Mookie after leading Diamond to victory. Photo: Kyle Henry

When I arrived at the Cage (West 4th and Avenue of the Americas) yesterday afternoon, the sky was gloomy and rain was threatening the scheduled showdown between Diamond and Footprints. A light drizzle started almost simultaneously with tip-off, but luckily it subsided after about five minutes.

Footprints jumped out to a quick 17-7 lead behind the strong play of Charles Loft, who finished with a team-high 18 points. Diamond point guard John “Mookie” Thomas showed up mid-way through the first quarter, as soon as he checked in momentum turned in Diamond’s favor.

From the second quarter on Diamond controlled the tempo and maintained a comfortable lead. Footprints made one final push and cut the lead to six with about five minutes left in the contest, but Diamond righted the ship and closed out the game 105-97.

Mookie and Butta each finished with a game-high 21 points for Diamond. Loft led Footprints with 18 points and Jarrid Frye added 17. Play resumes at the Cage Wednesday July 23rd with Big Apple versus Derrick Adams. Tip-off is scheduled for 6pm.

Tuesday night at Nike Pro City (68th and Lexington) the two second half collapses weren’t of Lakers-Celtics game four proportion, but they were pretty close and left more than a few of the losing players miffed.

The first game featured the 3-2 X-Men and first place 4-1 Prime Time, which had to play without the services of now Golden State Warrior point guard Marcus Williams and Italy bound Brandon Jennings.

X-Men stormed out of the gates behind Mike “The Icon” Campbell, who finished with 23 points, and BJ McFarland, who dropped 20. Up 91-75 after the third, X-Men extended the lead to 20 early in the fourth and figured to have this game won. But former Philadelphia 76er and Denver Nugget guard Kenny “Serious Satellite” Satterfield put on one of the performances of the summer to rally Prime Time. The former Cincinnati University standout simply grabbed his lunch pail and hard hat and went to work.

With about 20 seconds left and Prime Time down three, Satterfield bombed-in a three with two defenders in his face from the left corner to tie the game. After a timeout advanced the ball to mid-court, X-Men threw the ball in to Campbell and isolated him on the left side against Sundiata “Yata” Gaines, the former all SEC selection who finished with 19 points. Campbell drove to the corner and gave a head-fake that got Yata off his feet to draw the foul. Campbell sank both free-throws to put X-Men back up a basket with two seconds left.

A Prime Time timeout advanced the ball to mid-court and after a perfect in-bounds pass on the left side, Satterfield put in a tier-drop high off the window to send the game to overtime.

With all the momentum on its side, Prime Time controlled the pace of overtime and got timely hoops from Satterfield and Keyon “Prime Time” Lawrence, who poured in 20 of his own, and Prime Time escaped with a 125-121 victory.

“We played together as a team. We got some stops, made some key baskets,” Satterfield said. “We had a pro missing and another guy who is pretty good so some other guys had to step up and they did.”

Game two of the doubleheader was almost as good. Reigning champ N.I.K.E. 1 entered in dire need of a victory at just 2-3, but fell behind by as many as 20 early in the third to United Brooklyn.

In the first half, Corey “Homicide” Williams showed why he might just be the best player on the New York City summer circuit right now. The mohawked-menace was un-guardable and had 32 points with six minutes left in the second quarter (that is not a misprint), but managed just 14 points the rest of the way to total 46 on the game. Double teams, triple teams, it didn’t matter; Homicide was on another planet.

N.I.K.E. cut the lead to nine early in the fourth behind the play of Junie “Mr.Excitement” Sanders, but the NBDL star fouled out with seven minutes to play. While an average team might have folded, N.I.K.E. showed the poise of a champ and proved it could deal with adversity. Garnett “Big Ticket” Thompson and Darren “Primal Fear” Phillip took over to rally the squad. Thompson had a tremendous all-around game, finishing with 28 points, 20 boards and five blocks. Primal Fear netted 23.

With the score tied at 110 with 28 seconds left, Primal Fear nailed a jumper from the left baseline to put N.I.K.E. up two. A timeout advanced the ball to mid-court, but United BK stepped on the sideline to give the ball to back to the champs. Phillip sealed the game with three free-throws and N.I.K.E prevailed 115-110.

N.I.K.E. is scheduled to take on Smush Parker’s Gold’s Gym team Tues. July 29 at 8:30pm.

Kiwan Smith after his record setting performance at Tri-State. Photo: Sean Couch

Last night at Tri-State Classic (145th and Lenox), 84th Street was in a battle against Sean Bell All-Stars up until mid-way through the third quarter. 84th went six minutes without a bucket during the middle of the third stanza, allowing Sean Bell All-Star’s to pull away and cruise to an easy 88-71 victory. Former DePaul University standout Cliff Clinkscales dropped two treys for Sean Bell during the 18-7 third quarter run. Iona graduate Justin Marshall led the winners with 23 points, while 84th Street got 15 from former John Jay College star Pablo Palma.

In the second contest, Kiwan “Smooth” Smith put on a show last night setting the scoring mark at Tri-State with 44 points. The mark breaks the record set by Smith’s teammate Jiggy Josh, who scored 37 points just last week. Smooth’s scoring explosion led the crowd favorite Most Hated squad to a 97-95 overtime victory over a sliding TNP. Smooth put the team on his back scoring eight straight points in crunch time and sending the game into OT, he then scored six-of-the-seven points in OT to seal the victory. TNP’s Charles “Blood Diamond” Jones scored 20 points.

TNP is having a rough year after running roughshod over the competition for the past 5 years on the summer ball scene. The backcourt of Aaron “Problem” Williams and Charles Jones is strong but they miss Quinton “T2” Hosely who is playing with Ed’s All-Stars in Tri-State. Commissioner Mousey is doing it all at Tri-State with Most Hated and 129 Raw bringing the crowd to the park. The tournament is building a following if you haven’t been to the Tri-State Classic this summer make a date on your calendar to visit.

The night chill in Washington Heights couldn’t keep the designated scorers from scorching the nets at Dyckman last night. Both Unlimited games featured the type of outdoor sharp shooting only NYC could produce. Jimmy Stars took on the Tony Rosa coached Mustangs in game one. Rosa, a.k.a Coach K of the streets, had a solid backcourt which featured the likes of Special FX, St. Francis College’s Jamal “J-Wo” Womack, and Ryan “Problem Child” Salcedo.

The trio, who all finished with double-digit points, was too much for the guards of Jimmy Stars, who only dressed five guys to start the game. A sixth man showed up with about five minutes left in the first half, but the damage had already been done. The Mustangs put on a clinic, scoring from inside and out, including a few left-handed bangers on the break courtesy of Special FX. “Problem Child” held it down from long distance, showing the crowd why he is Dyckman’s defending three-point shooting champion. Final score: 90-67 Mustangs.

The night cap, which had Team Dynasty face the young guns of KYDA, was an overtime thriller. Dynasty was led by former St. Ray’s guard Rich “Action” Jackson and a cat named Bobby with Ray Allen type skills. KYDA pushed the tempo with Butter Johnson and Our Savior Lutheran product Geddes Robinson. The game was fast paced with a lot of lead changes. In fact, no team led by more than five points until the very end. The extra period belonged to Dynasty’s Jackson and Bobby after Butter Johnson went cold. Final score: 91-85 Team Dynasty.

Contributors: BallGurl, Sean Couch, Trevor Kapp