2009 Summit Elite News
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6/15/09. We played in eight tournaments this year and finished with a record of 20-12. We certainly had our share of accomplishements and successes, including the following:
- We won the Combat in the Country tournament, successfully defending our championship from the previous year
- We made it to at least the semifinals in 6 tournaments
- We got a win in the elite King James Shooting Stars Classic this year, beating the Pittsburgh area CRONS Basketball Club team
- The Akron Beacon Journal published an article about AAU basketball that featured our own Evan Kennerly and his dad, Ken
- We went 7-4 in games decided by less than 10 points, demonstrating our continual improvement in the mental toughness area
- We finished the season up with our best win, an OT thriller against a very good Euclid PAL team, and our biggest comeback win of the year, coming from 22 down to beat the Wrecking Crew.
I am most proud of the fact that every player developed and improved their game this season. Thanks to all for a nice season!
Summer Showdown
6/14/09. We ended up 3-2 in this tournament, losing in the semifinals to a pretty good Summit Express team. On Saturday, we lost our opening game to Ohio Magic, a good team from western Ohio. We then beat WOBA Runnin Rebels, a team from the Warren area, by a score of 66-58. In one of our best games of the year, we then beat Euclid PAL in OT, 64-63. In the quarterfinals, we then had our biggest comeback of the year by beating Wrecking Crew 63-54. At one point in the first half, we were down by 22 points, but ended up outscoring them 31 points during the remainder of the game to win by 9. In our semifinal loss, Summit Express used their height to dominate us in the first half. Overall, we learned a lot about ourselves in this tournament as we had two huge wins.
Grand Nationals NIT
5/31/09. We ended up 3-1 in this tournament, losing in the semifinals to a very good Maibach team. On Friday we shot .500 as a team and everybody scored as we beat SMAC-Munsell 57-34. We didn't play well on Saturday, but still beat Tri County Elite 67-59. In the quarterfinals on Sunday, we started the 2nd half on an 18-0 run as we ended up beating SMAC-Valentino 50-33. The Maibach team that we ran into during the semi's was in the top three of all of the different teams we played this year. They were big, fast and athletic - a very nice team that we struggled against, especially since we were down 2 players. The good news is that we played hard and competed the entire game.
Primetime in Parma
5/17/09. This is our second tournament in row where we dominate in pool play, then end the tournament with a disappointing semifinal loss. We had a fantastic Saturday, as we beat Triple Threat 63-15, Air Attack-Eidom 77-32 and Shooting Stars-Bradley 68-39. We got a bye Sunday morning and then lost to Ohio Xtreme-Slone in the semi's. We were battling injuries (Big Mike only played 5 minutes each in the last two games) and missing players, but no excuses for the way this tournament ended.
Ohio Rising Stars Classic
5/11/09. After a two week layoff, we went 3-1 in this tournament. We had two easy wins, and a great 4 point win in pool play. The 60-56 win over Ohio Rising Stars - Rowlands was a classic, as both team went on big runs before we put them away at the end. We then proceeded to have a disappointing loss in the semifinals to a pretty good team, Ohio Rising Stars - Miller. Not the way we wanted this tournament to end.
King James Shooting Stars Classic
4/26/09. We got a win in this tournament! There were 68 teams from across the country in the 13U division this year. We defeated a team from Pittsburgh, PA, CRONS Basketball Club, by a score of 64-51. Both teams that beat us, Grand Rapids Storm and Spiece Select 2014, made it to the Sweet 16. I saw both semifinals and the championship game. The 2008 champs, Houston Select 2014, beat the 2007 champs, Wisconsin Running Rebels in one semifinal, and the Oakland Kings beat All Ohio Red in the other semifinal. Houston Select 2014 went on to defend their title in the championship game. This is annually one of the top four tournaments in the country, and it was nice to compete and win a game this year.
P.L.A.Y. Hoops Classic
4/19/09. We went 3-1 in the tournament, falling to a very good Ohio All Stars team in the semifinals. We stunned Cross Over 77-37 on Friday night, and had a game-winning buzzer beater on Saturday as we beat Ohio Gold 50-48. After giving up 11 points in the first four minutes of the game, we played great defense in a 62-27 win over Ranger Hoops-McGuire in the quarterfinals on Sunday. In the semifinal loss, we were down by 18 in the first half, but battled back to take a 2 point lead early in the second half before we ran out of gas.
Solon Cage Classic
4/11/09. We started out very well, as we made Millinium Fire, a national tournament winner in 2008, work to the very end in a 58-54 loss. Millinium Fire then went on to beat the other two teams in our pool, Ohio Xtreme by 19 and Rising Stars of Clarion by 44. We then proceeded to have one of those days, losing to Xtreme 63-53 and Rising Stars of Clarion 58-54. It was a tough way to finish the tournament.
Combat In The Country
4/05/09. Congratulations to the champions! We successfully defended our championship at this tournament (used to be the Cloverleaf Cage Classic), which is a very nice accomplishment.
We went 4-1 in this tournament, avenging an earlier 1 point defeat during pool play to a very tough Ohio Xtreme team. We were down by 8 points with about ten minutes to play in the championship game, when we finished with a 37-19 run. A great team effort all weekend that ended with the 63-53 victory! What a great start to the season!!
