Scott Stuurmans floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. (John Fisken photos)
Da champs. L to r, Jordan Schisel, Greg White, Dom Kiblinger, Gavin Keohane, tourney organizer Noah Roehl, Stuurmans, Mike Vaughan, Pete Petrov. In front: Samantha and Jodi Roehl.
The old guys still have it.
The third-oldest team in a 10-team field, the Red Pride were flawless Saturday, rolling to their fourth title in five years at the Tom Roehl Roundball Classic.
The all-day alumni/charity basketball extravaganza, held to fund college scholarships in honor of a longtime high school/youth coach, drew a record turnout in its eighth go-round.
But even with more teams in the field than ever before, none could match a band of players who mostly ruled the CHS courts in the late ’90s.
After failing to win the title last year, snapping a three-year run at the top, Red Pride went into the archives and plucked out Pete Petrov, adding the ’97 Wolf grad to their roster.
He paid immediate dividends, making a splash in his Roundball debut with a game-high 20 in a semifinal win and 17 in the championship game.
The Red Pride had one of the shorter benches in the tourney, with just seven players on their roster, but they also had no weaknesses and were consistently the best team when it came to fundamentals.
On a day when a lot of street ball took center court — some of it very entertaining, some of it wild and out of control — the Red Pride spent the day making cuts, hitting crisp passes, rockin’ guys on defense, boxing out and truly flowing as a team.
All seven guys scored in the semifinals, a 67-29 thrashing of last year’s champs, the Cows.
Gavin Keohane, who earlier had won the three-point shooting contest by drilling his last five shots in perfect rhythm, each shot flicking silently through the twines, backed up Petrov with 19.
After that there was something for everyone, with Jordan Schisel dropping eight, Greg White banging home seven, Scott Stuurmans singing the nets for six and Mike Vaughan crashing through the paint for four.
Dom Kiblinger, the youngest guy on the roster and the only non-Coupeville grad (he’s dating Stuurman’s niece, Sydney Aparicio, so is an honorary Wolf), rounded out the scoring with three.
Coming off of a tough quarterfinal win, the Cows came out cold in the semis and had several players head to the sidelines after getting banged up.
They were led by Brad Sherman, who popped for five.
Once in the final, Red Pride went toe-to-toe with the Central Whidbey Ballers.
While the final was closer than the semifinal — they led just 25-17 at the half — Red Pride led from opening tip to final whistle, rolling to an eventual 46-31 win.
Petrov (17), Keohane (11), White (9), Vaughan (5), Stuurmans (3) and Kiblinger (1) spread out the offense, while Rodrick Rumble was a one-man wrecking crew for the Ballers, pouring in 14.
Rumble, the former OHHS standout, had to fight like a beast for every one of those points, though, as he got little help in the championship game.
Central Whidbey got to the final game with a mix of high-flying theatrics and long-range gunning, but, in the final, key players like Drew Washington came up empty at crunch time, wilting against a Red Pride team that played as a seamless unit.
The title win capped a day in which I sat through 10 (yes, 10) games, witnessing four slam dunks, one windmill dunk that hit the back of the rim and shot the length of the floor, two technical fouls and three (count ’em) treys that beat the buzzer by a second or less.
It was a day the Roehl family and everyone involved can be truly proud of pulling off.
A taste of how my fanny went flat on the rock-hard bleachers:
Game 1: Red Pride downed Oak Town’s Finest 33-24, giving us all a glimpse of what was to come. All seven guys scored, led by Keohane’s 10, and they moved with a precision that would be unmatched.
Game 2: OhvO nipped Whos Ball Is It Anyways, a squad that included a ton of fairly recent CHS grads like Aaron Trumbull, Joel Walstad, Ben Etzell, Aaron Curtin, Jake Tumblin and Josiah Campbell.
Etzell started the game with a trey and Walstad nailed two late three-balls to keep things close, but missed free throws with five seconds to go led to a breakaway bucket at the buzzer and a 39-35 win for the non-Wolves.
Game 3: Central Whidbey Ballers, which despite their name — a carry-over from previous years — had only two Coupeville players (Dustin Van Velkinburgh and Nick Streubel), clobbered the Podunk Scrubs 62-40.
In a game in which three-pointers rained down from everywhere, the best came from Alex Evans of the Scrubs, who hit one while being knocked backwards three rows into the bleachers by a Baller defender.
Game 4: OhvO rallied from behind to knock off the Beast Squad 46-44. Best shot: a trey that beat the halftime buzzer by a millisecond, even though the shooter got knocked on his rear as he let the ball go.
Game 5: The Cows rode a huge second-half surge (30-14) and Sherman’s hot shooting to upend The SeaChickens 52-39.
Game 6: The Seachickens returned and eliminated Air Roehl 53-34. Former Wolf stars Gabe McMurray and Boom Phomvongkoth played strongly in defeat.
Game 7: A rematch between Central and Podunk, and this time Trent Diamanti and his Scrubs came closer, before falling 54-43.
Van Velkinburgh stuck a dagger in with a late first-half trey, but Gavin O’Keefe responded by hurtling down the floor, launching a trey of his own, and, while missing it, was body-slammed by a trio of defenders.
Popping right back up, he drilled all three freebies to stake the Scrubs to a 19-18 halftime lead, but the Ballers used their superior depth to snatch the game away in the second half.
Game 8: The only real upset of the afternoon, as the SeaChickens, who finished seeding play ranked #7, upended the #2 squad, OhvO, 53-47, to reach the semifinals.
And then we’re back to where we began, with the Red Pride running wild and my rear-end insisting it will never forgive me.
Read Full Post »
