Newark and William Penn advanced to the boy's
basketball state championship game by winning their semifinal games
against A.I. duPont and Brandywine, respectively, on Thursday
night.
The William Penn win over the Bulldogs was by 32 points and
while the Dawg Pound was out in force, they didn't have much to bark
about. The Bulldogs couldn't get a bounce to drop their way all night
long, shooting just 31% in the game. Na'Shawn Ellerbe was the high
scorer for Brandywine with 17 points.
Devin Smith continued to be the force to contend with and
continued his run towards player of the year honors. His 19 points
combined with Shane Hairston's 15 and Lorenzo Wilson's 14 to provide
all of the offense that was necessary for the Colonials.
The Colonials will make their fourth consecutive trip to the
championship game. They lost to Brandywine in Ot by a point in 98,
beat Lake Forest for the Championship in 99 and lost last year to A.I.
duPont.
Newark was last in the finals in 97 when they lost to Seaford
77-74. The Yellowjackets last championship was in 1990 with James
Doody Jr. as head coach.
Greg Benjamin is the current coach who was pumping his fists
with his index finger raised to indicate number one as A.I. duPont's
last second shot attempt to win their semifinal game missed.
This game was tight the whole way with the Tigers maintaining a
1-5 point lead for most of the game. The score at half time was 38-37
Tigers.
This game was about rebounding. On numerous occasions, both
teams were having trouble grabbing missed shots off of the glass. It
was an indication that these teams were much more even than most
people thought although the Tigers were missing one of their starting
guards, Steven Napier.
Chris Saylor and Kwana Chase did their parts for the Tigers and
particularly Saylor towards the end of the game. With two minutes to
go in the game and the game tied at 56, Saylor scored two quick
baskets and a free throw sandwiched around a Lamont Davis free throw
to give the Tigers a 4 point lead with 1:11 to go.
But Lamont Davis scored a bucket on a layup off an assist from
Dan Frick and also drew a foul which he converted into another point
and the Newark fans exploded in the stands as they were only down a
point again.
Saylor scored again to give him a game-high 26 on the
night and Newark's Terry Alls responded with a rebound and a layup
after Davis missed a 3-point shot to pull Newark to within a point
with 37 seconds to go.
Ricardo Comegy was fouled by Newark and only made one of his
two shots at the free throw line keeping the Tigers ahead by 2.
After Davis was fouled at the other end, he made two free
throws to tie the game. A turnover gave Newark the ball once again
with a chance to win and the Tigers fouled Terry Alls puttin him at
the line with 5 seconds to go. Alls converted one of two to give
Newark the lead.
After one time out on an inbound attempt by the Tigers, Kwana
Chase hit Saylor with a baseball pass down on the Tigers side of the
court. Saylor's 3-pointer was short but was rebounded by Karl Riley.
Riley's layup missed and the buzzer sounded advancing Newark to the
Championship.
Davis scored 30 points for Newark and Alls pitched in 18. Bilal
Goldborough fouled out for Newark with 4 minutes to go in the game
after scoring eight points for his team.
The girl's basketball semifinals are this evening (the
9th) at the Bob with Caravel taking on St. Marks and Ursuline playing
the Caesar Rodney Riders. The Riders are the Cinderella team of the
tournament upsetting a Markeda Hollingsworth-less Glasgow team in the
quarterfinals. But face it, I didn't even think they could get past
Mt. Pleasant, so it just goes to show you what I know anyway.
But go back to my preseason picks in basketball and you will
see Caravel for the girls and William Penn for the boys. Caravel has
their toughest game of the year coming up with the healthy
Spartans however, and that game should be worth the price of
admission.
The Riders are now going to be matched up with a team that
boasts three players who are 5'11" or better. The trio of Alexis
Henderson, Kate Mills, and Eileen Webster will give the Raiders the
rebounding power that the Dragons and the Green Knights (with the
injured Bianka Brunson) lacked.
I'll jot some notes about the girl's semifinals later on
tomorrow evening after the games. So if you aren't able to go see the
games, you will be able to read about them here first.
Three Delaware high school graduates from last year
are providing some power for our local college softball teams. Lisa
Scanlon and Jaleah Brown have ripped three homers a piece for
Wilmington College. They were teammates at Glasgow last year.
Newark high graduate Laura Streets had a three-home run game
for the University of Delaware against Radford this week. It was only
the second time that has happened in Delaware history; the first time
was in 1976 by Joan Schimpf against William Paterson College. That was
the first year of varsity softball at Delaware. Streets also had seven
RBI in the game.
Online registration is now available for the Disc Golf
event at the Diamond State Games. Active.com is our online
registration service provider. The rest of the events will be done
very soon. The Triathlon can be registered for as well. We are using
Lin-Mark.com exclusively for that event.
You can register for other events now too. All of the
instructions are available to be printed out on the front page of
diamondstategames.com. Wrestling, volleyball, track and field, flag
football, and disc golf can be entered with these forms now. This is
the option for those who don't wish to use a credit card online.
We are still waiting to finalize some details about a
couple of the other events. Once that happens, we will print a hard
copy registration booklet that we can mail to anyone that you may know
who wants one.
More Bits and Pieces throughout the weekend.
