Inland Force…Vegas Elite...D1 All Stars...Las Vegas Rebels…MVP Flight Elite...ABA...Team Bibby Red. Sounds like one heck of a youth b-ball lineup, doesn’t it? Well, it was. OMG, it was!!! There were more teams, but I wanted to get to the point. CAVS 12U headed down to Las Vegas this past Easter weekend (starting Thursday, really) to battle it out and seek retribution from the previous Las Vegas ambush our boys faced at the Vegas Elite Invitational early April.
Swoosh! Not only did CAVS 12U gain retribution, but won right down to the championship wire…only to finish 2nd against none other than MVP Flight Elite. Some of you may be wondering why we are happy with the 2nd place Championship. JUST STOP IT. Stop it right now. You apparently haven’t SEEN MVP Flight Elite lately, whose tallest kid resembles the last, largest tree you’ve seen in the forest. He is a great kid, but quickly becomes the average youth basketball player’s nightmare if you are not on your game…and even if you are!!! If you didn’t know before, hang around for a sec. Goshdarnit, here we go.
CAVS 12U didn’t play on Thursday like the other teams. Instead, Friday’s 3-game day lineup began as follows: 10:00am….CAVS 12U V. Vegas Elite.
How ironic, right? Only this time…with no wild stomach flu parading the bellies of several of our players and none of our coaches being booted from the gym, CAVS 12U came to play…and administer a victory.
CAVS 12U defeated Las Vegas Elite in the first game of the day, 67-57.
CAVS 12U then played Arizona Powerhouse at 3:00 that afternoon to gain another win of 68-37.
The final game of the evening was an obvious mismatch (no disrespect, but it was what it was) against the Piranhas. CAVS 12U picked up the win there, too, 59-17. Yeah. I think most of us were happiest that it was only Friday night and there were no early morning games to worry about.
So.....
On Saturday, the real action began.
Yep. This was it; the final roundup. CAVS 12U faced off with ABA at 4:40pm to determine who would make it to the championship game.
Okay. I must take this time to express how athletic and “pretty darned good” the ABA team really is. Anyone with eyes could see this. I hear the team is out of Los Angeles. All I know is that they gave other teams (D1 All Stars, Vegas Elite) a hard run for their money – including CAVS 12U. We were no exception.
One of the ABA Team members had a pull-up jumper that just would not miss (at least in our game)! THIS was an exciting game, ladies and gentlemen!!
If there was one 12U game to attend on Saturday, this one was pretty much it, as the battle was on!!
However, CAVS 12U really wanted to get to the championship and made it clear, defeating ABA, 72-68. Ahem. Please note that the score was still uncomfortably too close for CAVS comfort!
Speaking of comfort (and the loss of) let’s move on to the Championship Game. CAVS 12U had to battle MVP Flight Elite.
As if that was a surprise. Okay. Dude, seriously? There ought to be a law against growing that much on one year. Not mad at it, though! Wow. We are talking about Sterling – MVP Flight Elite’s college-tall basket-magnet. #23 on Flight Elite was trailing in height right behind him, which didn’t help, either. See them both, standing magnanimously below - Sterling (on the end, near the referee) and #23? Our Chasen Pender (#19) is TALL. Below, he looks as if he needs a step stool just to match up to Sterling.
Perhaps, this shot gives you a better idea: Not a snowball's chance in heck of getting that ball!!
What are they feeding these kids?
Can we get some of it and where was the memo that it was being distributed in the first place? Anyway…CAVS 12U players were - believe it or not - hanging in there. They were only trailing by 5 points several times—all until the technical fouls began—against us….players, coaches and the like.
It seemed the refs kept dishing out crazy calls that just didn’t benefit us at all. To make matters worse…one word from us against any of the calls from us – and wham – technical foul! It got so bad that we started to cheer when each additional one was given. Pitiful, I know. Needless to say, the repeated fouls ruined any game momentum our boys were gaining and MVP Flight Elite took home the first place trophy, 52-37.
WHATEVS. The boys hopefully realized what they need to do the next time they see Flight Elite. I know our coaches did…..because Flight Elite will not be going anywhere! However, if those Elite boys grow any taller, we’ll need to recruit young-looking grown men to keep up. However, the important thing here, folks, is….CAVS 12U completely redeemed themselves this time (from the Vegas Elite Invitational ambush) and scored a 2nd Place Championship Trophy in the process. Not bad. We’ll take it! GO CAVS 12U!!!
But wait - CAVS 12U has just earned another award. The group is hereby granted the award for the highest number of varying facial/body language expressions in one championship photo! Wow. Lol. Dude...seriously?
******Check out all of the Las Vegas Easter Showdown Tourney photos on our Facebook site HERE.
Next stop: Palm Springs, then Reno, baby!!! Check out the clickable flyers at the top of this website. GAME ON!!
******Full game details for all divisions are always available on our main website: http://www.cavsyouthbasketball.org. Check back often for updates, as they are posted at varied times by multiple staff members.
No comments:
Post a Comment