Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Day-One Capital University Holiday Tournament


Today, for the ninth consecutive year, Damon Goodwin's Capital University Holiday Tournament tiped off in Columbus, Ohio. The 2-day event has a tradition of attracting some of the top 4th, 5th and 6th grade travel basketball teams in the region. This year, 65 teams entered the tournament.

Some of the communities represented in the tournament included: Pickerington, Hilliard, Upper Arlington, Gahanna, Delaware, Worthington, Springboro, Dublin, Tri-Valley, Bloom Carroll, Olentangy, Hilliard, Bexley, Marysville, Columbus, New Albany and Logan. On day-one, the teams participated in bracket play, before being grouped into to smaller championship bracket play on Thursday.

This afternoon I had the opportunity to checkout some of the action in the 6th grade division. The New Birth Warriors continued their strong play with a blowout (97-10) victory over the Worthington Cardinals. The Warriors' relentless full court pressure resulted in multiple layups and a halftime score of 56-6. From there, the game was never in question. Leading scorers in the game were: DJ Tyree (24 points), Jelani Rogers (17 points) and Paul "PJ" Jones with 14 points. Although Tyree and Rogers, both 6th graders, are the top guys for New Birth, the outstanding play of Paul "PJ" Jones deserves some mention. The 4th grade floor general is surprisingly skilled and poised for his age, and the fact that he can compete with players at least 2 years older than he is quite impressive. Keep an eye on this kid he could be special.

I also liked the Springboro Panthers, who added another win to their 19-0 record with a 29-57 win over the Marysville Monarchs. The Dublin Rocks continued to role with a lopsided victory (75-24) over the Panthers. In other action, New Albany defeated Olentangy 44-7, the Hilliard Hoopsters Blue defeated Liberty 87-12, the Whetstone Wildcats defeated the Bloom Carroll Bulldogs 45-33, Grove City defeated the Hilliard Hoopsters White 40-27, Pickerington Silver defeated New Albany 43-42, New Birth claimed their second win of the night with a 89-19 win over Olentangy, and Springboro finished 2-0 on the day with a 75-28 win over Liberty.

Some of the standout individual performers included: DJ Tyree (New Birth), Drew Holweger (Springboro), Eric Fitz (Whetstone), Jelani Roger (New Birth), Seth Currens (Pickerington), Kyran McClure (Whetstone), PJ Jones (New Birth) and Jake Bourke (Springboro).

4 comments:

  1. I went to see the New Birth Warriors vs. Ohio Warriors. Quite a lot of talent on both sides. New Birth has great guard play (Jelanie Rogers/amazing) while Ohio Warriors have very coordinated big men (Moyer on his jersey had a double double & the other two big men Ward and Towns on their jerseys had close to a double double as well). Should be an exciting 6th grade AAU season!

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  2. I'm so sorry I missed that game (my son was playing a HS game). I am also sorry I missed seeing the Ohio Warriors play, as I was in the back gym all day while they were playing in the main gym and I did not know. Between those 2 teams, a lot of future talent is represented. I'm on the look out for time to check out the Ohio Warriors!!

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  4. The game between the Ohio Warriors and New Birth Warriors should have been the championship game. Very exciting and close game. Congrats to the Ohio Warriors for their Capital Holiday Tournament Championship.

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