Ronnie Harrell’s pieced together team almost pulled off the upset, but came up just short (Tom Nemitz/WBR)
The Metro Summer Basketball League fired up again on Thursday night for the second time this week. There were a lot of players absent from rosters, but there were also some competitive games and surprising results.
Anthony Tolliver played again on Thursday night along with former UNI star Ali Farokhmanesh which created a fun game for the Nick Bahe All-Stars. Incoming Creighton freshman Ronnie Harrell had to recruit players to play the game against Bank of Nebraska and almost pulled off an upset. A Creighton LEGEND returned to the court, while the last undefeated team in the league also went down.
Here is what happened on Thursday night:
Game of the Night:
Judd Knispel Agency 91, John Higgins Weatherguard 85
This actually turned out to be the game of the night featuring two pros, Anthony Tolliver and Ali Farokhmanesh, joining Nick Bahe, Matt Dorwart and Austin Chatman. It was exciting to see Tolliver on the court again showing his continued improvement since his Creighton days, but also to see Farokhmanesh on the court again for the first time since I saw his game clincher against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament a few years ago. Farokhmanesh did not disappoint by nailing some shots early, including a similar shot he hit against the Jayhawks. But the John Higgins Weatherguard team didn’t just lay down for this veteran team.
John Higgins Weatherguard actually took a three-point lead into halftime behind quite a first half performance by Geoff Groselle. The Creighton junior showed flashes of potential that many Jays have not seen with a 20 point, 12 rebound first half. A lot of thta damage was done against Tolliver. Groselle continued his performance in the second half which included a massive posterized dunk on Dorwart that he did not take lightly. Groselle finished with 29 points and 20 rebounds on the night.
Devin Brooks also showed what he could do by recording a near triple-double with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. The game went back an forth until the Judd Knispel team took a lead with under a minute to go and Austin Chatman sealed it with free throws as a part of his 26 points and 6 assists at the end for the 91-85 victory.
Others:
Zurlo’s 100, EQ School of Hair Design 83
The team to watch this summer to see some of Creighton’s future has been the Zurlo’s team. Mo Watson and Toby Hegner turned in great nights again and started things off early. While not watching this game as close as the others, the period I watched in the first half saw Hegner score 8 straight points in three different ways that included hitting a deep three, get an on the run layup, and making a fall-away jumper. While you can never compare him to Doug McDermott at this very early point in his career, there are definitely parts of his game that look a lot like him. Hegner had 18 points at halftime and finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds in the victory. Watson had 27 points of his own along with 5 assists and 4 rebounds.
On the other side, Zach Hanson and Leon Gilmore did their best to keep up with Zurlo’s. Hanson had 18 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks, while Gilmore started to look a little more comfortable out there with 13 points and 5 rebounds including an uncontested reverse one-handed slam. But the guy that impressed tonight for EQ School of Hair was UNO freshman Treshaun Thurman who was all over the court and had a few pretty dunks as well.
Bank of Nebraska 75, The Narmi Group @ Baird 69
Shortly before the start of this game, the Narmi Group was short a few players…well actually pretty much a whole roster of players, except for Ronnie Harrell. Harrell recruited a few other players including Benedictine freshman Cristian Hatterle and former Bellevue University player Derek Bryant who already played games earlier in the evening to try and field a team.
Early on, it looked like it wasn’t even going to be a contest as Bank of Nebraska, without Wes Wilkinson, jumped to a 20 point lead early and went into halftime with a 45-31 lead. However, that wasn’t in the cards for the Narmi Group to go down without a fight. The second half had Narmi continually cutting into the lead and with just over 10 minutes to go in the second half, Narmi took their first lead 54-53 and it was a battle to the end.
They went back and forth until a Cody Levinson three-pointer tied things at 62 with 5:22 to go. Narmi Group went back up 4 points before it was tied again at 66 with 3:22 to go. That was as close as Narmi would get to pulling out the upset.
Bank of Nebraska went up four after a massive James Parrott dunk and the lead went to six before Harrell hit a three-pointer with 1:06 to go to cut the lead to 72-69. However, the shots quit going in from there and Narmi falls for the second time in a row after losing on Monday night in a double-overtime sudden death game.
Paragas Law 88, Shanks Law Firm 63
Creighton “Legend” Josh Jones returned to the court on Thursday night to play with the Paragas Law team. While he did not start the game, he came in early in the first half and hit his first shot from downtown right away and went on to score 11 points in the first half. But it was the distributed scoring of UNO’s Marcus Tyus and Bellevue University graduates Bion Flint and Kyle Prochaska that added to the mix to get a 52-31 lead at the half.
The second half went about the same and despite the efforts of James Milliken to get them back into the game, it wasn’t enough for Shanks to get their first win of the summer.
Andy’s Lawncare 103, Big O Boys 53
This game was over before it began. Andy’s Lawncare only had five players for most of the game, while the Big O Boys had enough players to field two different teams on the court. The number of players doesn’t always mean the best team. The Andy’s five broke out early jumping to a 20 point lead in the first 9 minutes of the game. By halftime the lead had gone up to 31. John Turek and Andre Smith looked unstoppable. At the 13 minute mark in the second half, the sixth Andy’s player, Scot Abels, arrived, but by then the game was already out of hand without him and even a technical was called on the Big O Boys. The lead ballooned to 41 with 9 minutes to go and Andy’s Lawncare cruised to the 50 point victory and their second 100+ point scoring output in a row.
Bruins 91, Northeast 56
After starting the summer session 2-0, Northeast CC has been on a slide not having the same energy displayed the first two weeks. The Bruins jumped out to a 12 point lead at the half and came out the second half on fire to double that lead to 24 with 8 minutes to go before cruising to the 91-56 victory. Both teams are now 2-3 in pool play.
Cape Truck Acc. 64, Winning Mentality 60, OT
This game was tight throughout with Cape Truck Acc. taking a two point lead into halftime and then turning into a back and forth battle throughout the second half with several ties and lead changes. Eventually that led to overtime tied at 58. In the overtime period, Galen Gullie for Cape Truck Acc (Midland University) came up huge with a three pointer to give them a 62-60 lead with 5 seconds to go and then hit two free throws at the end to seal the win.
BD 78, Mustangs 71
The last undefeated team in the Metro Summer League went down. BD jumped out to an early lead to start the game and went into halftime up 7 points. The Mustangs from Morningside could not cut into that lead throughout the second half and BD picks up their second win of the summer.
UNO Alumni 68, Lopers 67
UNO led throughout this game and had a comfortable 10 point lead throughout until the final minutes. The Lopers made a late rally in the final minutes to hold UNO Alumni scoreless, but just ran out of time and the veteran Mavericks escape with the victory.
Apex Foster Care 75, ABIDE 47
ABIDE continues to look overmatched in the league with Apex Foster Care’s (Peru State) dismantling in this one to fall to 0-5. Although it was close early with a 32-23 halftime score, Apex turned on the jets in the second half to run away with the 28 point victory.