By John Harden/sports editor
To the NW, SE and South Campus champion basketball teams, good job on making it to the district finals this Saturday.
But don’t expect to win. The NE Assassins will claim the district title without a doubt.
Each campus completed its respective basketball league tournament last week. The champion from each tournament will represent its respective campus Saturday in the all-district championship held on South Campus.
To win the tournament, a team must go 3-0. If a tie occurs between two teams, the team with the most points in the tournament wins.
But a tiebreaker won’t be needed to declare the winner for the district title. NE will not lose a game. Anyone who has attended an Assassins basketball game understands why they’ll win.
Four NE players to watch on Saturday are Dustin Myers, Bradley Williams, Jay Pena and Mitch Zaelit.
In the NE Campus tournament, all four players helped to lead their team to an impressive 6-1 record.
The Assassins also possess a talented bench in addition to the four mentioned players, something the other three campuses lack.
Also the Assassins have the ability to substitute tired players for more well-rested players, which is a huge benefit in the tournament.
Another weapon the Assassins have that other teams don’t is a coach. NE student Dolyn Mayo successfully coached the Assassins to a campus title and plans on another successful run.
“I think the other campus teams have good talent,” he said. “But I believe we have better teamwork and chemistry between the players.”
One of the Assassins’ district challengers, the South Campus championship team, Black, will have home-court advantage, but that only means that it won’t have far to travel back home when it loses.
Black has the talent to match the Assassins on offense, but it lacks defense. And without defense, it will be impossible to win.
Black narrowly escaped defeat in the South Campus finals. Now it has to prove that it has the right to play in the district final.
David Lyons helped lead Black to the finals. However, in the final game, he only scored eight points in his team’s narrow victory.
If Black will have any chance to win, Lyons must play his A-game the entire 40 minutes. Kevin Ingram and Robert Lewis also have to step up for Black and help control the tempo of the game.
In the South Campus finals, Lewis and Ingram came to life only in the final three minutes of the game, something they cannot afford to do against NE.
Also, Black doesn’t show as much team chemistry on the court. They fail to move the ball around and usually settle for three-pointers instead of working in the post.
Instead of playing as a team, Black is composed of individuals unwilling to pass the ball even when they don’t have an open look at the basket. Black needs to stop playing selfish basketball and attempt to work as a team and then maybe they’ll put up a fight.
The NW team, We Got Game, about a week ago, held team tryouts attempting to compose an “all-star team.”
It’s true that the addition of players could make We Got Game a little more of a threat, but it’s doubtful that they can create team chemistry before Saturday.
Lead scorer Terry Dotson was quoted as saying that even though his team has new players and limited practice time, he still feels confident they’ll win. His feelings may be a bit misguided.
NE already has an all-star squad, and it has played together since the beginning of March.
We Got Game will win two games. But with a lack of team chemistry, NW won’t beat the Assassins.
The SE championship team, the Bandits, is a lively bunch of players, but they won’t be much of a factor in this tournament. The Bandits will participate only to present the other three campuses with a win.
It’s clear the Assassins will take the trophy, but it shouldn’t take the other teams lightly. If it plays like it has all semester, with impressive team chemistry, it’ll end the season with a district win.
The tournament runs 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on South Campus.
Tournament predictions: NE Assassins 3-0, NW We Got Game 2-1, South Black 1-2, SE Bandits 0-3.
