Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Next

On the schedule:
* 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, November 29, at the downtown YMCA - Three-way scrimmage, including Binghamton Blue, Binghamton Red and Chenango Valley 5-6
* 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, December 1, at Roosevelt Elementary - Practice for Binghamton Red and Binghamton 4-5

Looking ahead:
* We hope to have a schedule of games from the league (for December) as early as this weekend. After that, I'll put together a more concrete practice schedule for the month, as well.

Fund-raiser update:
* I handed in our cookie orders on Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving). We were delayed due to some money needing to be collected. We did pretty well, but only about a third of our players took part. Because of that, when we order our team sweatshirts, those who did not participate in the fund-raiser will be asked to contribute to the purchase of their shirt. The contribution will likely be approximately 50% to 75% of the shirt's cost, and our fund-raising dollars will pick up the rest of the cost for those players. Anyone who participated in the sale will receive their sweatshirt free of charge.
* I've been told that the cookie dough will arrive at Horace Mann school on December 11. We'll be placing the cookie dough in the school's refrigerator (thanks to Mr. Stewart, our principal there). We'll work out details for pickup soon.
* Austin Becker-Harris, who plays for Binghamton 4-5, led our fund-raising efforts with $402 (nearly one quarter of our total sales). Congratulations and thank you, Austin and family!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Binghamton Blue: 2 weekend scrimmages

The Binghamton 5-6 Blue squad played two scrimmages this weekend, traveling to Owego Friday night, then turning around for an early-Saturday morning run with Chenango Valley.

Friday night against Owego Apalachin 5th/6th graders, Blue won 69-43 in a game of four 10-minute quarters. On Saturday morning, Blue topped 5th/6th graders from CV, 64-30, in a game of three 15-minute periods.

Binghamton Blue 69, Owego Apalachin 43
Blue built an early 10-2 lead on Nick Snyder's strong inside play, combined with Andre Hawkins' pin-point looks inside to Snyder, Isiah Turner and Sarbast Doski. OA came back to within 12-10 at the end of the first, but Blue went on a 17-0 run in the second quarter, and led at halftime, 29-21.

Hawkins continued to run a solid point in the second half, finding Doski inside and hitting Alex Vega on fast breaks, as Blue built a 51-32 lead after the third.

Binghamton Blue 12-17-22-18--69
Owego Apalachin 10-11-11-11--43

Stats:
* Alex Vega: 18 points, 7 rebounds
* Nicky Snyder: 14 points, 11 rebounds
* Sarbast Doski: 13 points, 10 rebounds
* Andre Hawkins: 10 points, 8 rebounds
* Isiah Turner: 8 points, 5 rebounds
* Nate Gaster: 2 points, 7 rebounds
* Anar Doski: 2 points, 5 rebounds
* Daenon Davy: 2 points, 2 rebounds
* Jahira Ramos: 2 rebounds
* Roberto Jensen: 2 rebounds

Binghamton Blue 64, Chenango Valley 30
Isiah Turner got Blue off to a hot start, hitting all three of his field goals early, and on consecutive trips down the floor, helping Binghamton build a 14-0 first-period lead. Blue led 24-12 heading into the second period, when the defense stepped up to outscore CV 15-3.

Cousins Anar Doski and Sarbast Doski each converted on field goal/free throw 3-point plays in this contest.

Chenango Valley 12-3-15--30
Binghamton Blue 24-15-25--64

Stats:
* Alex Vega: 17 points, 8 rebounds
* Anar Doski: 14 points, 5 rebounds
* Sarbast Doski: 7 points, 11 rebounds
* Andre Hawkins: 6 points, 4 rebounds
* Isiah Turner: 6 points, 1 rebound
* Nate Gaster: 4 points, 11 rebounds
* Nicky Snyder: 4 points, 8 rebounds
* Roberto Jensen: 4 points, 1 rebound
* Daenon Davy: 2 points, 2 rebounds
* Jahira Ramos: 1 rebound

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

More notes from the league tourney

At the league tournament Saturday (November 15), our Binghamton 4-5 and Binghamton 5-6 Red squads showed improvement in several areas. While Red's results weren't what they'd hoped for, the competition they faced was extremely tough (Norwich 5-6, SV 6 and Athens 6).

The upside about the tournament is that it's used as a gauge for teams' regular season schedules, and Red will likely be matched up against other squads more at their experience level in the coming weeks/months.

I was able to watch just one of Red's games - their third of a long day at the JC K-8 facility - and there were glimmers of solid play. Red lost one of its bigger inside players early (Tawqeer Aziz) with a twisted ankle, but continued to drive to the basket against a fundamentally sound Athens team.

Here are a few stats for the Red squad in their third game Saturday:
* Yokobo Francis 6 points, 3 rebounds
* Milton Jimenez 4 points, 1 rebound
* Nathan Oliva 2 points, 1 rebound
* Jonah Chambers 4 rebounds
* Julien Munoz 4 rebounds
* Tawqueer Aziz 2 rebounds

The Binghamton 4-5 squad was placed in a very tough bracket for the tournament, first playing against a team of 5th- and 6th-graders from Chenango Forks. Binghamton came up just short in that game, losing 17-16.

In its second game, Binghamton beat a Whitney Point team of 5th-graders in a defensive battle, 8-7. And finishing off the day, Binghamton 4-5 topped a pesky Johnson City 4-5 squad, 23-17.

I asked Tim Doherty, coach for Binghamton 4-5, what he thought the key to the team's successful day was. "They're learning and playing better, no other way to say it," Coach Doherty said.

"Casey Walsh (4) handled the ball for us most of the time, and against Forks, we faced some pretty big kids," Doherty said. "Garret Alapeck (5) was in there against kids 6 inches taller than him and he was getting good position and grabbing rebounds, and Ben (Irwin, 5) and Patrick (Goodman, 5) were in there battling for rebounds, too.

"The kids are really learning to play together," Doherty said.

Monday, November 17, 2008

5-6 Blue (League Tourney Notes)

Binghamton 5-6 Blue played three games in the November 15 league tournament and went 2-1. The following are brief reports from each of the games

Whitney Point 41, Binghamton Blue 36
This WP team is as good as they get, with two towers inside (hard to believe their two post players are actually sixth-graders – skyscrapers) and solid guard play all around. Still, we played with them for 27 of the 30 minutes Saturday.

At about the halfway point, we led 22-16, despite Whitney Point going up and over our interior players for third-, fourth- and fifth-chance baskets. It was frustrating for our low-post guys, but we’re hoping they learned a lesson about the need to box out taller opponents.

The game continued to be close, as we trailed 35-34 with 3:10 remaining. Whitney Point then put it away with a 6-0 mini-run.

I’d estimate that we missed 5 or 6 chip-shot inside chances in this contest … shots that were either “easy” layups, or put-back tries that simply didn’t fall.

Stats from the game:
* Andre Hawkins 6 points, 4 rebounds
* Alex Vega 6 points, 4 rebounds
* Anar Doski 6 points, 3 rebounds
* Sarbast Doski 6 points, 2 rebounds
* Isiah Turner 4 points, 2 rebounds
* Nate Gaster 4 points, 1 rebound
* Nicky Snyder 2 points, 5 rebounds
* Roberto Jensen 2 points, 1 rebound

Binghamton Blue 55, M-E Gold 16
We bounced back with a win over Maine-Endwell Gold, building a lead of 29-6 at about the halfway point. Nine of our 10 players scored in this contest, and everyone contributed, logging significant minutes.

Stats from the game:
* Alex Vega 10 points, 7 rebounds
* Nicky Snyder 10 points, 7 rebounds
* Isiah Turner 8 points, 6 rebounds
* Sarbast Doski 6 points, 4 rebounds
* Andre Hawkins 6 points 2 rebounds
* Anar Doski 6 points 1 rebound
* Nate Gaster 5 points 4 rebounds
* Roberto Jensen 2 points, 2 rebounds
* Daenon Davy 2 points, 2 rebounds
* Jahira Ramos 2 rebounds

Binghamton Blue 28, Oneonta B & G Club 27
Oneonta had tied Whitney Point (29-29) earlier in the day, so we knew this was a solid team. We talked a lot about boxing out and helping out on Oneonta’s more elaborate screening and motion offense.

We led the entire game, getting out to a quick 8-0 lead, but Oneonta stormed back to cut the deficit to 8-7. We put the lead back to 18-7, though. With just a few minutes remaining, we led 28-18 before Oneonta made a nice run at us with a few steals, scoring the final 9 points of the contest.

Stats from the game:
* Alex Vega 10 points, 5 rebounds
* Sarbast Doski 6 points, 6 rebounds
* Isiah Turner 5 points 1 rebound
* Nicky Snyder 4 points, 10 rebounds
* Andre Hawkins 3 points, 2 rebounds
* Nate Gaster 2 rebounds
* Daenon Davy 2 rebounds
* Roberto Jensen 1 rebound

Monday, November 10, 2008

Notes: From Sunday's Tune-Up Tourney

On Sunday (November 8), Binghamton Travel Basketball teams hosted the Tune-up Tournament for the Slim Sylvester Travel League. All three of our teams played games at the downtown YMCA, and all three of our teams learned quite a bit, heading into this Saturday’s league tournament at Johnson City’s K-8 facility.

I watched the Binghamton 4-5 game, as well as one of the Binghamton 5-6 Red team’s two games, so I have observations about those. Of course, I coached the Binghamton 5-6 Blue team, so I have notes from those games, too.

In the future, if Tim Doherty (Binghamton 4-5) and Nick Legos (5-6 Red) would like me to add notes to our site from their games, I’d be happy to.

Starting with the one game played by Binghamton 4-5: The boys lost 12-1 to Susquehanna Valley’s 5th-graders. Of course, many of these scores this weekend are less important than the experience for our players. But looking at the statistics for this game, Kyeem Holmes scored the point, going 1-for-2 from the foul line. Kyeem also collected 3 rebounds.

Other stats:
* Garret Alapeck: 5 rebounds

* Ben Irwin: 3 rebounds
* Casey Walsh: 2 rebounds
* Jordan Haven: 2 rebounds
* Patrick Goodman: 2 rebounds
* Roberto Diaz: 1 rebound
* Team: 1-for-4 from the foul line

The Binghamton 5-6 Red squad played two games Sunday. In the first game, they lost to Maine-Endwell 5th-graders 32-20.

The stats from that game:
* Yokobo Francis: 6 points, 3 rebounds
* Milton Jimenez: 6 points, 2 rebounds
* Tawqeer Aziz: 4 points, 1 rebound
* Jonah Chambers: 2 points, 6 rebounds
* Julien Munoz: 2 points, 4 rebounds
* Nathan Oliva: 2 rebounds
* James Cardwell: 1 rebound
* Team: 0-for-8 from the foul line

In the 5-6 Red team’s second game, they played Athens-5 and lost a close one, 16-13. While I don’t have stats for that game (5-6 Blue played at the same time), assistant coach Dane Burwell said the Red team vastly improved from the first to the second game, in a number of areas.

The Binghamton 5-6 Blue team won all three of its games, beating a sharp-shooting Athens-6 squad 45-27 to a start, following it with a 35-18 win over Johnson City-5, and then a physical 26-24 win over Johnson City-6.

Stats for the 45-27 win over Athens-6:
* Alex Vega: 17 points
* Nick Snyder: 14 points
* Nate Gaster: 6 points
* Andre Hawkins: 4 points
* Isiah Turner: 2 points
* Anar Doski: 2 points
* Team: 3-for-4 from the foul line
* More: While we didn’t keep rebounding stats for this game, Nick Snyder completely dominated underneath. I’d estimate he pulled down 12-15 rebounds, many on the offensive glass; Athens had no answer for Alex Vega, as he slashed his way to the basket several times for lay-ins; Andre Hawkins may have had as many as 10 assists (although we didn’t keep that stat either).

Stats for the 35-18 win over Johnson City-5:
* Alex Vega: 12 points
* Nate Gaster: 6 points, 3 rebounds
* Nick Snyder: 5 points, 5 rebounds
* Andre Hawkins: 4 points
* Isiah Turner: 4 points, 2 rebounds
* Anar Doski: 4 points
* Team: 7-for-14 from the foul line
* More: Daenon Davy, Roberto Jensen and Jahira Ramos played a significant amount of this game, each supplying excellent defense.

Stats for the 26-24 win over Johnson City-6:
* Andre Hawkins: 10 points
* Alex Vega: 10 points
* Isiah Turner: 6 points
* Team: 2-for-6 from the foul line
* More: This was an intense contest, in which JC had two front-line players taller than our tallest. Nick Snyder, while he didn’t score, kept busy by successfully boxing out JC’s biggest player (and best scoring threat) throughout, using his great strength and positioning to his advantage. Andre Hawkins began driving to the basket more in this game, connecting several times, and dishing a handful of fantastic inside assists to Isiah Turner, who was constantly around the basketball in this contest.
* Also: Daenon Davy’s hustling, intense defensive effort found him on the floor perhaps more than he was on his feet, as he was diving after loose basketballs, alongside Roberto Jensen, who made one excellent save as he threw his body out of bounds.

League Tourney Schedule

Here's a link to the schedule for Saturday's League Tournament at the Johnson City K-8 complex (November 15): http://www.tier.net/strage/TIPOFF08.xls

Also, here are the schedules for all three of our teams:

BINGHAMTON 4-5
3 p.m. on Court 3 vs. Chenango Forks 5/6
4:20 p.m. on Court 4 vs. Whitney Point 5
6:20 p.m. on Court 4 vs. Johnson City 4/5

BINGHAMTON 5-6 RED
3:40 p.m. on Court 3 vs. Norwich 5/6
5 p.m. on Court 4 vs. Susquehanna Valley 6
7:40 p.m. on Court 4 vs. Athens 6

BINGHAMTON 5-6 BLUE
3 p.m. on Court 1 vs. Whitney Point 6
4:20 p.m. on Court 1 vs. Maine-Endwell 5/6
6:20 p.m. on Court 1 vs. Oneonta Boys & Girls Club 6