Another large crowd was at the Omaha Sports Academy on Thursday night to see best basketball players from the area compete in the second week of the Metro Summer Basketball League. While some of the games weren’t as close as the first week, there are some teams where the talent is starting to show.
The first overtime game of the summer happened, while another team that might have been considered an MBL underdog showed some dominance usually reserved for a more veteran team. Some old faces like Devin Brooks and Kenny Lawson made their way to OSA and the dunks were extremely high in number.
That all said, here is the recap from Thursday night.
OFWF 89, Rooferees 88
The Rooferees were involved in another last possession game, but this time it didn’t go their way in a game that lived up to our Game of the Night designation. However, the game wasn’t close early. OFWF raced out to an early lead and had a 58-44 halftime lead looking to run away with it. Jason Isaacson and the Rooferees battled back with a spark to end the first half and led into the second. They went on a 26-11 run to start the second half with a lot of hustle plays from Dylan Travis, Derek Fletcher and Andre Smith to take the lead briefly at 70-69.
The game went back and forth the final 10 minutes of the game, but it seemed like OFWF had things wrapped up toward the end, but there were a lot of dramatics in the final minute. Toby Hegner hit two free throws to put OFWF up 88-82 with :57 remaining. The Rooferees came back quickly to hit a three-pointer to make it 88-85 with :51 remaining. Connor Moran hit 1 of 2 free throws to put OFWF 89-85 with 16 seconds left. Travis then came back and swished a three-pointer with 9 seconds remaining. However, OFWF had some problems getting the ball in bounds and the ball actually went off the OSA ceiling with 4 seconds remaining setting up a final opportunity for the Rooferees. The ball came to Travis once again and he launched from behind the arc as the clock expired but came up just short. OFWF escaped with the victory.
Guarantee I’m hittin the next one tho! #MambaMentality 😈 https://t.co/naiMCuGDZ4
— Dylan Travis (@dtrav_dat) June 24, 2016
NEBHSSPORTS.COM 110, Regulators 69
For a team that came into summer league as a potential underdog, NEBHSSPORTS.COM is now sitting pretty as one of the favorites after a 110-69 thrashing of the former Bellevue University squad the Regulators. NEBHSSPORTS.COM was running on all cylinders to start the game and it was ugly early.
Behind Khyri Thomas, Justin Patton, and KJ Scott, NEBHSSPORTS.COM raced out to a 34-8 lead ten minutes into the game and went into half with a 62-22 lead. Thomas had 20 points by halftime. The second half was a playground of dunks and fun hoops. The Regulators came out with a 13-2 run to start the half, but that was all they could muster as shot after shot went down for NEBHSSPORTS. They had five players in double figures led by Thomas’ 33 points and KJ Scott chipping in 24 points on 10-16 (4-8 from 3) shooting.
.@JustinPatton17 12 pts, 6-11 FG, 11 reb, 2 blk, 2 ast, 3 stl. @mitchellhahn 15 pts, 12 reb. @BEN_kosit52 10 pts, 4 reb.
— Jacob Padilla (@JacobPadilla_) June 24, 2016
Narmi Group @ Baird 81, Lopers 71
The Narmi Group, full of current and former Creighton players got their first victory of the summer with an 81-71 win over the Lopers (UNK). Narmi was hot early racing out to a 46-37 lead at the half behind Tyler Clement and his sharpshooting. The current Creighton walk-on went a stretch during the half where he hit five straight 3-pointers.
The second half had Narmi maintaining the lead the rest of the way having an answer for every run the Lopers would try to put together. Clement finished with 23 points hitting 7 three-pointers while Ronnie Harrell had a great night himself with 25 points and hitting six shots from behind the arc. Narmi will face off against Winning Mentality next week.
Going Vertical 63, Air Force 56
Going Vertical bounced back from last week’s opening loss in a low scoring affair against the Air Force team out of Offutt Air Force Base. Former Bluejay Kenny Lawson joined former teammate Justin Carter and UNO’s Tra-Deon Hollins and Tre’Shawn Thurman, along with the other veterans Klaye Rowe, Ben Holling, and Cody Levinson to get the win. There were several connections between Hollins and Thurman that provided some excitement. In a tight first half, Going Vertical went on a 7-0 run to end the half with a 36-28 lead.
The second half, Air Force came back and kept things close, but the veteran Going Vertical team never gave up the lead and knew when to take timeouts to stop runs and eventually came out winners 63-56.
Bank of Nebraska 98, EQ School of Hair Design 93
Bank of Nebraska came out fast and furious in the first half looking to run away with the game up 57-40 over Mo Watson’s EQ School of Hair team. However, EQ came back in the second half to make it a game and provide some excitement at the end. EQ went up 88-87 with 4:42 left in the game after a corner three. After a couple baskets back and forth, Will Artino, playing with EQ for the night, tipped in a shot to give EQ the lead 93-92 with 51 seconds left.
Former Bluejay Devin Brooks played tough down the stretch to help Bank of Nebraska pull out the win. Brooks was fouled soon after and hit both free throws to get the lead back a 94-93 and hit two more to put them up 96-93 with 28 seconds left. EQ tried to tie the game, but just missed and Bank of Nebraska was able to take things in for a layup for the final margin of victory 98-93.
UNO Alumni 86, APEX Foster Care 80, OT
UNO Alumni played with fire on Thursday night to get an 86-80 overtime victory. Apex Foster Care (Peru St.) came out strong earlyl with a 41-30 lead at the half. UNO Alumni came out on fire int he second however to go up by double digits and were in the process of throwing down some showtime dunks including one off the backboard. It seemed like they were about to run away with it.
However, UNO Alumni had some questionable play down the stretch that allowed the game to go into overtime. Apex Foster Care started showing off their own dunking and fast break ability to cut the lead to 77-74 with a minute to go. UNO Alumni missed 4-of-5 free throws in the final minute. Apex was able to cut the lead to 78-76 with 30 seconds to go and then sent the game into overtime on a final possession.
Early in overtime there appeared to be a technical called against Apex and that sort of deflated them from there as UNO Alumni scored the first 8 points during the two minute overtime and Apex was only able to score at the end to get the final 86-80 score.
Winning Mentality 95, Judd Knispel Insurance 88
Winning Mentality got back on the winning mentality track (yes I will use that pun all summer) to get the victory over the Marcus Foster & Kaleb Joseph led Judd Knispel Insurance 95-88. The Winning Mentality team was fired up from the beginning and didn’t let up getting to a 51-42 lead at he half.
Judd Knispel tried to mount a comeback, but Winning Mentality always had an answer. Foster didn’t have his greatest night on the floor, but still came away with 20 points on 8-of-19 shooting. However he was only 3-of-12 from the 3-point line. Joseph finished with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
BD 84, Shanks Law Firm 66
BD’s veteran leadership was the difference in the victory over Shanks Law Firm (Nebraska Wesleyan graduates) It was a close first half with BD taking a 35-32 lead into halftime. However, BD’s athleticism behind James Parrott and Galen Gullie was too much for Shanks to rebound from and BD had a 49 point second half to run away with the victory and sit at 2-0.
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For more on the action of the evening check out the Metro Basketball League’s Twitter feed.