To call this past weekend’s tourney ANYTHING to do with the word “sizzle” was wildly appropriate. Ever heard of the saying “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen?” Well, in this case, you’ll just have to get out of Arizona (or run inside somewhere) because it is HOTTTT there!! Ooh wee!! That kind of heat will make folks lose their minds after a while. How hot was it? Okay. Imagine spending your days and nights—moving about normally-- inside of a BROILER OVEN. Yep. That’s about how hot it was, along with a few humid thunder, lightning and rain storms thrown in for seasoning.
So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…..
The CAVS 12U boys have managed to do it again. What did they do? We’ll tell you. CAVS 12U brought home their 11th consecutive Championship win (since April 2nd, 2011) in Arizona, during Independence Day weekend, July 2nd-4th, 2011.
OMG.
I say this because July 4th weekend SO wasn’t our usual “playing” weekend. Gosh. Maybe it was the heat, or lack of sufficient hydration. It was SOMETHING, I will tell you that. Seriously? Our beloved boys were simply “gone fishin” every game (although I can’t imagine fish outside of an air-conditioned aquarium actually surviving Arizona’s summer heat long enough to bite bait without being boiled alive in the sun-scorched lakes). Every mistake or fumble that should not have happened to CAVS 12U; did. Sure, CAVS 12U had their usual “shining moments” with lay-ups, “and one’s”, three-pointers and runners, but for the most part, da boyz were literally “OFF” all weekend; period. Yet, amazingly, even with their skills at “half-mast”, they STILL managed to score the championship with teams who were most definitely gunning for the championship title.
I'll explain.
CAVS 12U met up with AZ NEV at Tempe High School (shouts out to the brave guys grilling BBQ outside in that scorching weather!!) at 3:00 on Saturday and was promptly serenaded by NEV’s rather loud group chant: “Who are we? NEV! What do we have? Heart! Let’s gooooooo!!!” The two teams then met on the floor for tip-off. After about a minute, both teams ended up back in huddles (don’t quite know what happened with that) for another several minutes.
Right before meeting back up for tip-off, AZ NEV decided that nobody heard them chanting the first time. So….everyone was serenaded yet again with another group chant session—only louder this time.
"Who are we? NEV!!! What do we have?!! Heart!!! Let’s gooooooo!!!!!!”
It was quite thunderous. Yep. All this occurred while CAVS 12U issued their usual mid-volume, half-mumbled team salute (which, I still don’t really know what it is they say exactly….1-2-3-CAVS play hard…1-2-3? Your guess is better than mine. I haven’t the foggiest clue) and headed to the middle of the floor for tip-off. Chanting obviously isn’t our strong suit.
Basketball is.
CAVS 12U defeated AZ NEV 37-21.
At 5:00pm, it was back to Tempe High to play AZ Kaos.
I must say that these Kaos guys started off at full throttle and most definitely had the will to win. CAVS 12U endured (even through their “OFF” level of playing, lapses and mistakes) and defeated AZ Kaos 37-33. I don’t know about you, but for me, that score is just WAY too close for comfort.
Sunday, at 3:00 (when the sun was burning us at its full potential) CAVS 12U played JD Elite and defeated them 47-25.
Oh yeah. CAVS 12U woke up a little that day. Can’t you tell by the score? This win moved CAVS 12U on to the Semi-Final game, with none other than Team Bibby Red…at 9am, Monday morning.
9am?
Kids + early morning = 50% probable chance of disaster.
Well, the dudes on Team Bibby have grown….and changed. Perhaps some of these guys were new. Anyway, it was pretty cool to meet up with them again for another battle….and a battle it was. It probably would have been less of a battle if it were a normal weekend for CAVS 12U (jeez!!) but I’ve already shared with you that it wasn’t….at 9am. With that said, the game became an instant push-pull war of getting after the ball, followed by loud cheers, chants and angry rants from the bleachers—all for the benefit of Team Bibby, of course!
However, CAVS 12U prevailed past their own shortcomings (and past the rude bleacher-banging executed especially during their free throws) and defeated Team Bibby Red, 37-34, earning a spot in the championship game. Oh, but the drama was yet to come. Two words for ya’:
Vegas Elite.
Okay. We love Vegas Elite. We do. We’re all cool. We are. Vegas Elite even currently houses one of our former CAVS members, Billy Preston, Jr. However, since Vegas Elite smashed through everyone else to get to the championship, they automatically knew the championship title was going to be theirs---especially with Billy on their side. They were out to “get” the CAVS for certain. After all, Billy is TALL…and can get the ball in the basket. Here he is shooting a free throw:
Vegas Elite had been playing very well and aggressive all weekend long, so what was one more game? On Monday, July 4th, Independence Day, at Dobson High School gym in Mesa, Arizona, the bleachers were noisy and confrontational even before the game got started.
CAVS 12U then met up with Vegas Elite for the tip-off.
Jeez Louise. The score was 8 to 0 before long, with CAVS losing, Vegas Elite up. OMG. The crowd began to chant, stomp and perform cheers in the style of old-school drill team members. All that was missing were uniforms and makeshift pom-poms. Male voices rang out, “Game over!", while Vegas Elite scored basket after basket and CAVS 12U seemed to be slithering into the abyss of 2nd Place-Land. To make matters worse, Billy went coast-to-coast right through his former team members for a successful lay-up. Eh, boy. This probably wasn’t the weekend for CAVS 12U to be playing under a lackluster cloud.
However (and there always IS a “however” when it comes to CAVS 12U) the “Johnny-come-lately” tykes better known as CAVS 12U started to step it up. The battle began. Not only had it begun, but it was tied up (and surpassed) when the Vegas Elite coach (bless his heart) got his usual once-per-game technical foul and allowed us extra free throws.
Of course, all were indeed successful on our behalf. The refs (who were super cool and were EXCELLENT compared to many we’ve had before) had to also throw somebody out of the gym from the Vegas crowd for yelling out at them one too many times. Yep. Things were getting sticky. Of course, it additionally didn’t make the Vegas bleacher crowd too happy when our CAVS crew stepped up their cheering from our section to urge our boys to FOCUS and do what they normally do. This game was something! Push-pull. Push-pull. Mistakes. Push-pull. Push-pull. It seemed Vegas Elite was always two points ahead of CAVS 12U, but CAVS 12U would catch up and tie the game.
CAVS 12U started to fight back harder through the madness. However, Vegas Elite truly wanted to win and brought the game super-close, 38-36, CAVS up, with only 20.1 seconds left in the game. Phew! Unfortunately for Vegas Elite, they fouled and the game was one-and-one for CAVS 12U. Two more free throws gave us a 40-36 lead, with only 8.9 seconds remaining on the clock. It was Vegas Elite’s ball. #23 from Vegas Elite went up for a three-pointer, but missed it and we held the ball as if our lives depended on it. Tightly.
CAVS 12U won the championship against Vegas Elite, 40-36.
It wasn’t one of our best wins, but hey….we’ll take it! GO CAVS 12U!!
The win was then celebrated with what developed into a really cool CAVS 4th of July BBQ celebration/pool party.
What a day.
Next up for CAVS 12U….a new tourney just added (details soon) and after that, the mighty CAVS head back to Vegas. How ironic. GAME ON!!!
***Check out all the Tourney/July 4th photos on our Facebook site HERE.
******Full game details for all divisions are always available on our main website: http://www.cavsyouthbasketball.org. Right now, our site is undergoing repairs, but should be back in effect soon. Check back often for updates, as they are posted at varied times by multiple staff members.
