Above the Rim won the HalfCourt Championship Basketball League Tournament, featuring outstanding play by Jahkeem Stokes and Andre Quinnie. They defeated No Fair Ones, 25-18, to win the Aaron “Imam Jeddi” Taylor tourney.
In the final, Quinnie came out on fire. He blocked Jamal Green’s shot, stole the ball, then hit a no-look lay-up with his back to the basket. Then he hit a long-range jumper and executed a spin move in the paint for another basket. Quinnie went on to score the team’s first five points. “I’ve never seen him play so tough; he grabbed rebounds, made shots,” said Stokes about Quinnie.
No Fair Ones fell behind 11-1. Greene responded after the slow start with a crossover to the rack, spinning around Quinnie for an And-None, as he failed to hit the free throw. Greene and Michael Franklin continued aggressively going to the rack, and were rewarded by getting to the free-throw line.
Franklin got hot after stealing the ball, driving to the rack and scoring despite being fouled. Franklin hit the free throw and thereafter hit two twopointers (three point shots are worth two, technical shots three and regular shots one in this league) in the face of defenders, bringing his team within two, 18-16.
Then Stokes stepped up, slashing to the basket, scoring inside and out. The winning shot came off a block by Quinnie. He knocked the ball to Mike Tercero. Tercero caught it and made the winning 25th point shot to the cheers of the 68 prisoners watching the game held in the gym.
“The real ‘Burrito Mike’ showed up,” Quinnie happily stated afterwards. “We won by playing together. Ain’t no I in team,” said Above the Rim Coach Perryn Rushing.
“We lost ‘cause of too much crying and not enough physical play,” said No Fair Ones Coach Jason Robinson.
Above the Rim consisted of Stokes, Quinnie, Mike Tercero, Eric Spikes, Larry “TY” Jones and Montrell Vines. Only Stokes, Tercero, Vines and Quinnie showed up for the final game on Nov. 2.
No Fair Ones was made up of Franklin, one of the best players on the yard, P. Brown, Antoine Brown, Green and Elgin Johnson. Robinson also coached the age 38 and over team, Fully Loaded, which won the last CBL championship.
To get to the finals, Above the Rim defeated Show Time, 25-19. Show Time was behind, 11-15, when Rafael Cuevas stepped up and hit a big twopointer. He followed that up with a shake and bake to the hole for the And-One, but missed the free throw.
Then Above the Rim turned it up. Quinnie rebounded a miss by Vines, and was fouled going up for the basket. He completed the And-One play. Thereafter, his teammate Stokes took over. Show Time had no answer for him. Stokes easily broke ankles with his crossover to get to the rack. He scored seven of his team’s last eight points, including a 12-foot jumper for the win on Oct. 26.
No Fair Ones reached the finals by also defeating Show Time, 25-24.
In that game, Show Time came out hot, led by Damon Cooke. He scored the first four baskets, including an alleyoop pass from teammate Derek Loud.
However, he subbed out to rest with his team up 19-12. Franklin and Greene went on one, scoring from everywhere. When Cooke got back in the game, the score was 19- 18. Cooke immediately hit a technical shot for three-points, increasing the lead to 22-18. Shortly after, Loud came off a screen, while Franklin flopped on the ground from the contact and hit a two-pointer, leaving the score 24-20, Show Time.
Show Time needed just one basket, but the refs’ calls distracted the players. They were called for a tech. Franklin hit the three-point technical foul called on Cooke, making the score 24-24. It was anybody’s game with the ball in No Fair Ones’ hands, until Cooke snatched the defensive rebound.
He ended up on the ground, but got the ball out to Rafael Cuevas. However, Cuevas tried to make a cross-court pass that was intercepted by Greene mid-court; from where he made the game-winning shot. “We lost because I threw a turnover at the end,” admitted Cuevas.
