The first night of the 2015 Omaha Metro Summer League started on Thursday at the Omaha Sports Academy. There were a lot of fans in attendance and a lot of action on the courts, including a great battle between Marcus Foster and Mo Watson, two new teams added to the league at the last minute, an overtime game between NE HS Hoops and the Crusaders, and an amazing dunk by James Milliken to end the evening.
With the action fast and furious, there are surely things that were lost during the evening, but here are the highlights of the games from Thursday night.
EQ School of Hair 105, Judd Knispel-State Farm 98
This game lived up to its billing of game of the night as far as excitement goes. All eyes were on Marcus Foster, the Kansas State transfer to Creighton, for many that have never seen him play before in person. Right away off the tip, Foster nailed a three-pointer from the corner and off the races both teams went for the evening. As the game was being observed amongst the others going on, every time I looked over there was another three-pointer made by Foster. Then his athletic game was shown even more with a few mouth dropping dunks in a run that put the Judd Knispel team up 54-45 at the half.
As the second half heated up, Foster was hitting more three pointers and a stretch that included three in a row. It was to the point that there was a buzz going around as to how many points he had and one scorekeeper had him at 51 points. Then over the next two possessions, Foster scored two more baskets and by some reports he was now at 55 points. What got missed during all of this was that the game was down to a few minutes left and somehow EQ School of Hair Design was up 99-98.
Well, in-between all the oohing and ahhing of Fosters game, quietly, Mo Watson was taking over the game for EQ hitting shot after shot of his own and when he wasn’t hitting shots, he had the amazing ability to get the ball to an open teammate whether it was fellow Creighton teammate Geoffrey Groselle, UNO’s Randy Reed, or North Platte CC’s James Dumas. Once EQ got the lead, Foster cooled down and the similar hot shooting of Cole Huff, Matt Dorwart and North Platte CC’s Trey Moore cooled as well. In the meantime, EQ hit the shots needed and sealed the game with the 105-98 victory.
Bank of Nebraska 117, OFWF 101
This game was a high scoring affair and was almost over before it began. Despite the new look to the Bank of Nebraska team this summer, they looked like they did not miss a beat. While they didn’t have Justin Carter and James Parrott anymore, they did add in Creighton’s James Milliken and Toby Hegner. They played spectacular and put this game away early.
BofN jumped out to a 20 point lead with 12 minutes left in the first half and went into halftime with a 58-51 lead. Toby Hegner threw down a couple of dunks with authority that Bluejay fans didn’t get to enjoy last year and Klaye Rowe, Mitch Albers, Cody Levinson and Ben Holling were sharing the ball like a veteran team.
Justin Patton, Marlon Stewart and Tre’shawn Thurman tried to mount a comeback in the second half after BofN extended their lead back to over 20 points by cutting the lead to 12 with about 5 minutes left in the game. However, the precise ball movement resulting in baskets helped Bank of Nebraska keep their lead and seal it down the stretch. The game was basically over when on a breakaway, James Milliken was able to flip the ball behind his back off the backboard and get to the other side to catch it in mid air and dunk it. Many were in awe at the hops Milliken was able to display. Hegner layed out on the court in disbelief after the dunk and Milliken basically did a mic drop by heading to the sideline and taking his shoes off for the night. BofN walked away with the 117-101 victory.
NE HS Hoops 69, Crusaders 66 OT
While the excitement was going on at courts 1 and 2 for most of the night, probably the more exciting games coming down to last second shots were held over on courts 3 and 4. The first one to mention was the Nebraska HS Hoops team getting the come from behind victory over the Crusaders from UNK. NE HS Hoops was down 39-26 at the half, but came out strong in the second battling back and getting with in two at 64-62 with only 33 seconds left. Creighton incoming freshman Khyri Thomas was fouled and calmly sank two free throws to tied it at 64. Both teams had opportunities to win the game at regulation but a couple of untimely turnovers led to the clock running out and sending the game into overtime.
NE HS Hoops jumped out in the overtime period and got themselves a lead at 69-66 with 8 seconds left giving the Crusaders one more chance. However, a last second three-point attempt at the buzzer was blocked and NE HS Hoops walked away with victory.
BD 77, Winning Mentality 76
In another exciting game that came down to the wire, Winning Mentality led almost the whole game and got themselves up 37-33 at the half. However, BD, led by Jelani Johnson, battled back and forth in the second half and got within 73-71 with 1:27 left in the game. It eventually got to 76-75 with seconds remaining and Winning Mentality had an opportunity to extend their lead to three. However, a miss on the front end of a one-and-one allowed BD to get one more chance. Johnson ran the clock down and drove to the basket making an off balanced layup with :02 remaining and BD was able to escape with victory.
Paragas Law 93, Narmi Group @ Baird 78
This game featured Ronnie Harrell and Zach Hanson for Paragas while the Narmi Group had several Bellevue University veterans leading the way. Paragas jumped out to at 47-43 lead at the half, but then in the second they started pulling away with several great plays by Hanson and Harrell. You could see how Harrell was a lot bigger compared to last summer and many are excited to see how he comes out of his redshirt year. It was a good win for them. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of that game.
Andy’s Lawncare 90, Rooferees 81
The defending MBL champs got going early and didn’t let up in the win over the Rooferees. Dylan Travis was hot from behind the arc most of the game in this back and forth affair, but the Rooferees went in at halftime up 35-34. James Parrott and Justin Carter didn’t look like their dominant selves, but it still made for an interesting game. Many eyes watching this one were seeing Creighton’s Martin Krampelj for the first time. He had a nice first half including a dunk and some good play. He wasn’t on the court as much in the second half.
UNO Alumni 87, Shanks Law Firm 66
The UNO Alumni were hot from the beginning and jumped out to a 44-31 halftime lead and pulled away in the second half against the GPAC graduates from Hastings College and Morningside to get the victory.
Capehart Sales 74, ABIDE Network 64
This was the first of a couple schedule changes on Thursday night as two more teams were added to the MBL at the last minute. The Midlands University Capehart Sales took on the ABIDE Network that had a lot of different players including Creighton’s Antoine Young. This game was played before the rest of them on Thursday night.
Apex Foster Care 67, Tostensen 61
Tostensen was the other new team to join the league. Apex was up 36-27 at the half and kept ahead the rest of the game to get a 67-61 victory.