Philly Basketball 24 • 7 • 365

City of Basketball Love

Current Section

Home

The Basketball Tournament: Day 2 Liveblog

07/18/2015, 12:45pm EDT

By Jeff Griffith and Varun Kumar

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21) &
Varun Kumar (@vrkumar8)
--

The Basketball Tournament, the 97-team tournament with a $1 million prize awaiting the winning team, enters its second day of action with 16 teams left in the Northeast Regional.

On the second day of regional action, the Northeast regional’s last sixteen teams from a field of twenty-four played for spots in the region’s last eight, the winners of which will be headed to Chicago for the Super 17.

Here's a liveblog of the second day of action at Philadelphia University:

~~~

11:45 AM: In the day’s first game, former Villanova standouts Antonio Pena and Reggie Redding (20 points each) led Liberty Ballers to a convincing 93-79 win over Lehigh based The Wrecking Crew. Former Siena greats Kenny Hasbrouck and Ryan Rossiter added 15 each for the Ballers, while Jordan Hamilton (26 points) and Holden Greiner (24 points) led The Wrecking Crew in defeat.

12:15 PM: DMV’s Finest finished off a rout of WOYG, with a 95-61 victory. Jason Clark led all scorers with 21 points, while his former Georgetown backcourt mate Chris Wright added 20 of his own. The squad from the DC Metro area is one of the favorites to advance to Chicago, thanks in part to terrific depth and a big front line. Ex-George Mason big man Mike Morrison was imposing in the middle his team, chipping in 10 points and playing excellent post defense. WOYG struggled all game, shooting 24 of 64 from the field, with former St. Joseph’s big man CJ Aiken struggling most of the game.

1:05 PM: Third-seeded City of Gods leads Lynchburg Club Basketball by a score of 61-23 at halftime. It’s been all City of Gods from the start, as the DC-based team has out-sized, out-shot, and entirely out-played Lynchburg in every aspect of the game in the first half. Leading the way for Team City of Gods are Xavier Silas and Georgetown alum Devin Sweetney with 15 points. Lynchburg’s Kris Richardson also has 11 through one half.

1:40 PM: Team City of Gods rode their advantage in size and overall talent to an absolute rout of Lynchburg College Club Basketball, winning by a score of 115-50. Xavier Silas’ 31 points and 8 rebounds led the way for the DC-based squad, and Devin Sweetney ended the game with 19. 5-foot-9 Manny Hernandez had 16 points for Lynchburg, playing all thirty-six minutes of the game. City of Gods will take on either sixth-seeded Free Bands or seventeenth-seeded Triumph on Sunday for a spot in Chicago’s Super 17.

2:35 PM: Free Bands and Triumph have been pretty close throughout the early-going in the fourth game of Saturday’s action. Triumph led by ten at one point, but Free Bands’ Reggie Holmes cut the lead to two, 30-28, on Reggie Homes free throws with seven minutes until the half.

2:50 PM: Triumph went a little cold to end the half, but is still hanging with sixth-seeded Free Bands--who leads 50-44 at the break--in a game filled with three-pointers. Danny Agelbese, who has only six points for Free Bands, closed out the half with an emphatic dunk off of a missed three. Free Bands’ Terrel Stoglin, a Maryland alum, leads the way with seventeen points, and Kiwan Smith has seven points and four rebounds for a Triumph squad that has eight different scorers, but none in double digits.

3:25 PM: Triumph, who was down by sixteen at one point, continues to pull themselves back into the game. With 5:36 to play, Morgan State alum DeWayne Jackson is scoring in a variety of ways--dunks, fadeaways, jumpshots, drives--and has Free Bands holding onto an 84-77 lead.

3:50 PM: Behind Reggie Allen’s 22 points, Free Bands advanced to take on City of Gods on Sunday for a spot in Chicago, knocking off Triumph by a score of 106-99. Triumph wouldn’t go away, cutting the lead to four with only four minutes to play, but Free Bands’ experience showed up in the end as the Baltimore-based team was able to pull away in the final few minutes. For Triumph, Kevin Josey lead the way with a game-high thirty points. Free Bands’ Dwayne Jackson from Morgan State and Terrell Stoglin of Maryland also dropped nineteen each.

4:40 PM: In what has arguably been the best game today, fourteenth-seeded Basketball City surprised the second-seed, Big Apple Basketball by breaking out a nine point lead in the middle of the first half. At the break Big Apple Basketball leads by a score of 41-39 in a battle of two New York City squads. Basketball City’s George Beamon leads the way with ten points, while Shane Gibson has a team-high nine for Big Apple Basketball.

5:10 PM: Despite leading at the half, Big Apple Basketball trailed by a few points most of the way through the second half before taking a 64-62 lead with 7:30 to play. Neither team has led by more than five points throughout the entire half.

5:35 PM: In what was definitely the most exciting and evenly-matched game, Shavar Richardson's two late threes for Basketball City tied it up at 85 with thirteen seconds go, but it wasn't enough as Big Apple Basketball defeated Basketball City by a final score of 87-85 on a outback by Michael Glover, an alumni of Iona College. Glover scored eleven points for Big Apple, who was led by Chaz Williams with eighteen and will advance to take on either Sideline Cancer or Temple University's alumni team, North Broad Street Bullies. Basketball City was led by Demitrius Conger with twenty-one points.

6:40 PM: It may have looked like the Temple-heavy North Broad Street Bullies would handily win a matchup over the upstart Sideline Cancer, but that has not been the case thus far. Sideline Cancer leads at the half 31-28, with former Iona guard Tre Bowman leading all scorers with 12 points. Former Temple standouts Ramone Moore and Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson were late arrivers to the game, but Moore still leads his team with 11 points. The Bullies are shooting 44% from the field, but are being hurt by their 13 turnovers.

7:20 PM: In what was clearly the biggest upset of the day, the North Broad Street Bullies fell to Sideline Cancer 63-72. Even with the fairly partisan “pro-Temple” crowd, Sideline Cancer led most of the game, with former Millersville guard Charles Parker’s 17 points leading the way. Former Buffalo guard Andy Robinson and Tre Bowman added 16 apiece. The Bullies finished the game with a whopping 19 turnovers, and never seemed to be able to string together several strong offensive possessions. Ramone Moore led the contest with 20 points, while Khalif Wyatt finished with 17 points on only 3 of 10 shooting from the field. The decisive moment proved to be a charge call on Moore, with the Bullies down 62-67. After 2 ensuing free throws, Moore and Wyatt forced up desperation threes on consecutive possessions that were woefully short, effectively killing any chance of a comeback.

9:30 PM: With a very large and vociferous "pro-Syracuse" crowd on hand and only half of the entire arena at the Gallagher Center being used, it may have felt a little like a home game at the Carrier Dome for Boeheim’s Army. The bit of home cooking helped the largely ex-Orange team to a big 91-73 win over NYC Superstars. Demetris Nichols led Boeheim’s Army with 24 points, while Eric Devendorf added 18 points and 7 assists. Philly native Hakim Warrick only scored nine points, but altered several shots with the long reach that helped win the Orange a national title in 2003. With Cuse legends Lawrence Moten and Dwayne “Pearl” Washington as coaches, Boeheim’s Army mostly stayed true to their roots, playing most of the game in the Orange’s trademark 2-3 zone with an imposing back line of the 6-foot-9 Warrick, 6-10 Baye Moussa Keita and 6-8 Demitris Nichols. For NYC Superstars, former Millersville forward Michael Liander led the game with 34 points on 13 of 21 shooting (7 for 13 from three), but the the rest of the team struggled from the field, going 16-49.

11:00 PM: The final game of the night also had a bit of local flavor, with the La Salle alumni team, 20th and Olney beating Max’s All Stars 87-80. 20th & Olney trailed 59-67 with around seven minutes to go, but went on a 14-0 run, the biggest of which was Ty Garland’s three from the left wing to tie the game. Three starters- Steven Smith (17 points and 10 rebounds), Jerrell Wright (25 points and 12 rebounds) and Steve Zack (7 points and 6 rebounds) were too big and skilled for the smaller Max’s All Stars. However, the game turned around for the La Salle alums because of Garland (22 points) and his strong second half play. Max’s All Stars were paced by Dominique Jones’ 17 points and Doug Herring’s 14 in defeat.