CBC Goes for Two in a Row

New England Recruiting Report | Sunday, April 18th, 2010

CBC won their second tournament title in as many weekends on Sunday, defeating Connecticut Select 94-54 in the finals of BasketBull’s New England Championships.  CBC opened their grassroots season last weekend by claiming victory at the Northeast Hoops Festival. 

Everyone got involved in the final as Andre Drummond, Tavon Allen, Brandon Sherrod, and Phil Gaetano all played well.  But their biggest test of the weekend came in the semi-finals against Connecticut Elite where they barely hung on for a hard fought victory against a Connecticut Elite team that was led by Jason Perrier, Braxton Gardner, Russell Payton, Mark Ellis, and Oscar Assie. 

Greg Langston provided a spark for CBC in the semi’s as he went to work on the offensive glass and created plenty of match-up problems for his former teammates.  Vince Van Nes stood out in a quarterfinal win over the Connecticut Hoopstars. 

Despite the lopsided final, Connecticut Select also had a very successful weekend.  Their semi-final win over the Connecticut Knights was undoubtedly the day’s most dramatic game, being decided in a triple overtime thriller.  After playing to a draw through two overtimes, the third extra period was ruled a sudden death.  When the Knights took the jump ball it looked like Select was in trouble, but they got a stop and earned a chance to win in.  Their first attempt came off the rim but Deshawn Murphy tracked down the offensive rebound and quickly kicked it out to Rohan Brown in the short corner.  Brown took a quick dribble to his right and fired up a slightly off balance 12 footer that dropped through the net to send Select to the finals.  While Brown was the hero it was Murphy who stood out for the majority of the 37 minutes of play as the swingman drained six three-pointers and made several other athletic drives to the rim.  Jerome Harris also made some big plays in the semi’s drilling a couple of quick released threes and showing his trademark bounce inside the paint. 

The semi-final loss ended a terrific run by the Connecticut Knights, who scored a major upset late Saturday night by knocking off Xpressions Elite behind a dynamic performance from Tylon Smith.  The Kingswood-Oxford guard stepped up again on Sunday morning to score 29 points and lead the Knights past the Huntington Park Players in the quarterfinals. 

Sunday also saw winners crowned in the younger age brackets at the BasketBull New England Championships as Kuran Iverson scored 26 points in the final to lead ANU Generation to the u16 title while Connecticut Select took home the u15 crown behind 18 points from Cane Broome.