesday because of rain and today there was no rain site. Playoffs begin Wednesday.

8/12

Here is a brief overview of what went on today at UDC I will have a full report tomorrow. Gauchos and Brooklyn Bridge met in a Junior game and if the Guachos had lost they would have likely missed out on the playoffs. But Kenny Eusey played inspired and Gauchos blewout the Bridge. In a Senior game Riverside blewout previously undefeated Spring Valley 69-47. In another Senior game the B Ballers with stood a late surge from Upstate Flava to win and keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Lashard Duren dominated with 33. In the last game of the day Riverside and Globe met in a College game. Once again a Riverside team put a 1 in a teams lost column in a close game. 3 players for the Church scored 20 or more which was enough to set of Manix Aubienthal's 33 points behind 8 3-pointers. Updated Standings thru today.

8/6

The first game of the day was game between two teams jocking for playoff position in the Junior divison between Gauchos B and Holy Cross. The first half was a very slow and boring half with the Gauchos leading for much of the half but they trailed at the end of it by a score of 20-19. The pace quickened in the second half which grately favored Holy Cross who scored 30 points in the 4th quarter alone to pull away to a 65-51 win. Ryan Ewers and Wayne Williams both scored 16 for Holy Cross, Sean Banks led the way for Da Choz with 15. In another Junior game the Gauchos A team played the Washington Heights Warriors who were missing their 2 best players (Keywan Gardner and Adam Gonzalez). The game was never close and nobody on the Choz played more than 20 minutes. Da Choz led by 20 at the half and coasted through the second half to win 73-58.

The final game of the day was a Midget game between Riverside A and Wake-Eden. As expected Riverside ran away with this game to win by 33. Riverside played most of the game without Arturo Dubois who was in foul trouble and still managed to score 16. Tyrell Biggs added 14, while Serge Clement scored 19 for Wake-Eden. I have also found out that Biggs has been held back and will repeat the 8th grade.

8/5

In the first game on Saturday the Gauchos completely dominated the Bronx Kings en route to a 63-41 win. Dexter Hall scored 17 for the Da Choz while nobody on the Kings broke double digits. In a Senior divison game to decide first place the Brooklyn Beast played the Renaissance Warriors. The Beast's best player did not arrive until the end of the first quarter and did not play until the second quarter. When he got in the Beasat were still winning despite Mike Thompson's absence. Mike came in the game and his impat was felt immediately as he scored 14 points in a quareter and a half before fouling out. He fouled out with the score 45-40 Beast lead. But the Warriors scored 4 straight points to cut the lead to 1, which prompted the Beast coach to call a timeout. After the timeout the Beasts went on a 12-0 run to put the game away. Jose Cabreja led the way for the Warriors with 26, while Thompson was the Beasts leading scorer with those 14 points and John Polanco added 12.
In a College divisoin game the Gauchos and Globe squared off. For most of the game Globe led despite leading scorer Ed Campbell only scoring 4 points until the last minute half. Da Choz got back into the game and took the lead in the second half and up to the last minute and a half the two teams went back and forth. But in the last minute Ed Campbell scored 9 staright points to put the game away. The final score of the contest was 70-60 Globe. Sheiku Kabba scored 21 for the Gauchos.

In another senior game Minus defeated the Sun Devils 73-69. Minus led the whole game and survived a second half push from the Devils who were led by Martin Singleton's 26 points. Willie Vargas scored 20 for Minus.

7/30

The first two games on Court B were forefeits, the first a Super Biddy game, the second was a Biddy game. The first game that was played was a Senior division contest between the Renaissance Warriors and the Wolverines. The Warriors lead grew after each quarter, from 3 at the end of 1 to 7 at the end of 2, to 19 at the end of the 3rd and at the final buzzer the score was 69-41. The Wolverines only playing with 5 players could not contend with the Warriors in the second half and could only manage to put up 16 points in the half. Jose Cabrera had the highlight of the game with a two handed "and 1" dunk over a Wolverine player. Cabrera and Dana Holmes led 4 Warrior players in double digits with 13 a piece. Charles Miller was the lone bright spot for the Wolverines with 18 points.
In a Junior division contest the Brooklyn Bridge and the NJ Pirates faced off. The game was tied up at the end of the first quarter and at the end of the end half the Bridge led by 4. But the second half was a different story with the Pirates (who only had 6 players) getting worn out by the Bridge press. The Bridge completely dominated the second half and outscored the Pirates by 25 in the half to win 82-53. Mitchell Beauford and Karron Clarke both had nice dunks, but I finally saw Peter Ramos throw it down with force. Ramos was very upset during the game which is most likely why he dunked easily. Brian Williams led the way for the Bridge with 22 while Clarke added 19. Justin Akanno led the Pirates with 18 points.

The final game of the day on Court B was the Gauchos vs. the Shockers in a college division game. The first half of play was dominated by Da Choz as they pushed out to a 10 point half time lead. The first half got started with technical free throws for the Shockers. The Shockers were able to take a 46-44 lead but it was short lived as Da Choz went on a 6-0 run. The Shockers were able to regain the lead and with 7 seconds left Rob Lincoln was at the line shooting two with a 1 point lead. Lincoln was able to make them both to raise the lead to 3 and put the pressure on the Gauchos. Everyone in the gym knew who was getting the ball, Sheiku Kabba but he is better known as Sickle. Sickle got the ball and took the 3 but was fouled with 1 second left. Kabba made the first free throw but missed the second. After a timeout he tried to miss the third on purpose but the shot rattled in, and that pretty much ended the Gauchos hopes. The final score was 63-62 with the Shocker on top. Ade Edwards led the way for the Shockers with 18 and as usual Sickle led the way for the Choz with 19.

7/29

    The first game of the day was a midget contest between St. Joeseph's and Dyckman. The game was never close as St. Joe' s dominated on way to a 77-50 win. Jamaal Williams led all scorers with 19 while his teammate Vaughn Heglier chipped in with 18. Kamar Cummings had 18 in the loss.
    In a Junior game the Long Island Panthers played the New Jersey Pirates. The first half was close until the Panthers went on a 13-0 run to the end the half as they took a 12 point lead into the break. The Pirates would make the game interesting but could never get over the hump and they fell 51-48 despite a game high 17 points from Jevon Drakeford. Mike Claxton led the Panthers with 15 and Bobby Potts added 11.
    In the final game of the day the Gauchos and Next Level met in a College division game. Next Level led virtually throughout behind great play from Kingsley Edwards and Kevin Johnson. Edwards had the dunk of the day with a reverse dunk over a Gaucho player. Next Level led all the way until Da Choz took a short lived 61-60 lead. The rest of the game would go back and forth with the Gauchos receiving great play from Sheiku Kabba and Chris Carter. In the final minute Da Choz turned out to be too much as they made their free-throws and converted easy layups to win 78-74. Kabba led the way with 23 and Carter added 18 for Da Choz, while Kinglsley Edwards led all scorers with 24.

In other games the Brooklyn Beasts defeated the Woverines 63-60 in a Senior division game. In another Senior divsion game the B Ballers fell to Spring Valley in a close game. The Holy Cross Panthers routed the Basketeers with a 30+ point win in a Junior Division game.

7/23

    The first game of the day was a girls game between Mika, the two time defending champs and teh Bronx Bells. The game was never close as Mika walked away with a 40-18 win. Elana Greene led the way for Mika with 12 and Cindy Gonzalez pitched in with 9. Tiffany Crippin scored the Belles first 10 points and ended the game with 11.
    In a Junior Division game the Bronx Kings played the Holy Cross Panthers. The Kings appeared as if they were going to blew the Panthers out but there was no quit in Holy Cross. The Kings built up a lead of 17 before Holy Cross cut the lead to 3, but could get no closer. The Bronx Kings would go on to win 85-78. The Kings had a balanced attack with Emmanuel Williams scoring 22, Garfield Johns had 17 and Keith Drysdale had 16. For Holy Cross Ryan Evers led the way with a dominating 32 points. Paul Nickerson had 16 including 12 of 23 from the free-throw line. In another Junior Division game the Future Stars (Riverside B) played the Renaissance Warriors. The game was close in the first half with the Church leading 25-22 at the half. But the second half was completely dominated by Riverside and Jamar Wilson who scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half.
    In a Senior Division game the Young Wolverines played the Wolfpak. And to everyone suprise the Wolverines were very competitive and led almost the whole way by a slight margin. The Wolverines received great play from Chris Fayas who the Wolfpak had no answer for. The balanced attack of Lenny Cooke, 20 points, George Jefferson, 19 points, and John Winchester, 15 points. was not enough to offset Fayas's 40 points. The Wolfpak did have 1 last chance with 3 seconds left trailing by 1 after 2 Chris Fayas free throws but could never get a shot off.
7/22
    Today UDC was marred by forefeits, in fact their were 7 forefeits out of the 9 games I was present for. The only 2 games that were played were team Minus against the Renaissance Warriors (Senior division) and Gauchos B and the Basketeers (Junior Division). In the senior division game Team Minus had the heavy crowd advantage in being the home team but it was not enough to make up for the lack of talent on the team. Renaissance led the whole way and won by 21. Jose Cabrea led the way for Renaissance with 31 including no less than 4 dunks. Sammy Mejia chipped in with 19. The other game appeared as if it was going to be a blowout as Da Choz pulled out to a 11-4 lead but the lead would never grow. In the final seconds Matt Saunders stepped to the line shooting a 1 and 1 with his team (Gauchos) leading by 3. He missed the front end and the Basketeers controlled the rebound. Off of the inbound pass Da Choz fouled immediately, so the Basketeers had to take the ball out again. When they inbounded the ball the ref blew the wistle saying the game was over but there was still 1 second left.   So the Basketeers had to take the ball out under the basket with what was actually less than 1 second left and they couldn't get a shot off.
    I got a chance to speak to one of the best players in the class of 2004, Russell Robinson. I asked if Maurice Hicks (Rice Head Coach) had talked to him about playing varsity next year, and he told me he has. I also asked him if he would rather play 16u then 14u and he told me he gets tired of beating teams by 30 & 40. With that statement alone he let me know that he is very competitive, which is a great charecteristic to have.
7/16
    Today I got the chance to see a player I have heard a lot about, Sundiata Gaines. But when I was talking to their coach I told I'm I wanted to see Russell Robinson and Gaines, and in response he said thats all you came to see? I noticed this kid shooting around and I asked him about him and he said his name is Ronald Ramon and he is going to All Hallows. In my opinion Ramon might just be better than Gaines Im not sure about Robinson because he didn't show up. Now to the game, Ramon came out firing scoring 7 points early on and helped the Choz go up 17-0 on Wade Eden. The game was never close and the Choz won by 30 in the midgets contest. Sundiata Gaines ended up with 27 mostly on layups. Ramon had 24 and showed a great jumpshot from 15-20 feet. Gaines missed a lot of free throws and should've had at least 30-35.
    In a Junior division game the Bridge defeated the Panthers 70-59 despite trailing at half time. The Panthers don't have many of their top players in this tournament and are very untalented. The Bridge was led by Mitchell Beauford who had 20. Today unlike yesterday Peter Ramos showed me why he need a lot of improvement, he hit the front of the rim on a dunk, he is very slow footed and is yet to understand that at 7 feet he doesn't have to jump to block shots so he gets a lot of fouls. But I feel that he will be were Shagari Alleyne is now when he's a senior. In the 3rd matchup in 2 days at UDC between the city's two biggest rivals a familar thing happened Riverside won, sweepin the 3 game weekend series at UDC. The Church struggled in the first half and trailed much of the half, but would dominate the second half to win 71-55. Keydren Clark led the way with 17 while Alonz Brown scored 12. Sean Banks led the way for the Gauchos with 16.
    In the Senior Division the Church played the Young Wolverines. The Church led all the way led by dominating inside play from Angelo Reyes who ended the game with 19 despite missing numerous free-throws. The final score was 62-40. In the final game of the day the Wolfpak and the B-Ballers squared off in a senior division game. This game almost never happened as the B-Ballers 5th man didn't get to the until 3 minutes before the game would've been a forefeit. But when he got there in a game that looked like it would be a blowout on paper turned out to be the best game of the day. The game was close throughout with the B-Ballers holding a slight lead until Lenny Cooke and Daniel Artest decided to take over. Cooke dominated the second half with 22 of his 33 in the half. Artest finished the game with 26 and about 16 in the second half. Micheal Wilson led the way for the B-Ballers with 19 despite his team losing 85-79.
7/15
    For now on I will be at UDC from the first game until the last game. Today the first game was the girls game between Riverside and the Lady Hawks. The Church won the game behind 20 points from Old Dominion bound Monique Coker. Riverside is now 4-0 while the Lady Hawks dropped to 2-2. The next game featured the two biggest rivals in the city, Riverside and Da Choz. But this game was between the teams "B" teams in the Midget division. Gauchos started the game with just 5 players and by the end of the 2nd quarter they only had 4 and the game was already over. Riverside B (Future Stars) won the game 62-39 behind a balanced attack led by Isaiah Harris's 11 points. Terrell Ellison scored 18 and Jerrell Mills pitched in 12.
    In the first Junior division game, Brooklyn Bridge played the Washington Heights Warriors. The Warriors lead throughout the first half behind great guard play from Adam Gonzalez (28 points), Felix Linares (18 points) and Keywann Gardner (17 points). But the Bridge turned up their game in the 3rd quarter and raced out to a 19 point lead in the quarter, behind an inside outside combination of Karron Clark (21 points), Peter Ramos (17 points) and Brian Williams (16 points). Adam Gonzalez almost single handily brought the Bridge back with 16 points in the 4th quarter and got the Warriors as close as 7 in the 4th but they ended up losing the game 93-84. The loss eliminated the Warriors from the tourney. Gonzalez who attended St. Raymond HS for a semester in his freshmen year, spent this past year at Pocono Mountain in PA and averaged 17 points per game. Ramos looked a whole lot better than what he did the last time I saw him but no player he went up against was taller than 6'4, so I will still have to see him against a big player.
    In a Midget game Riverside "A" blewout Forrest Houses 85-46. Arturo Dubouis led the way for the Church with 24. Robert Thomas who will attend Frederick Douglass Academy next year poured in 30 for the losers. In another game against the two biggest rivals in the city Gauchos played Riverside "B" (Future Stars) in a Juniors contest. If this is the Church's B team I don't want to see how good their A team is. This team has Jason Wingate, Rushid Simmons, Billy Dodson and Bobby Santiago. Santiago really surprised me by putting in 18 points for the Church. The game started in favor of the Choz with Donnie McGrath and Isaiah Davis coming out on a mission combining to score 17 of the teams first 21. Riverside who trailed almost the whole first half would lead 28-26 at the half. Early on in the 3rd quarter trailing 33-32 Riverside went on a 15-0 run sparked by 2 Billy Dodson 3's to take a commanding 47-33 lead. But the Church would only lead by 9 going into the 4th quarter. In the 4th quarter Da Choz would make a pus and close the gap to 55-51 behind strong inside play from Benny Utlet who ended up with 18 points. But in the end Riverside would come out on top 61-53.
    The final game of the day matched up the Wolfpak and Riverside in a Senior division game. This game was filled with action, from start to finish. The Church led by 5 going into the second half behind 16 first half points from Rashaan Simmons but he would end the game with just 18. The second half belonged to Lenny Cooke who had about 20 of his 32 in the half. He scored in a variety of ways, from the 3, 15 footers offensive putbacks, he was just unstoppable. Daniel Artest played great in the game scoring 17 most of which came on beautiful post moves. Although Rashaan Simmons fell asleep in the second half, Kason Mims kept Riverside in the game by scoring 12 of his 20 in the half on great drives to the basket. But in the end Lenny Cooke and the Wolfpak were just too much and the Wolfpak won by a score of 73-69.