City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)

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After taking a five and a half hour drive from Pittsburgh to participate in the Scholastic Play-By-Play Tip Off Classic, the Allderdice Dragons came in and proved that they too belong in the conversation among the state’s elite teams, most of which come from the Philadelphia area.

The Dragons drew a matchup with second-ranked AAA Imhotep Charter, but Allderdice had a high ranking of their own, ranked second in AAAA. And after a trip to the state semifinals last season, a game in which they lost to Martin Luther King, the Dragons are no longer an unheard of team from the inner-city of Pittsburgh.

Allderdice is a name that many are beginning to know, and teams are beginning to fear, they are no longer an unknown commodity. They have cemented their status among the state’s elite.

“It is probably one of the biggest wins in school history,” Allderdice coach Buddy Valinsky said. “Just with this group, starting off the season the way we just did, beating the second-ranked team in AAA, they are a hell of a team, they are good, we just played better.”

And play better Allderdice did, despite entering the second half with a 31-26 deficit, that did not cause any worry for the Dragons. They emerged from the half and connected on four consecutive 3-pointers, turning a six-point deficit into a six-point lead in a little less than two minutes.

The key quarter for the Dragons, the third quarter, saw them start with a 15-0 run, one that Imhotep would never recover from. In total, Allderdice outscored Imhotep 24-8 in that third quarter.

“We were 10-30, 4-9 from 3, so we did not shoot it well and we were only down six,” Valinsky said. “So we couldn’t play any worse, and we started hitting a few shots which changed it. Our team can always score, that’s why we are never out of a game because we can light it up.”

Led by senior James Jackson, who shot 3-8 in the first half, including 0-2 from 3-point range, drained three consecutive 3-pointers in the first minute of the third quarter. His twin brother Tim Jackson finished with 15 points and five rebounds, but it was James who finished with 22 points, and was rewarded as the game MVP from the Allderdice side.

“We beat a ranked team for our first game of the year,” James Jackson said. “We had a good feeling coming in, we talked about it all week.”

For Imhotep, they were paced by a trio of juniors, led by Daron Russell who led all scorers with 29 points in the losing effort. The 5-foot-11 guard finished the day 10-18 from the field including four rebounds. He was helped by Jaquan Arrington who finished with 13 points along with six rebounds and Koby Thomas who chimed in eight points and seven rebounds. Senior Jaekwon Carlyle contribute 10 points as well.

Allderdice, which is usually a team that presses defensively, strayed away from that in an attempt to try and contain Russell. While Russell had a successful night overall, the Dragons held him to just four points in that key third quarter.

“We just had to calm down, take better shots, come out aggressive, just play,” Tim Jackson said. “It is a big win, we beat the number two team in AAA. We came to play.”

This Allderdice team might be the best Pittsburgh city league team since the DeJuan Blair led Schenley Spartans in 2007, a team that won the AAA state championship. Team’s from Pittsburgh usually don’t garner the same level of respect as do teams from the East side of the state do.

There is something different about this Dragon’s squad, something that makes you wonder just how far they can advance in the state playoffs.
“I have seven seniors, this is a group that is now 50-9,” Valinsky said. “This group is a bunch winners.”