CAVS 12U Finish As 2nd Place Champions In Bigfoot Hoops Las Vegas Easter Showdown

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 2^nd against none other than MVP Flight Elite. Some of you may be wondering why we are happy with the 2^nd 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 2^nd 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.

CAVS 12U Win West Coast Warriors April Fool’s Classic Tourney

After last weekend’s shocking loss for 12U at the Las Vegas Elite Tournament, 12U played UP this weekend against 13/14U. It was time to put up or shut up….go hard or go home and bring out those skills we all knew were in there somewhere. Swooosh!!! 12U buckled down and won the West Coast Warriors April Fool’s Classic Tourney in Pasadena, CA this past weekend!! Check out all of the photos on FACEBOOK site here.

It wasn’t a walk in the park, but our boys needed to work. CAVS 12U started the weekend off on Saturday afternoon, at Pasadena City College, against the 13U All-Time Ballers. 

12U picked up a victory win of 54-42.

Next up, was 12U against 13U VBA, which is a pretty good, well-coached team. They should be. After all, the team is being coached by ex-NBA basketball point guard Jerome “Pooh” Richardson. Remember Pooh?  He did his thing in the Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and finally…the Los Angeles Clippers. Yep. CAVS 12U had their work cut out for them – that was for certain.

The game started out close, with CAVS 12U slightly ahead, but VBA turned up the heat to the point of a slow burn and defeated CAVS 12U 48-25. Woah.

Luckily, there was still one last game to determine who would even get to see the championship game on Sunday. CAVS 12U faced off with the 13U Cali Ballers on Sunday morning. 

It was a very intense, interesting game, as Cali Ballers had a few players that were super-quick and loved to drive hard to the basket. It is always quite interesting to see the level of development with age differences. Players become smarter and stronger in skill with each year older. However….let’s just say….somebody got their groove back. CAVS 12U  pulled it together and gained the win over the 13U Cali Ballers, 53-44, which placed them in the championship game with none other than---yep, you guessed it--VBA.

Oh, but things would be different this time.

First of all, a few of our players had to leave for another tournament. That meant that the remaining group had to pull things off in a major way. Did they?

You’d better believe it.

What a game! Did somebody sneak Wheaties into the group talk to give all the players before the game? 

CAVS 12U played with an intensity that seemed to come out of nowhere! BTW….there was no drama at all with any of the parents at the gym, so the game went smoothly…but BOY was it intense!!  Things just seemed to work out well for 12U. 

Coach Darryl just let em’ all stretch out and work.  

Make no mistake about it, the VBA players were no slouches and were bringing on the defense. However, most CAVS 3-pointers were falling all-net, "and one" shots were completed successfully and the boys also played their hard, steadfast CAVS defense just like they were supposed to. 

Wow! With that kind of intensity, CAVS12U won the championship against 13U VBA, 50-34. GO CAVS 12U!!!

(From L to R:  Coach Darryl McDonald, Taj Regans, Terrance McBride, DJ McDonald, Coach Joe Pender, Cameron Townsend, Isaiah Roby, Coach Sean Regans, Mike Irving III and Chasen Pender - Missing from photo when at additional tourney: Coach Kris Walker, Brian Devereaux, Pearson Parker, Isaiah Richardson and Elijah Walker)

Special shouts out to all the boys, who collectively brought home the overall win, but one player in particular, turned up the heat this weekend, to the boiling point. WE SEE YOU, TAJ REGANS!!! Yes!! This hard-working player on the court (and honor roll student off of it) took home the team championship trophy this weekend, for his noticeable efforts in the championship game. Congrats, Taj!! You deserve it!!!

Next stop for the CAVS divisions….it is back to Las Vegas, baby – April 21^st-24^th for the Starvision Easter Tournament. 

This weekend’s West Coast Warriors Tourney victory was a bit of redemption, but the real deal has to be made up only in Vegas. 

GAME ON, BABY!!!

******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.

CAVS 12U Weekend In Vegas THE REPORT: VEGAS ELITE INVITATIONAL

Okay. NOT gonna lie to you, folks. This past weekend should have been great. 

It should have contained a special (and usual) blog post below stating CAVS 12U and 10U won the Vegas Elite Invitational Tourney championship…but OMG, we can’t post that. Not sure exactly how 10U did at the moment, but we FOR SURE know that it was a “NOT-GOOD-AT-ALL” weekend for CAVS 12U. 

Coaches who had hair have probably since pulled it all out. It was as if our boys were stuck in a snow globe and someone was shaking it about against their will, while they were still attempting to play ball. After two consecutive championship wins since the travel season started (and several championship wins before that) CAVS 12U suffered an indifferent, weird slump in Vegas this past weekend, which included every mistake that could have possibly been made, two suddenly-sick players, unanimously-odd ref calls, two technical fouls, topped off by a CAVS coach ejection from the gym (which we never, ever get!!) and an extreme lack of overall team energy. 

CAVS 12U won only one game during the entire weekend, losing the remaining two, boosting them right out of the spot for championship.

Oh well. Come on. Even NBA teams suffer bad games and windfalls. 12-year old growing boys are no different. The good news is…the talent has not disappeared. The boys will once again be on their game and fight their way back to their top slots. Preparation has already been set in motion. So….as we’ve said before….GAME ON, BABY!! We are gonna keep it movin’.  Next stop…is the West Coast Warriors April Fool's Classic Tourney this coming weekend; then it’s back to Las Vegas for the Starvision Easter Tourney. 

****BTW….CAVS 12U will return to Las Vegas FULL THROTTLE.

  

Yep. That's right. 

We will also still be posting photos from the Vegas Elite weekend on our Facebook site soon. We will let you know when they have been posted. Hey…we had fun, if nothing else. The CAVS Boys are winners. All winners lose sometimes in order to come back strong....to win.

It's all in the game, baby.

Keep it LOCKED…..