Three Games from IS 8

I caught the last 3 games yesterday, and all of them were exciting and the last two were close enough to make free throws a deciding factor.

The 6th game of the day featured the Panthers against the Shooting Stars. The game was close at the half, but Erving Walker had one of those breakout quarters that Section1 has apparently never witnessed, but the rest of us have watched since long before high school. Little Erv put up 18 of his game high 30 in the third quarter, including 5 threes and an unbelievable drive to the hoop that had the crowd cheering and Gary Charles of the Panthers shaking his head in wonder.

Samardo Samuels was too big for the Panthers, scoring 27 on a variety of inside moves and putbacks, and Big Ed Davis had a monster dunk putback that showed his hops and length. For the Panthers, DJ Jones was not as impressive against the much taller Shooting Stars, but still had some highlight plays, finishing with 16, while William Harrison led the Panthers with 21.

Final - Shooting Stars 102 - Panthers 88.

The Mt. Vernon two point victory over Metro Hawks (who looked an awful lot like JR's All-Stars to me, LOL) was a back and forth battle that somewhat anti-climatically ended on a missed pair of free throws. After Mt. Vernon struggled at the line in the last two minutes and allowed Josh Spivey unfettered access to the lane, Spivey got fouled with 2 seconds on the clock and a chance to send the game into overtime (which just about everyone expected). After Josh missed the first shot, the game was essentially over, but Metro Hawks called timeout to set up a last minute play. During the timeout, Spivey went to the line to practice foul shooting until the refs noticed and chased him off the line. Pete Edwards commented, "You shoulda done that before the first shot."

Mt. Vernon was led by the usual suspects, Kevin Jones with 21 and Sherrod Wright with 20. Metro Hawks had the formula for beating Mt. Vernon, i.e., try to lock those two down, but struggled with their jump shooting. Momo Jones led the MetroHawks with 21, but if a few of his early Js had gone in it might have been a different ball game. Josh Spivey finished with 20, most of which seemed to come in the last 2 or 3 minutes.

Mt. Vernon is very physical (a lot of pushing off and holding) and could have trouble if a game is called closely, since they don't seem to have much depth other than at the PG. It seemed to me that Kev never sat in this game, but I might have missed a rest.

Final - Mt. Vernon 66 MetroHawks 64

The last game of the evening saw a mostly young St. Raymond's team come from behind to defeat Juice (basically Lincoln Railsplitters). Truck Bryant scored 36, but you hardly noticed it. That's because he scored 22 from the charity stripe, as the officials in this game really got their money's worth out of their "Fox 40" whistles. Seemed like everyone on the floor had 4 or 5 fouls when this one ended.

The game was a barn burner from the start, as both teams played like they had a plane to catch, running the court and attacking the lane with reckless abandon. Lance Stephenson was off on his jump shot early, or Juice would have built an insurmountable lead. As it was, the lead in the 4th quarter had some of the Lincoln faithful ready to light up their victory cigars, but the Ravens pressure and Justin Greene's foul trouble turned things around. Kevin Parrom brought the ball up against the Juice pressure D and finished with 18, while Omari Lawrence scored 22 on some great offensive rebounding (although truth be told, half his buckets seemed to be from putting back his own misses - still, 2 point is 2 points).

Juice was led by Justin's 23, Lance's 22, and 21 from Buddha Ellis, whose shot was "Buttah" last night. Juice tried to put St. Ray's on the line to get back in the game after falling behind in the fourth quarter, but the Ravens proved up to the task.

Final - St. Raymond 95 - Juice All-Stars 91.

The High School teams have acquitted themselves well in this Fall IS 8 Classic, as St. Raymond's, Mt. Vernon and Boys and Girls still are alive in the playoffs. While these teams may not have the stars that the other teams feature, they all have good coaching and solid teamwork in common, as well as the familiarity with each other that only daily practices over 2 or 3 years can bring. Mt. Vernon and St. Raymond's each revealed their Achilles Heels to the scouts, but they have more than a month to fix those problems before their HS seasons start. B&G doesn't seem to have an Achilles Heel.

Check out the main site for NYHoop's more accurate coverage if you're looking for more details on these games. I spend too much time applauding to keep track of the play-by-play. As always, the Fall IS8 features great players, great plays, and a lot of fun.