Two teams stocked with pros, a full college roster and a squad featuring current and former Bluejays make up the final four teams in the Metro Summer Basketball League, taking place Thursday evening at the Omaha Sports Academy.
The two semifinal games will start at 6:30 with the winners playing in the championship game at 7:30 over on Court 4. Here is a preview of the semifinals to get you familiar with the teams you will be seeing.
6:30 p.m. (Court 4), #1 McGinn Law (6-0) vs. #12 ABIDE Ministries (3-4)
Bluejays to watch: Nick Bahe, Darryl Ashford, Taylor Stormberg
If you are still cheering for Creighton players, you will want to be cheering for ABIDE Ministries to garner a couple of upsets, with their first challenge being McGinn Law. These teams met on July 15th with McGinn coming out on top 83-74. Current and former Jays had big nights, as Nick Bahe and current Bluejay Taylor Stormberg combined for 7 three pointers in that contest, but the combination of Ryan Anderson and Ben Holling was too much to overcome. Adding to the spice, former Huskers Wes Wilkinson (McGinn) and John Turek (ABIDE) will again line up on opposite sides. If you saw the first matchup in July, you know that the trash talk should be in full force for this one, and won’t be surprised if this one gets really heated.
6:30 p.m. (Court 1), #2 Barleys (6-0) vs #3 Bellevue University (6-1)
These two teams did not meet during pool play, but were both so dominant that its fitting they would meet in the playoffs. Bellevue University’s only blemish was against the Narmi Group on July 1st, but they got their revenge against Kenny Lawson and the Creighton-heavy Narmi Group by eliminating them in the quarterfinals last week. Former Huskers Charles Richardson and Bruce Chubick lead Barleys, along with former UNO star Tyler Albers and Hastings College graduate Chad Spady. Each game a different player has stepped up to take care of the scoring punch, so they have a lot of weapons. On the other side, the current Bellevue University roster has held their own against all comers this summer, so it would be foolish to expect them to go down easy.
For the 7:30 PM finals, the possibility of a rematch from earlier in the summer is slim regardless of who wins in the semis. ABIDE Ministries played Bellevue University on opening night and lost 80-76, but of the other three potential finals matchups, none would be rematches.
This week is the last week to make a donation to the Omaha Metro Summer League to help Jason Isaacson offset the costs of the required NCAA player insurance and other costs to put this league together. Any donation is appreciated.