gibbons toc report

Thought I'd drop you a note on the Bob Gibbons Tournament in North Carolina.

It was a great tournament played at UNC, Duke, and North Carolina State. 32 teams played in the 17/under National Division. Southern California teams included our Southern California All-Stars (SCA), Team Dada, LA Paladins, and Belmont Shore (who competed in the 16&under division).

Team Dada and Belmont Shore did not advance out of their pools and I believe both finished with 0-3 records. LA Paladins finished 2-1 in their pool for second place. All second place finishers (8 teams) then advanced to what they called the 17 & under Shootout, while all first place finishers (8 teams) advanced to the 17& under Nationals. The Paladins lost in the quarterfinals of the Shootout.

SCA enjoyed a very successful trip despite a young roster. We made it to the Shootout Final Four only to fall to eventual champ, Tennesse Travelers. The following is a game-by-game summary as well as our team roster for this event.

Mohamed Abukar	So. 6'-9"	Rancho Bernardo
Aaron Aflalo	Fr. 6'-1"	Compton Centenniel
BJ Bell	So.5'-9"	Fairfax
David Burgess	Fr.6'-10"	Woodbridge
Nate Carter	Jr.6'-6"	Horizon
Ashanti Cook	Jr. 6'-2"	Westchester
Scott Cutley	So.6'-6"	Westchester
Chris Henry	Fr.6'-8"	Mater Dei
Travis Smith	Jr.6'-3"	Santa Margarita
Derek Stockalper	Jr.6'-5"	Carlsbad
Michael Strawberry	Jr.6'-5"	Mater Dei

In the opener, Alabama Ice opened up a 4-point halftime lead, only to see it wilt away behind the play of BJ Bell, Michael Strawberry, and Nate Carter as SCA pulled away with a 67-55 victory. Bell led SCA with 12 points while Strawberry and Carter both added 10 points. Mohamed Abukar also added 8 points for SCA.

The second game of pool play was a see-saw battle with the Carolina Gaters. The hometown Gaters who had 3 Oak Hill players were down 1-point with 30 seconds to go until Travis Smith's 3 free throws sealed the win for SCA, 66-62. Michael Strawberry led SCA with 16 points while BJ Bell and Scott Cutley added 13 and 10 points respectively. Nate Carter and Travis Smith added 9 points each.

The final game of pool play would decide the pool champ and pitted SCA against Grassroots Canada. SCA overcame a 6-point deficit with 2 minutes to go only to eventually fall 77-75 in Double Overtime when Denham Brown's jumper swished in Sudden Death. SCA went it into overtime on Scott Cutley's lay-up at the buzzer in regulation. Mohamed Abukar was terrific for SCA as he dominated play inside and finished with 22 points. Nate Carter also added 15 points while Michael Strawberry chipped in 8 points.

In the shootout quarterfinals, SCA was matched against a terrific Friends of Hoop (Seattle) squad that had earlier beaten the Atlanta Celtics and Team Dada. Another great game saw SCA overcome a 8-point second half deficit to pull out the victory, 83-81. Nate Carter and Travis Smith led SCA with 20 points each, while Scott Cutley dropped in 13 points. BJ Bell added 11 points for SCA who overcame scintillating performances by Rodrick and Lodrick Stewart who are definitely as good as they have been billed.

In the semi's, SCA was down only a point at halftime before the Tennessee Travelers dominated play in the second half and came away with the ticket to the Championship. Derek Stockalper led SCA with 16 points while Michael Strawberry chipped in 9 points.

Here is our overall scoring, and as you can see we were very balanced and in fact had 5 different leading scorers in the 5 games:

Player	PPG
Nate Carter	10.8
BJ Bell	9.4
Michael Strawberry	8.6
Mohamed Abukar	8.4
Travis Smith	7.8
Scott Cutley	7.2
Derek Stockalper	5.2
David Burgess	4.6
Ashanti Cook	2.6
Chris Henry	1.0
Aaron Afflalo	0.5

All in all, a great event and Bob Gibbons and his staff should be complmented on their fine efforts!