mats championships: silver, bronze & platinum

There was a lot of basketball going on this weekend up in Fresno, more than we could ever hope to see in the three short days we spent there. Here are the results of all four of the single-elimination brackets:

Gold Division Champion:	Los Angeles Rockfish
Silver Division Champion:	Oakland Soldiers
Bronze Division Champion:	No Limits
Platinum Division Champion:	Rockfish Dolphins

We've already posted up what we know about the final in the Gold, and here's what we know about the rest

The Soldiers #2 played all of their pool play games at Sunnyside's main gym, so we saw them a couple of times, but unfortunately didn't get to see their game agaisnt the Sacramento Renegades for the Silver Championship. From what we saw of them in pool play, they are an excellent squad of sophomores and freshmen (with two juniors thrown in for some help), with a lot of good height and quickness. Here's the roster:

John Winston	6'-2" Fr. G	Salesian
Rekalin Sims	6'-7" So. F	Mt. Diablo
Leon Powe	6'-7" Fr. F	Oakland Tech
Chris Getty	6'-1" So. G	Monte Vista
David Jobe	6'-7" Jr. F	Salesian
Derek Payne	6'-7" So. F	Salesian
Dashawn Freeman	5'-10" So. G	St. Mary's
Marquis Kately	6'-5" So. F	Riordan
John Sharper	5'-11" So. G	St. Mary's
Tremaine Davis	6'-7" Jr. F	Pittsburg
Ike Counts	6'-1" Fr. G	Skyline

The two standouts we saw were John Winston and Dashawn Freeman in the backcourt and Leon Powe up front providing some excellent offense.

No Limits played it's pool games out at Washington Union, which was one of the gyms we didn't get to this trip, so we didn't see them play. We heard that the roster in the program was slightly larger than the group which actually showed up for the tournament. Here's the roster from the program:

Taran Turner	6'-1" Sr. SG	Silverado
Anthony Oshinuga	6'-1" Sr. G	Silverado
Kalaan Brown	6'-5" Sr. F	Silverado
Carlos Alexander	6'-2" Sr. G	Victor Valley
Edmond Elzy	6'-4" Sr. F	Victor Valley
Corey Stenson	5'-8" Sr. G	Victor Valley
Jeremiah Phillips	6'-5" Sr. F	Silverado
George Roche	5'-11" Sr. G	Silverado
Eddie Hill	5'-11" Jr. G	Granite Hills
Edward Hill	5'-10" Sr. G	Victor Valley
Ryan Rentie	6'-2" Sr. G	Temecula Valley

We got an e-mail yesterday morning from Tyrone Turner, who coached No Limits, and notified us that only Jeremiah Phillips, Kalaan Brown, Taran Turner, Anthony Oshinuga, Justin White (apparently not listed in the program), Ryan Rentie and Geroge Roche played this past weekend. And while we didn't get to see this team up in Fresno, we've seen them before at various tournaments and know them to be a very good squad, with some excellent athletes who play a team-oriented style of basketball, not a team that's going to overwhelm an opponent with size, but they are exceptionally quick and tough, and they play smart. Not your typical up-and-down-the-court stuff, but good, solid fundamental basketball. Tyrone wanted us to know that apparently due to a mix up at the tournament with the reported score of one of their games (gee, how unusual, a mixup by the kids reporting the scores) No Limits wound up seeded in the Bronze rather than the Silver bracket. In pool play, the team lost their first game to the Los Angeles Rockfish 73-47 (the same team that eventually won the Gold Championship), and then they actually won the next two games, but the score of their game against Bay Area Ballers #2 was actually reported as a loss, so instead of finishing second at 2-1, they were erroneously recorded as 1-2 in third place and thus placed into the Bronze bracket. Despite that initial loss to Rockfish, Tryone reported that the team went the rest of the way 7-0, and won the Bronze division with outstanding contributions from every player on the roster.

According to Mark Mayemura, the Rockfish Dolphins breezed through the Platinum bracket, taking their first game on Sunday night against the Wildcats, one of the local high school games, and then winning the next three on Monday, defeating Modesto Slam N Jam #2 for the championship. And the Dolphins did it without Gavin Lee (6'-3" So. G) from Bishop Montgomery who was out, and without Peter McCaslin (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG) who had to leave on Sunday night to return to LA to study for an AP exam on Tuesday. According to Mark, standout players for the Dolphins were Ryan Moore ((6'-3" Jr. SG/SF) from Brea Olinda who scored well in the game, James Jenkins (6'-7" Jr. F) from Crescenta Valley and Khalif Fort (6'-0" Fr. PG) from Diamond Bar. We're sure others played well too (the complete roster for this team is already posted), but these are the guys Mark mentioned as having played especially well.