The 7th grade division in this tournament consists of just five teams, including KC Truth metro-area rivals Mo-Kan Elite 7th and the KC Cowboys/76ers.

All of the KC teams are in the same hotel, and it’s good to see the young men from the three teams hanging out together. Their rivalries are strong and healthy, but so are their friendships and the respect they have for each other as athletes. The young athletes from all three KC area teams are representing their city well even before play begins!

The other two teams in the 7th grade division are the Coach T Foundation and the Tulsa Titans.

As noted, a small field. But a strong field. It should be a very competitive weekend.

Check back for updates!

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The KC Truth Black travelled to Lawrence, Kansas, on December 9-10, for the Jayhawk Classic.  The Truth competed in the 8th grade division against the JBBA Hoops Blue, the Celtics and the Mo-Kan Elite.  The Truth was the only 7th grade team competing in this field of four teams.

On Saturday, the Truth faced the JBBA Hoops Blue first.  The Truth started out slowly, to say the least.  The Hoops jumped out to an early 9-2 lead. Coach Newton called a time-out and strongly advised his team that they needed to kick their game into a higher gear, and fast.  That they did.  In short order, under the leadership of guard Anthony “Fuzzy” Bonner, the Hoops lead was erased and The Truth steadily took the game over, eventually winning by a score of 64-43.

The Truth then moved on to the next game, against the Celtics.  No slow start for The Truth this time around, though, as they quickly took a 12-0 running jump into what would be a very high-scoring game for them.  By the end of the game, The Truth had cruised to victory on the strength of a whopping 76 points.

The Truth would face the Mo-Kan Elite 8th grade team the following day, for what turned out to be a showdown between the two unbeaten teams in the division.

Coach Newton and his team knew that the championship game would be their toughest by far in this tournament.  The Mo-Kan Elite boasted great size and very skilled perimeter shooting.

But there’s nothing that gets The Truth going like a challenge.  The Truth were ready.

As the buzzer sounded to begin the game, The Truth charged out of the gate and quickly took control of the game.  The Truth boasts a highly skilled contingent of guards, any one of which can strike quickly from the perimeter.  In this game, combo guard Cartier Dean set the tone early by attacking the lane and scoring The Truth’s first four points on the strength of 2-2 free throw shooting and a field goal.  Big man Tyrone Gibbs then added a lay-up to put The Truth up 6-0.  The Mo-Kan got on the board with 2 points, then, but The Truth shrugged that score off as Fuzzy Bonner exploded into the lane, collapsing defenders, and dished the rock back to a wide open — you guessed it– Cartier Dean.  Who promptly sunk a three-pointer.

That early 9-2 lead was extended by The Truth to a 17-3 lead, and set the tone for the game.  The Mo-Kan Elite was able to chip away at The Truth lead, but never got to within less than 6 points of that lead.  What was expected to be a nip-and-tuck game from the beginning was dominated by The Truth in all phases.

The Truth have been working extensively on their conditioning and on their defensive strategies and intensity, and the results were evident in this championship game.  The Truth’s perimeter defense was so relentless that the Mo-Kan shooters couldn’t find a comfort zone.  The Truth boasts a contingent of speedy and aggressive guards, and all of them took their turn in creating defensive havoc for the Mo-Kan offense.  In the lane, the Truth big men were unfazed by the larger Mo-Kan players.  They were focussed on boxing out for rebounds and so relentless in protecting the lane that they altered their fair share of the Mo-Kan bigs’ shot attempts.  In fact, Truth big Vince Eskina was so relentless, he ended up fouling out.  But not before making his mark on the game in a big way.

On offense, The Truth showed great chemistry and court savvy, resulting in great success in getting the ball to an open man.  The dribble-drive penetration of Bonner and the other guards often resulted in hand-offs to Truth big men that came close to fooling even the intended recipient of the assist.  Plays were running like clock work, and teammates were looking for and finding each other down court in transition.  The Truth were clicking away at what they do best — run and gun.

In another crucial phase of the game, The Truth guard corps took turns dismantling the Mo-Kan press.  They would coolly scan the court as the Mo-Kan press advanced, waiting until the pressure was almost on and releasing the ball to teammates, creating match-up numbers problems for the Mo-Kan defenders left down court.

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The Truth won their pool by defeating both the KC Spartans Red and the Kansas Elite.  In winning their pool, the Truth once again ended up at the Sprint Center’s College Basketball Experience to play for an MSY Championship.  This time The Truth faced the KC Spartans Black.

The first half of the championship game was hotly contested on both sides.  The Truth faced a disciplined Spartan Team that moved the ball well and shot the ball wisely.  The Spartans also had some success in slowing down The Truth’s fast paced, transition-oriented offense.  The Truth, for their part, kept focused on their offensive game plan, while deploying their trademark stifling defense.  And, although the Spartans kept finding ways to score, The Truth made sure that each Spartan bucket was a hard-earned one.

The score at halftime was 22-21, in favor of the Spartans.

In the second half, however, a different story began to unfold.  The Truth’s defensive efforts started paying dividends.    The Spartans started to wear down under the pressure.  Guard Anthony “Fuzzy” Bonner led the Truth defensive effort with four steals in the second stanza, and his team was ultimately able to limit Spartans to a mere 8 points for the half.  On the other end of the court, The Truth were able to keep up their scoring pace, by capitalizing on steals and forced turnovers, and by staying focussed offensively.  The Truth ended up winning the championship, 43-29, in a game that was played much more closely than the score would indicate.

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There were four teams in the gold division, and each team played the other in a round-robin format.  The 1st and 2nd place teams in the division would earn a trip to the championship game, to be played at the College Basketball Experience (CBE), in the Sprint Center.

The Truth won their pool convincingly by beating the KC Elite, the KC Heat Elite, and the Lee’s Summit Red Raiders, all by double-digit margins.  They then headed to the CBE for the championship game against the Red Raiders, who had come in 2nd in the pool.

The Red Raiders came into the championship with high hopes of beating the Truth.  In their pool game, the Red Raiders had actually gone into half-time with a 22-20 lead on the Truth, largely due to Truth turnovers and missed shots.  However, the Truth came out in the second half of that game firing on all cylinders, and quickly went on a 10-0 run, on the strength of renewed defensive energy and a more aggressive offensive look.  Guards Drew Lock, Anthony “Fuzzy” Bonner, Shawntez Scroggins, and Cartier Dean set the defensive tone right off the bat in the second half by patrolling the Red Raider perimeter, allowing no penetration and causing multiple turnovers.  On the other end of the court Bonner, Lock and Scroggins set an equally agressive offensive tone early in the second half by taking over the lanes and baselines with unguardable  drives to the basket.  Inside, bigs Tyrone Gibbs and Vince Eskina got serious and took over under the basket.  The Red Raiders were shaken up, and never fully recovered from the second-half Truth onslaught, and the Truth went on to win 42-32.

In the championship, the Truth picked up where they left off with the Red Raiders in the pool game, and quickly established a 13-2 lead.  Big man Eskina accounted for 9 of those first 13 points.  Following Eskina’s lead, the rest of the Truth players, went on a balanced, game-long scoring frenzy.  Ultimately, the Truth finished the championship game with a commanding 66-22 victory, dashing the Red Raiders’ hopes for redemption.

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The KC Truth Black 2015 competed in the 8th Grade (2014) division of the KC Storm Fall Classic.  The Truth were in a three-team pool with the KC Cowboys and the KC Knights 8th Grade. They lost a close game to the Cowboys, 39-36, and then beat the KC Knights by a handy margin.  Their 1-1 pool record put The Truth in 2nd place in their pool, and left them unable to compete for the championship, as only the 1st place pool winners could advance to the championship.  However, The Truth did play for 3rd Place in the division, against the Gardner-Edgerton Blazers.

The Truth dominated the 3rd place game from the beginning, thanks to their breathtakingly intense defense, and an offense that has been increasing in rhythm and perfecting its execution by the game.

The Truth dominated the offensive game both inside and outside the lane.  The Truth owned the inside game on the strength of big men Vince Eskina, Tyrone Gibbs and Brandon Sublette, who outrebounded their opponents and scored at will under the basket.  The Truth guards, for their part, showed off spectacular drives on the baseline and into the lane by Anthony “Fuzzy’ Bonner, Drew Lock and Shawntez Scroggins.  The Truth also dominated from the three-point line, with a handful of players scoring from long-range, including Eskina, Lock, Bonner, Scroggins, Cartier Dean and DeAngelo “DeLo” Bruster.

Defensively, the Truth frustrated their opponent with an aggressive full-court press,  while alternating man-to-man defense with a continuous trapping zone defense in the half-court.

Overall, the KC Truth Black looked like a well-oiled machine.

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The KC Truth Red won all three of their pool games in the Viking Invitational, which earned them a trip to the semifinal game against the Mo-Kan Elite 6th grade team.  The semi-final turned out to be a hard-fought battle, from which Mo-Kan emerged the winner.  And while the Truth did not make it to the championship, they clearly made their mark on the division by reaching the semifinal game.

The KC Truth Black Earn Second Place in their Division

The KC Truth Black won all of their pool games in the Viking Invitational, in very convincing fashion.  The Truth then faced the Blue Valley Hawks 8th grade team in the semi-final, and once again posted a solid victory.  However, in moving on to the championship game, the Truth would face their toughest competition of the tournament when they played the Mo-Kan Elite 13Under.   Both of these 7th grade teams had dominated the 8th grade recreational division, and it was inevitable that they would face each other in the championship.

The Mo-Kan Elite came out offensively strong compared to the Truth in the first half, posting twice as many points the Truth did.  By half-time, Mo-Kan was leading 21-10.  The Truth had posted no fewer than 40 points in any game prior to this one (and racking up 70 in one), yet their offense was stalling on missed shots, and passed-up shots.  And while the formidable Truth defense caused a handy number of Mo-Kan turnovers, the Truth were not converting those turnovers to points.

In the second half, though, the Truth started to go to their offensive strengths, while concerning themselves less with their formal offense.  Behind some undefendable drives to the basket by guard Anthony “Fuzzy” Bonner and an increasingly aggressive press, the Truth scored twice as many points in the second half as they did in the first half.  And leave it to the Truth to make it interesting until the end.  With barely a minute and a half to go, the Truth finally employed their full-court press, causing successive turnovers and ending the second half with an offensive flurry by the Truth on an 8-2 scoring run. However, while the Truth outscored Mo-Kan 19-17 in the second half, they paid the price for their offensive inconsistency.  The Mo-Kan played a more consistent game from the beginning, and won the championship, 38-29.

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