LV fab 48 Day 3 & 4

Day 3 of the tournament was the beginning of the playoffs. Both the Ballers 16s & 17s started the playoffs after finishing 2nd in their pools. That meant that both teams would face a 1st place finisher from another pool. The 16s started the playoffs against team Philly which had a lot of size up front. I truly believe that some of these kids playing in the 16u division aren't truly 16. I'm pretty sure I heard a little baby look at one of these so called 16u players & called him grandpa..lol. Despite being undersized the 16s were tied with team Philly at half. Team Philly's size wore down the 16s in the 2nd half and the 16s lost by 10. One of the best things about the 16s the compete every time they step on the court.

The 17s started the playoffs against Texas Cager & they were big & athletic and they just new the were going to give us a beat down, but as the saying goes never judge a book by it's cover and that is exactly what the Texas Cagers did against us. We started off the game on fire & continued that way the whole game. We played great defense and Texas Cagers didn't know what to do. Seth got his 1st dunk in a game in America...it was a pretty nice dunk. We beat the Cagers by 22 & it felt so good because they just knew it was going to be an easy game...which it was just not for them. Next up at 9:45pm that night (yes they play games that late..lol)was the Iowa barnstormers. I'm pretty sure the barnstormers shot about 70 percent in the 1st half..they had this one kid who just didn't miss. We were able to slow in down in the 2nd when Stephen stepped up & said Nel got him. We came out of normal match-up zone & played man. The 2nd half was great the lead went back & fort. It was tied with 20 second left in the game. We ran our normal offense but as the clock ran down Gokul called a clear from the top of the key & proceeded to go to work. He made a great move to create some space from myself & he buried a 3 with only .04 left on the clock to win the game. We all went crazy after the game because we won & that put us in the quarter finals & that also meant a rematch with the Houston Lynx the team that beat us in pool. We want to go James Brown on the Lynx (big payback)(google the song if you don't know it)

Day 4
The big payback..the rematch game against the Houston Lynx and this time we were super ready with a chip on our shoulder & a newly found swagger. We beat the Lynx by 12 pick to advance to the semi-finals. Buddy was killing the Lynx with his baseline jumper & was again Gokul was on fire from 3. The Lynx also didn't have answer for Seth who basically shredded their defense getting to the basket the whole game. We meant up with Deron Williams Elite in the semi-finals & that game was really good. We held the lead most of the game but missed lay-ups & free throws helped them get back in the game. The game went to overtime & Gokul had a great look from 3 as time was running out to send it to double overtime but it fell a little short & that ended our great run in the tournament with that 3 point lost. I was & am so proud of all my boys. We played so well during the Vegas trip. Well I need to get some things done..the best of Summer tournament is coming up & I will have more to write about.

Take care
Go Ballers