The basketballs were bouncing again at the Omaha Sports Academy again on Thursday night for another evening of Summer League. As usual during the second week session, not all players were in attendance for all teams and there are also some new faces that show up to play as well.
Former Bluejays Ricky Kreklow and Will Artino joined fellow recent graduate Austin Chatman in a game, while former Husker Ryan Anderson returned to Summer League to help Tostensen to a close victory over the Crusaders. Add in a good game that had to be called early due to a broken rim and a few games that were decided earl, and it created a typical second week in summer league.
Here’s your chance to catch up on what went on.
Judd Knispel Agency 103, OFWF 89
This game was your feature game of the night and the one with plenty of highs and lows. Both teams were pretty even for the first half going back and forth. Marcus Foster for Judd and Justin Patton for OFWF arrived late, but both contributed right away. By halftime, OFWF was ahead 53-51.
Although Foster was late, he jumped in right away and sparked the Judd’s in the second half to get them up to a 10 point lead which they never relinquished. Foster finished with 33 points with an array of three-pointers and dunks, while Cole Huff scored 25 of his own. On the other side, incoming freshmen Marlon Stewart finished with 17 points and Justin Patton showed his range burying an NBA three with ease.
Judd Knispel bounced back from last week to even themselves at 1-1 while OFWF fell to 0-2.
NE HS Hoops 69, Capehart Sales, 68
This game was the early one thise week and created some dramatics down the stretch. After getting a lead 39-35 at halftime, Capehart (Midland University) looked like they were going to run away with this one jumping out to a 17 point lead with 11 minutes left in the game. However, NE HS Hoops rallied back behind some great play with Iowa Western’s Thik Bol and Maryland-Eastern Shore’s KJ Scott.
NE HS Hoops pulled within 9 points with 3:41 left in the game and then cut Capehart’s lead down to 65-61 with 1:21 left. Capehart then proceeded to miss 3 straight 1-and-1’s in that final 1:21 and Bol had a couple massive dunks to cut the lead to 68-67 with 16 seconds left. After the third missed one-and-one, NE HS Hoops drove the court and Scott made an off balanced layup to complete the comeback and give them the 69-68 victory as Capehart could not get a shot off in time at the buzzer. Creighton’s Khyri Thomas finished with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals for his contribution to the victory.
Rooferees 99, Paragas Law 78
This game could be considered your Creighton game of the night. Several former Bluejays took part in this one as Antoine Young and Ricky Kreklow joined Ronnie Harrell and Zach Hanson for Paragas, while Will Artino joined Austin Chatman and Tyler Clement for the Rooferees.
Early on, Zach Hanson was a beast inside getting several dunks and dominating the boards each time I glanced at that court. However, Paragas went into the half down 49-45. In the second half, the Rooferees turned it on with Artino, Chatman, and James Parrott pushing the tempo up and down the court and pulled away for the 99-78 victory.
Winning Mentality 74, UNO Alumni 69
This one was another example of a lead that went away and could be considered a bit of an upset. UNO Alumni was comfortably in the lead 37-29 at the half, but the second half belonged to Winning Mentality. WM fought back and took their first lead 62-61 with 6:30 left in the game. Things then went back and forth between the two teams and UNO Alumni cut the lead to 70-69 with 40 seconds remaining. However, they were not able to get the lead back and some clutch free throws by Winning Mentality got them the 74-69 win.
Bank of Nebraska 41, EQ School of Hair Design 35 (Called due to broken rim)
This game had the potential of the game of the night, but things started off a little rocky with Toby Hegner and James Milliken missing for Bank of Nebraska, and Geoffrey Groselle missing from EQ. However, that didn’t stop Mo Watson from trying to lead EQ to victory. Unfortunately, the night was not meant to be for both of these teams.
Bank of Nebraska went into halftime with a 41-35 lead, but just a minute or two into the second half, UNO’s Randy Reed went up for a dunk and in the process the rim on their basket snapped. Play was stopped at that point and with the other 3 games just starting the 2nd half themselves, it was decided to call the game. Bank of Nebraska was able to escape with a victory in this one.
Andy’s Lawncare 99, Narmi Group @ Baird 90
The defending champs continue to roll with their great ball movement, drives to the hoop and finding the open player in their 99-90 victory. They went into halftime with a 59-42 lead and just continued to spread the wealth on offense to hold on for victory. UNO’s Mitchell Hahn was impressive for the Narmi Group. At one point in the game, he had his own 11-0 run to keep Narmi in it.
APEX Foster Care 83, ABIDE Network 71
Apex (Peru State) jumped out early to a 22-9 lead and a 55-34 halftime lead, just dominating the ABIDE Network. Although ABIDE made a run in the second half and cut the lead to 10 at one point, APEX kept things going and won comfortably to move to 2-0 on the young season. ABIDE fell to 0-2.
BD 99, Shanks Law Firm 68
This game was over in the first few minutes of the game. BD jumped out fast and before you knew it, they had a 20 point lead and went into halftime with a 57-27 lead. The team of Morningside and Hastings College graduates (Shanks) just did not match up well with the physical BD team. The game was called with 2 minutes left in the game and BD gets the 99-68 win and moves to 2-0 for the summer.
Tostensen 61, Crusaders 59
Former Husker Ryan Anderson joined the Tostensen team. A close game throughout, Anderson scored at least half, if not more, of Tostensen’s points and free throw shooting helped them hang on for victory.
NOTE–The Summer League schedule has changed with the league now playing games next Thursday, July 2nd. All dates have shifted up due to this which now has the MBL tournament semifinals and championship being played on July 16th. Please see the schedule page to get the full schedule of play for the rest of the summer.