Posts tagged KC Truth Black 2015

KC Truth Black 2015 Place at the KC Storm Fall Classic

The KC Truth Black 7th Grade took 3rd Place in the 8th grade division of the KC Storm Fall Classic, held on November 20-22.

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.

KC Truth Competes in the Shawnee Mission West Viking Invitational

The KC Truth Red Make it to the Semi-Final Game in their Division

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.