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The Rumble in the Bronx
Player Evaluations

Game Re-caps

6/15
Long Island Panthers 65 vs. New Jersey Roadrunners 58
Lenny Cooke scored 26, to lead the Panthers.  Randy Foye scored 16 but all in the first half. The Panthers put a box and 1 on him and after that Foye seemingly just quit and wasn't even looking for the ball. One time I saw him standing in the corner with his shirt in his mouth and his hand on his hip.

New York Ravens 71 vs. Washington Heights Warriors 51
Allan Ray and Francisco Garcia both played great for the Ravens, and on the other side Jerome Simmons was the lone bright spot for the Panthers.

The Brooklyn Bridge dominated Brooklyn USA despite being without Sebastian Telfair. Ramel Bradley had a big game to lead the way for the Bridge.

Westchester Hawks 75 vs. Tallahassee Wildcats 73
The Hawks trailed the whole game and trailed by 8 with two minutes and rallied to win. Rashard Turner and Rushid Simmons led the way for the Hawks.

6/16
Gauchos 55 vs. Newark Rams 47
Levi Levine 17   Zakee Boyd 17

Brooklyn Bridge 69 vs. Tim Thomas Gold 61
This was a very good game with the Bridge holding of Tim Thomas behind 18 points from Sebastian Telfair, 16 from Karron Clark and Chris Taft's 12. Tim Thomas was led by Lee Melchionni's 14 and John Winchester's 12.

New York Ravens 73 vs. St. Mike's 53
The Ravens had a balanced attack with Allan Ray scoring 15, Donnie McGrath scored 13 and Francisco Garcia added 12 in the blowout.

Gauchos 56 vs. Howard Pulley II 46
Neither team had a good showing but the Choz were able to pull this one out.

Long Island Panthers 72 vs. Westchester Hawks 57
The Panthers dominated the entire game, led by Lenny Cooke who scored his tournament high of 32. Jason Fraser did a great job on the boards for the Panthers.

New York Ravens 93 vs. Bray Center 81
The Ravens led by 17 at the half and then coasted in the second half. Allan Ray scored 20 and Donnie McGrath added 18.

Tallahassee Wildcats 74 vs. Long Island Panthers 66
Rashad Anderson scored 28, and just dominated the Panthers, rising Sophomore Darius Washington scored 13 for the Wildcats. Lenny Cooke led the way with 18 points for the Panthers, Jason Fraser added 12.

16u
The LPAC Knights defeated the Brooklyn Beasts behind a great performance from Emilio Gomez. This was Josh, Wright's debut and he scored 12 points and handed out 7 dimes.

The Brooklyn Beasts hammered Tim Thomas White team, behind a dazzling performance from Josh Wright who scored 23, 19 of which came in the first half. He didn't play too much in the second half because of the margin of victory.

6/17
New York Ravens 81 vs. Long Island Panthers 68
This game turned into a blowout early. The Ravens opened up a 27-13 lead, when the Panthers were called for two techs. Donnie McGrath hit 3 of the 4 shots to make the game 30-13. Then he hit a 3 and was fouled, he made the free throw to make the score 34-13, which pretty much put the game out of reach. Allan Ray dominated the first half scoring 19 of his 24 in the half. With under 4 minutes to go, Lenny Cooke fouled out then got a tech, and the Gary Charles got a tech. Charles would get out of control, and the refs stopped the game right then, with the Ravens about to shoot 6 free throws. McGrath scored 15 for the Ravens. Lenny Cooke led the attack with 21 and Curtis Sumpter added 15.

Riverside 74 vs. Gauchos 54
This game started out close but then turned into a blowout in the second half, the Church just dominated the Choz late. Ricky Soliver scored 19 to lead the way for Riverside. Keydren Clark also played well. Jermaine Pringle led the Choz with 15.

Riverside 69 vs. Brooklyn Bridge 61
This was a great game, with many surprises. Alonzo Brown shut Sebastian Telfair down whenever  he was in the game. Shakeim Mitchell had a big game leading the way for the Church with 15 points. Telfair led the way for the Bridge with 15. 

17u Silver Championship
Philly Elite led the entire way and were never really tested. Eric Wilkens played very well for the Newark Rams, but he was not enough to make up for the 38 points that Florida bound Matt Walsh scored.

16u Championship
Newark Rams 84 vs. Team Texas 63
Team Texas had been dominating their competition but proved to be no match for Mike Nardi and company in the title game.

16u Playoffs
The Gauchos and Riverside played bright and early Saturday morning, the game started like it would be a classic but in the second half the Gauchos began to pull away taking a 67-50, behind the hot shooting of Matt Saunders. When I left the game to go see the Panthers and Ravens game the lead was down to 10 at 69-59, the Gauchos ended up holding on for a close win. James Barrett and Brandon Wilson had good games for the Church. Marlon Smith and Saunders were the bright spots for the Choz.

Playing at the same time as the Choz and Riverside, was the Brooklyn and Bridge and the LPAC Knights. This game was never in doubt with the Bridge holding a 19 point lead at halftime and coasting to a 23 point win. Ramel Bradley and Mitchell Beauford both played well in this game.

17u Gold Championship
Howard Pulley 79 vs. Riverside 77 OT
'The championship game of the Rumble in the Bronx, was how all championship games should be, a close game decided in the final minute. The championship saw the Riverside Church play the Howard Pulley Panthers.  Howard Pulley had just finished blowing out the Ravens, who were coming off their shocking win over the Long Island Panthers (more about that game later). The Riverside made it to the championship by holding off a tough Brooklyn Bridge team. Both teams got off to good starts, but near the end of the first half Howard Pulley began to establish control of the game, as they were able to take a 7 point lead into the break. Riverside made a surge at the start of the half to take a one point lead a few minutes in. The rest of the half would see Howard Pulley maintain a slim lead. Pulley had a 6 point lead late in the game and then a swarming press by the Church got them back in the game. The lead was 2 when a Pulley player was at the line shooting 2, with 4.1 seconds left. He missed the first but made the second giving the Panthers a 3 point lead. The ball was in bounded to Bobby Santiago just in front of half court, he pushed the ball up, and right when I thought he was going to take a 30 foot shot he sent the pass over to Keydren Clark, who nailed a one footed 3 at the buzzer, which erupted the whole gym. Usually the team who finishes the game the way the Church did has the advantage in the overtime, but I guess Howard Pulley felt they got jerked at the end and came out with a fire in their eyes and scored the first 6 points of the OT. But once again the tenacious press headed by Peedy Nelson and Ricky Soliver brought the Church back to within 2. They had the ball with under 20 seconds and worked it around to Gary Ervin, who made a bad decision by taking a 3, which he missed. The rebound was grabbed by a Howard Pulley player who was fouled with 2.2 seconds. However he missed both attempts, and Nelson grabbed the board for the Church and called a timeout before his feet even touched the floor. But the Church would have to make a full court pass, and hope everything went right after that, and fortunately for Howard Pulley the pass was tipped and time ran out. Howard Pulley escaped with a 79-77 win. Ryan Williams held it down on the offensive glass and scored 24 points. Keydren Clark scored 15. To lead Howard Pulley Anthony Lang scored 15 and Kris Humphries scored 12 to lead a balanced attack. Jason Wingate and Ricky Soliver also had good games for the Church. Tomorrow I will have recaps of every game I saw, and also player evaluations of many of the players at the Rumble in the Bronx.