Basketballs were bouncing at the Omaha Sports Academy on Thursday night as the first games of the Metro Basketball Summer League kicked off play. Fans turned out as well with about 150 in the stands along the four courts.
In past years, most of the games the first night turn into blowouts, but only one game got out of hand as the other seven games were not more than an 11 point margin with four of the games having opportunities to win or tie at the buzzer. One game even went into double-overtime.
Taking in four games at once is a hard thing to do especially on the first night. Although we have had pretty good ideas of who was playing for who, it took a while to get acclimated again to the format and to make sure who was on what team. Once all was said and done, there were several entertaining games and we will do our best to recap what we saw Thursday night.
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Higgins Siding–81, Barley’s–78
This game was a close contest at halftime and could be considered the game of the night when it was over. Will Artino got done with class early tonight and raced out to the Omaha Sports Academy just to see if he could play some ball. He was added to Higgins at halftime and might have been the difference in the game. Artino made a splash early with a fast break one-handed posterized dunk over Rodney Buford getting the remaining crowd drawn to that game. Later he had another dunk that was in line with what you would see from Blake Griffin. Artino was almost the hero getting the last shot in regulation but was just off. The game went into double overtime and Barley’s missed a three pointer at the end and Higgins walked away winners.
Bellevue University–65, Shanks Law–62
If you wanted to see a couple of Creighton newcomers, this was the game to watch with freshmen Geoffrey Groselle and Nevin Johnson involved in this one. I watched most of this game just to see them in action. Tonight along with Artino in the above game, it was the night of the big guys. Groselle is built pretty nice for a guy just weeks past his high school graduation. His Shanks teammates kept getting the ball to him down low and he finished in most cases. Just from what saw tonight, he will definitely be able to backup Gregory Echenique next season. Bellevue University was down early but able to take the lead in the second half and didn’t give it away.
Zurlo’s Pizza–81, Leach Camper Sales–80
In what I considered at the beginning as the battle of the Creighton walk-ons looked like a runaway early. Zurlo’s took an early 37-17 lead into halftime before UNO players CJ Carter, Josh Lynch and Bill Freeman helped bring Leach Camper back into the game tying things up and going back and forth with under a minute to go. Leach Camper had a chance to win at the end of the game, but just missed. Ross Ferrarini, Bruce Chubick and Zurlo’s Pizza had to be saying thanks when Taylor Stormberg’s three-point try was just off at the buzzer.
Narmi Group–84, Bellevue Alumni–81
The Narmi Group was down most of the game until a surge in the final two minutes of the game. South Dakota senior KC Rodenburg got a steal with 17 seconds left that gave Narmi their first lead of the game at 82-81. Then Josh Jones got a steal and was fouled with 10 seconds left and hit both free throws to get to the final score.
Paragas Law–85, Chris Carder Agency–74
This game was a good battle with Kaleb Korver, Darryl Ashford, Wayne Runnels and Justin Carter on Paragas Law teamed up against summer league veterans Cody Levinson, Ben Holling and Jason Dourisseau and the Chris Carder Agency. Kaleb Korver put up his first shot in a game since April 1st in Oregon–it turned out to be an airball. But he shook it off and Paragas Law got an early lead that they never relinquished and they got a win. We could easily call Paragas Law the Creighton Alumni Team.
EQ School of Hair–96, Judd Knispel Agency–71
In what was considered the possible game of the night turned out to be a runaway by EQ School of Hair from the get go. With Doug McDermott on the sidelines watching, that severely limited the size of the Judd Knispel Agency. McDermott is preparing to go to Colorado Springs on Friday to try out for the Team USA U19 squad. Gregory Echenique was not there either for EQ School of hair.
We got our first look at Grant Gibbs and Avery Dingman tonight. Gibbs had some nice passes and Dingman had good shot selection. This one was over by halftime, but the second half was pretty even. Antoine Young and Donald Jones had a good second half for Knispel Agency and Creighton walk-on Alex Olsen got some nice rebounds.
Other Scores:
UNO Mavs–88, Thompson Basketball Camp–85
UNO Alumni–87, Walentine, O’Toole, McQuillan, & Gordon–76