Dayton Airmen MLK Holiday Tournament-Monday

As I try to do every year about this time, I spent Monday in Dayton covering Al Powell’s holiday grade school tournament. This year’s event hosted boys teams in grades 4th-6th, and was held at the Corinthian Baptist Church on the east side of Dayton. As is the case every year, the competition was fierce. While I was there, I was able to catch some very competitive games in both the 5th and 6th grade divisions.

One of the best games of the tournament pitted the 5th grade Dayton Airmen against Salvation Army. After having watched Salvation Army dispatch Cliff Greens’ Team Pit Bull 46-41 in an earlier game, my money was on Salvation Army to take this one. Although Salvation Army took an early lead and held on to it for most of the contest, the Airmen came storming back to take a late game lead. The Airmen went on to win 26-25 to advance to the 5th grade championship game. In the championship game, the Beavercreek Stars upended the Dayton Airmen. Some of the top 5th graders I saw included: TJ Owens (Trotwood), James Shanklin (Huber Heights), Dylan Craver (Dayton), Omari Peek-Greene (Fairfield), Cleveland Farmer (Mt. Healthy), Hezekiah Shaw (Dayton), Antown Johnson (Dayton) and Shalom Seals.

The top teams in the 6th division included the Dayton Airmen Maroon, Team Blue and Scott Bradley’s New Birth Warriors from Columbus. Earlier in the day, I watched Team Blue dismantled a grossly over matched Beavercreek Stars team (48-15 final) in a quarter-final game. A little later, New Birth easily defeated Dayton Airmen Gold 32-14 to advance to the semi-final game with Dayton Airmen Maroon. Later in the evening, Team Blue defeated the Dayton Airmen Gold team to set up a rematch with the Airmen’s top team.

Although many Dayton area fans had already penciled in the Dayton Airmen’s Maroon team as the eventual champions, due in part to their 4-point win over Team Blue earlier in the year and a close win in pool play over the weekend; Anthony Parker’s Team Blue had different plans. In the championship game Team Blue defeated the Airmen 48-46 for the second time in as many days to claim the championship. Some of the top players I saw over the weekend included: Torrey Patton (Airmen), Keagon Saben (Airmen), Kobe Vinegar (Airmen), Jacquel Freeman-Parks (Team Blue), Dujuan Ford (Team Blue), Shamari Jamison (Team Blue) Jordan Mitchell (New Birth), Paul “PJ” Jones (New Birth) and Ty Wiley (New Birth). All-in-all, it was a great weekend of basketball. To see the pictures I took at the event, visit the Buckeye Prep Facebook Fan Page.