June 7, 2008
Sac vs. Bay: Bay takes an early lead
It was Sactown invading the Bay Area Saturday in the opening round of the Sac versus Bay Showdown and the tally is Bay Area two, Sacramento one, at the conclusion of the opening night. The evening began with the three-point shootout, followed by the frosh game and finally the dunk contest -- there definitely were some surprises and a handful of eye-openers sprinkled throughout the three events.
Damon Powell of McClymonds
The Sac versus Bay Showdown entertainment opened with the three-point contest. After round one concluded, Max Hooper, Davion Berry, Damian Lillard, Drew Mills, Collin Chiverton, Drake Uu, Kyle Odister and Will Olsem remained on the boys side, with Ricki Radanovich, Ashlee Burns, Rachael Pecota, Kamea Williams, Cortney French and Jazmine Miller the six female sharpshooters.
Round three found Lilliard, Uu, Odister and Olsem, plus Radanovich, Miller, Pecota and French still in place.
Ultimately El Camino’s Olsem and Carondelet’s Radonavich triumphed respectively. After a brief rest for Radanovich who had just completed her shot cycle, male and female matched up and Olsen won, totaling 17 points to Radanavich’s seven -- event to Sacramento.
Then it really got interesting as the frosh teams mixed it up. The Sac girls started out against their Bay Area counterparts, with the respective boys squads taking the court after four minutes of play and on the interchange went every four minute sequence of the sixteen minute halves. At the half, the combined Bay Area group led 43-36.
It was tied at 61 when the boys rotated on to the floor. Sacramento moved to a 67-61 lead but the Bay Area guys nailed a trey from the right corner to cut the lead to three. Manteca’s Keyondrei (Kiwi) Gardner swished a pair of free throws for Sact, upping the lead to 69-64. Salesian’s Jabari Brown was fouled attempting a three-pointer and made two of three from the foul line. That made the score 69-66.
Gardner then made one of two free throw attempts and the Bay Area squad came down to cut the lead to two on a putback.
Sact committed a turnover on the inbounds play and Salesian’s Kendall Andrews drew a pass in the paint and scored on a layup at the buzzer to tie the game and send it to a four-minute overtime.
The girls began play and the score was 73 apiece when the boys took the court at the 2:04 mark. The Bay Area squad jumped to a four point lead, 77-73 until Gardner reduced it to two with a dribble-drive basket. Sacramento stole the ball but a shotblock returned possession to the Bay Area, on its way to a 81-75 victory -- event to Bay Area.
The vote for the top frosh female player went to Brittney Boyd of Hercules High. Her counterpart was 5-foot-5 Keyondrei (Kiwi) Gardner of Manteca.
Both Boyd and Gardner were forces throughout the game, each having more shake and bake in their ballhandling than Kraft could ever muster. Boyd was relentless on her dribble-drive penetrations while Gardner was equally effective and also picked his matchup clean at least three times with his quick hands. Jabari Brown was also very solid for the Bay Area freshmen team.
Then came the dunk contest. After the first round, Natomas’ Jovan Daniels, Damian Lillard of Oakland High. Mitty’s Drew Gordon and Damon Powell of McClymonds remained. Daniels flushed one of his attempts by leaping over the three-foot or so high table he set up about three feet from the basket.
In the next round, both Daniels and Lillard missed both their attempts, leaving Gordon and Powell.
Each knew something special was needed in order to emerge the victor and both came through. Gordon’s highlight dunk had him slamming his right arm all the way through and beyond the twine -- truly getting all net.
But then Powell did it. He lined up three friends back to back a short distance from the basket and then took off over them for a resounding dunk that seemed magical -- event to the Bay Area and evening to Damon Powell.