10/7
In a 16u semifinal the Gaucho A team met the Newark Rams. The Rams got off to a great start as they jumped out to early leads of 9-0 and 14-3. The Gauchos got back into the game with the late arrival of Sundiata Gaines. As soon as he got in the game he drew a two shot foul and on the next possesion hit a 3. With a combination of the press and Newark star Zakee Boyd on the bench due to foul trouble the Gauchos were able to tie the score up at 24. But the Rams would not fold as they scored 5 straight points to end the half to go up 29-24. The second saw Marlon Smith of Gauchos sit on the bench for the first 6 minutes, and when he got in you could tell why he was on the bench. Smith struggled greatly in this game and only scored 2 points, he even got dressed and left with about 3 and a half minutes left in the game. I hope he had an emergency that forced him to leave or else he showed a very bad attitude. Anyway back to the game, the second half was close throughout. Gauchos received good backcourt play from Sundiata Gaines and Ronald Ramon. In the final couple of minutes the Rams were able to pull away and shut the door on the Gauchos when Zakee Boyd broke away for a two handed "banga". Despite limited minutes Boyd ended the game with 18 points. Ramon led the Gauchos with 14 and Gaines scored 13 but his 2 turnovers on back to back possesions in the final minutes really hurt the Gauchos.
9/12
Today the Gauchos A team took on the LPAC Knights. This game was a total mismatch, the Gauchos won by so much I won't even put the final score, I'll just say the Gauchos had more in the first half than LPAC had the whole game. The Gauchos were led by Sundiata Gaines who finished with 23 points and 5 steals, Malcolm Jones also had a good game with 20 points and 4 steals. I was hoping to see how good the 14 year olds on the Gaucho team really are but that could not be told from this laugher.
9/11
Today at Roundball the Gauchos A team took on the Washington Heights Warriors. The first half was very competitive with a lot of talking going on between both teams. In the first half the Gauchos could've lead by 10-15 points but they constantly missed layups and easy putbacks. Instead of trailing by a large margin the Warriors trailed by just 2. The Warriors came out of the second half inspired and were able to take a 9 point lead at 53-44. But just when the Gauchos seemed to be down and out they went on a 10-3 run to close the lead to just 2. But the Warriors would answer and score 4 straight points and led 60-54 with 2 minutes remaining. But that is when the Gauchos finally woke up and went on an 11-0 run, 7 of which were scored by Sundiata Gaines. The final score of the game was 66-63 with the Gauchos on top. Shaun Wynn led the Gauchos with 12 points. Louis Rodriguez, Ronald Ramon and Gaines each scored 11 in the win. Jerome Simmons led all scorers with 16 while teammates Kiril Wachsman and Mike Wilson scored 13 and 12 respectively. The highlight of the game came from Louis Rodriguez who had a two handed dunk over Jerome Simmons. In other news the Brooklyn Bridge has dropped out of the tournament.
9/10
The first game of the day was a 13u matchup between Riverside and Manhassett. The first half of the game was close with Riverside maintaining a 4-7 point lead throughout the half. The 3rd quarter is when Riverside blew the game open led by the dominance of AJ Price who finished with 19 points. Riverside also received solid play from Marcus Diggs, and Scottie Draughorn. Price's 19 points led all scorers.
The Gauchos and the NJ Trailblazers also met in a 13u match. This game was not close at all, despite the Gauchos missing their 3 best players, Jarrell Mills, Mike Franklin and Jessie Bradley. Mahommed Aimashun's 15 points were enough to help the Choz get the blowout win by a score of 50-29. Brian Payne scored 16 points and 8 rebounds both led the Trailblazers.
The NJ Skyliners met the Washington Heights Warriors in another 13u game. The Warriors led throughout the game with great play from Darrell Harrison who finsihed with 21 points and 3 steals. The Skyliners trailed by double digits during the entire 4th quarter until the final minute when they made a final surge. The press they put on proved to be very effective but missed layups proved to be too much for the Skyliners to make up for as they fell 53-50 despite 12 points each from Tayvon Gaddy and Jaffray Clark.
The final 13u of the game was completely dominated by Jersey City. Team Roc had no answer for 6'5 big man Derrick Carracter who finished with 22 points. Team Roc's consisted of a bunch gaurds and had nobody within 6 inches of the height of Carracter. The lone bright spots for Team Roc in this blowout loss were Codi Oliver and Mike Pollard. Oliver was the teams high scorer and Pollard put on a show for the crowd during a 3 minute stretch in the 2nd half.
In a Junior game The Newark Rams battled the Jersey City Boys Club. The game was very competitive during the first half but in the second half the Rams pulled away to win by about 15.
9/9
The first 3 games of the day were 13 and under games. The first was a game between Gauchos and the New Jersey Skyliners. The Gauchos led pretty much the whole game behind the inside play of Steven Walker (12 points), the ball handling and slashing of Jerrell Mills (12 points) and the penetrating of Jessie Bradley who led all scorers with 14. But it wasn't all easy for Da Choz, early on the 3rd quarter when the Skyliners threw on the press the Gauchos mad a lot of turnovers and let the Skyliners get within 7. The Gauchos would not let the Skyliners get any closer and would pull away for a 55-41 win.
The second game was between the Washington Heights Warriors and the Trail Blazers. The game was very close throughout. The Blazers for most of the game held a slight lead but with 7 seconds left in the game a Washington Heights Warrior player was put on the line. He missed the first and intentionally missed the second, teammate Derrell Harrison grabbed the rebound and put the game tying shot in with 3 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime. The Warriors took over in overtime to win by the score of 52-48. Bram Nivar hit 3 3's to lead the Warriors with 17, Harrison scored 12.
The third game was a mismatch from the start Riverside Church completely dominated Jersey City to win 45-20. Willis Hatrell led all scoreres with 12 and AJ Price added 9. Price only scored 9 but only played about 13 minutes and made everything look very easy. The next 2 scheduled games were 16 and under, but the first game was a forefeit as the Brooklyn Bridge couldn't make the game and Jersey City got the win.
The other 16u game started out as if it would be close, as the Church led 13-11 over the Westfield Wizards. But the Church blew the game open with a 20-0 run and would just expand the lead throughout the game. The final score of the game was 69-29, Keydren Clark led the Church with 16 points and Kelvin Nelson added 12 points.
9/7
Today marked the beginning of the 2000 Gaucho Roundball Classic. There were two games today, the first was a 16u game between Team Roc and the New Jersey Roadrunners. Team Roc started off great as they went up 11-3 to start the game. The Roadrunners would not give up. They came back to take a 25-19 lead and will stay in control for the rest of the game. The Roadrunners were led by were led by Randy Foye with 18 and Dewit Maxwell who had 16.
In the second game, a 13u contest between Team Roc and Manhassett, Team Roc jumped out early and never looked back. Team Roc started the game on a 9-0 run and would end up winning by 9. The shot that the put the game way for Team Roc was a 4 point play by Mike Pollard, the free throw made the score 42-28 which ended Manhassett's run. Arul Dixon led Team Roc with 9 points and Codi Oliver scored 7. Jason Johnson led Manhassett with 9 points. 