BORP hosted the 8th annual “BORP Hoops Classic” on March 5-6 at James Kenney Recreation Center. The BORP All Stars went 4-1 and had exciting hard fought battles with all 5 opponents.
Game 1 of the tournament, between BORP and the San Jose Spartans was an overtime thriller and a typical contest for these 2 evenly matched teams. San Jose’s Marten Bradley hit a 3 with 6 seconds left in regulation to put San Jose ahead by 1. BORP used its last time-out to set up length of the court play and a good shot for Marcus Oden. A San Jose hard foul prevented the shot from going in but put Marcus at the line where he calmly made one to put the game into overtime. BORP dominated the overtime period and ended up winning 56 to 49. High scorers for BORP were Oden with 19, Mickey Kay with 17 and Marc Geritz with 9.
BORP’s second game was against the Sonoma Blazers. The teams struggled to get any offense going and first half ended 17-10 BORP. In the second half BORP withstood a Sonoma surge and put together one of their own fueled by Art Renowitzky’s 12 points. Final score: BORP 39 – Sonoma 31. Renowitzky’s 12 led BORP and Oden had 10.
BORP’s next game against the Shasta Lakers, the final game on Saturday’s schedule, was a nailbiter from start to finish. The teams traded the lead back and forth and once again BORP was down by 1 with a few seconds to go. A well executed play almost led to a game winning score but the Shasta defense was just good enough to prevent any BORP heroics. Shasta prevails 39 to 38. Oden’s 14 lead the team, with Renowitzky pumping in 8 and Geritz and Steve Lau contributing 6 each.
Sunday morning saw BORP take on the Reno team first thing and after shaking out the cobwebs both teams went to their strengths and locked into a tight contest. In the end BORP’s speed and rebounding trumped Reno’s outside shooting and BORP won 38 to 29. Kay led BORP with 13 with strong scoring support from Oden with 8 and Lau with 7. Pah-bah Natzee Harrison, James Vincent and Lamile Perry all scored 4 for BORP.
BORP’s final game against Sacramento was, no surprise, a squeaker. An 11 point BORP lead at halftime was steadily cut into in the second half and was completely gone with a few minutes left in the game. From there it was a see-saw battle with BORP using free throw shooting and a few timely baskets to eke (or is that eek!) out the win, 35-33. BORP had 8 players in the scoring column led by Oden’s 19.
BORP All Star’s next tournaments are April 16-17 in Reno and April 30/May 1 in Sacramento.
Scot Goodman was at the gym most of Saturday and a new gallery of photos is on its way.
Thanks to all the players, coaches, volunteers, referees, families, friends and donors for your support and enthusiasm for this event.
Jonathan