The Metro Summer League tournament started fast and furious on Monday night at the Omaha Sports Academy. At the end of the night we were left with four teams, most very familiar with being in this position. The Semifinals are set for Thursday night’s end of the summer tournament with the finals coming right after.
Three of the top four seeds made it to the final four. The teams that have dominated the summer ended up where they were expected. BD, Andy’s Lawncare and APEX Foster Care made it to Thursday’s games, while NE HS Hoops was upset by UNO Alumni in the quarterfinals.
From a Creighton point of view, as in past seasons, there are no teams left with Bluejays on them to battle for an MBL title. The last time that happened was right before P’Allen Stinnett’s junior season and his team fell in the finals.
Here’s the recap of the games on Monday night and to get the information for Thursday night’s semifinals and final, see the MBL mini-site. Thanks to Jacob Padilla from Nebraska High School Hoops for some of the night’s statistics.
Quarterfinal results
Andy’s Lawncare 112, Rooferees 87
Andy’s rolled in this one and was one of the more lopsided victories in the Quarterfinal round. Scot Abels, John Turek, Andre Smith, Derek Fletcher, Brett Daugherty and league director Jason Isaacson looked very comfortable out there sharing the ball and finding the best shot in their dismantling of the Rooferees. They went into the half with 54-40 lead and just extended it throughout the second half. In their two MBL Tournament games on Monday night, Andy’s Lawncare beat their opponent by an average of 34 points. If they do not end up winning the league for the second consecutive summer, I would be surprised.
APEX Foster Care 87, Bank of Nebraska 72
APEX Foster Care (Peru St.) has been the surprise of the summer going 5-1 during pool play and getting some big wins against good competition. They notched the second of two wins on Monday night against the always tough Bank of Nebraska team. Creighton’s Toby Hegner took advantage of his outside the arc comfort level early as the APEX big man had a tough time guarding Hegner from the outside. Hegner had 12 of the first 24 points for Bank of Nebraska nailing everything from behind the arc.
However, APEX bounced back and got things under control taking a 43-40 lead at the half. As the game continued in the second half, it was a bit shrouded in controversy when two technicals were called against Bank of Nebraska along with a foul called just before that with just under three minutes remaining. An 8 point game became a 14 point game and BofN was never able to recover basically conceding the game after that turn of events. Unfortunately that also ended the last chance of the summer for a team with current Creighton players the chance to get to the MBL finals.
UNO Alumni 100, NE HS Hoops 95
NE HS Hoops probably wished they kept some of their hot shooting success from the earlier game for this quarterfinal game against UNO Alumni. NE HS Hoops had a lot of success from the outside in their first game of the night, but started off really cold allowing the synergized UNO Alumni team to get a huge lead early and kept NE HS Hoops battling back throughout the game. UNO Alumni was up 36-20 early and went into the half with 65-38 lead seemingly putting the game away early.
However, quit is not in the NE HS Hoops vocabulary. With UNO Alumni giving up double digit leads all summer, Khyri Thomas and the rest of the NE HS Hoops team did what they could to cut the lead, at one time as much as 32, down to 10 points with 5 minutes remaining int he game. However, UNO Alumni learned from their mistakes earlier this summer and didn’t break this time. KJ Scott scored 34 points and Thomas had 26, but it wasn’t enough. They fought all the way to the end including hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer for the final 5 point margin.
BD 73, Tostensen 66
Tostensen was looking to provide one of the bigger upsets of the tournament, but came up just short. BD started off a little faster than their other game earlier in the night and went into the half with a 32-26 lead. Tostensen didn’t roll over and actually took their first lead at 57-55 with 8:40 remaining. However, BD scored right away and extended their lead. For the rest of the half both teams answered each other and Tostensen could not get the stops needed down the stretch. BD, with Jelani Johnson, Brandon Williams, Galen Gullie and Kuong Dolaney leading the way heads into Thursday’s semifinals.
Second Round Results
BD 99, Narmi Group @ Baird 77
Narmi Group was on their second game of the evening already when BD laced them up for the first time Monday night to face them. The Narmi Group actually got out to a 9-0 lead before BD got on the board. BD bounced back and actually went into the half with a 46-40 lead. Malik Albert and the rest of the Narmi Group was shorthanded with no bench players and eventually that wore them out with the deep BD bench as the #1 seed moved on to the Quarterfinals.
Tostensen 69, Winning Mentality 58
This game was very physical from the beginning and both teams wanted the opportunity to advance. Tostensen, however, led the whole game including being up 31-27 at the half.
UNO Alumni 72, Judd Knispel Agency 61
It is tournament time and that is when some teams that have played together for a long time know exactly what to do. That is what UNO Alumni looked like in their first game of the night against a shorthanded Judd Knispel Agency. There was no Cole Huff and no benefit of friends like Anthony Tolliver to show up for Nick Bahe’s All-Stars to help out on Monday night. UNO Alumni was clicking on all cylinders and had a 33-31 halftime lead. In the second half, UNO Alumni pushed their lead out a little bit, but the game was back and forth. In the end, the closest Judd Knispel could get was 68-61 with :46 left and UNO Alumni sealed the game by making their free-throws.
NE HS Hoops 103, EQ School of Hair 85
NE HS Hoops were not thrilled that although they were one of three undefeated teams this summer that they ended up the third seed out of those top three teams. It is likely they used that for motivation when playing Mo Watson’s EQ School of Hair team. Although things were close early, it was the outside shooting that basically put the game away in the first half. Both Creighton incoming freshmen on the team, Khyri Thomas and Drew Cayce, put on a shooting clinic of sorts combining for 12 of 18 three-pointers made by NE HS Hoops in the first half to take a 66-43 lead into the break. Thomas had five three-pointers, but it was Cayce’s seven three’s that were made almost in succession that had everyone watching amazed. Although the hot shooting cooled off in the second half, NE HS Hoops had too many weapons that EQ did not have.
Thomas finished with 28 points, Cayce had 23 points and Maryland Eastern Shore’s KJ Scott had 24 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in the victory. Mo Watson had 35 points and 6 assists in his last game of the summer.
Bank of Nebraska 86, Shanks Law Firm 83
Bank of Nebraska featured the return of James Milliken since having meniscus surgery earlier this summer. His fast recovery was evident in his play against Shanks Law Firm. Shanks had won two games in a row coming into the tournament and they had a lot of momentum to give BofN everything they could handle. Bank of Nebraska went into hal with a 41-36 lead. In the second half when BofN looked like they would start to pull away, Shanks made a run to tie things up at 61 with about seven minutes to go. Milliken then hit a three to break the tie and then went on to hit several shots in succession behind the arc and driving to the basket for the next few minutes to stay ahead of Shanks. Up 82-79 with :16 remaining, Milliken and Klaye Rowe sealed the victory with great free throw shooting and Shanks hit a three-pointer at the buzzer for the final 86-83.
APEX Foster Care 69, Paragas Law 60
APEX Foster Care jumped out to a lead early and went into half with a 33-25 lead. Although Paragas bounced back with some high aggression from Ronnie Harrell, Zach Hanson and Terrence “Bud” Crawford, they were not able to get enough stops to break into that lead sending the surprise team of the summer to the quarterfinals.
Rooferees 92, Crusaders 74
There were not many Rooferee regulars available on Monday night. With Justin Carter off to the Phoenix Suns Summer League team and KC Rodenburg and Austin Chatman not available, the Rooferees relied on James Parrott, Tyler Clement and Martin Krampelj to get them through the games of the night and they did for the most part. The Rooferees took the lead into half due to a technical in the final seconds of the first half. Clement nailed the free throw and the Rooferees went into half up 37-36. In the second half, the Rooferees started to pull away behind the multitude of ways Parrott could score. His 35 points helped the Rooferees to the 18 point victory.
Andy’s Lawncare 123, OFWF 80
OFWF got their first win earlier in the evening, but it was shortlived as the defending MBL Champs just destroyed them out of the gates. OFWF was playing their second consecutive game and it showed. Andy’s got out to a huge 51-10 lead midway through the first half and went into halftime with a 64-33 lead. The ball movement by Andy’s was just amazing. Hastings College graduate Derek Fletcher was deadly from behind the arc in this one.
Opening Round
Narmi Group @ Baird 91, Capehart Sales 88
Creighton’s Malik Albert was fouled on a three-point shot with :01 remaining in a tied game with Narmi and Capehart Sales (Midlands University) Albert made all three shots and Capehart could not get a shot at the end. Albert led the shorthanded Narmi team to victory with 25 points.
OFWF 126, ABIDE Network 93
OFWF got their first win of the summer in an opening round game against the ABIDE Network. Creighton’s Marlon Stewart showed his range with 38 points including 8 three-pointers along with Wayne State College teammate Matt Thomas also getting 38 points in the victory.