Last night at the Tri-State Classic the games were moved indoor to Gauchos Gym (478 Gerard Avenue in the Bronx) due to rain. Before the game began there was a buzz about the pending match up between Raw 129th Street’s God Shammgod and Diamond’s John “Mookie” Thomas. Shammgod is a rough cover for any defender and Thomas had his problems covering the former Providence College guard with the Yo-Yo handle. The game got extremely physical and Shammgod made up his mind that he was going to dip his head and get to the basket at all costs. Raw 129th Street used a 13-2 run with four minutes left in the third quarter to go up 84-71, with Shammgod scoring seven of his 21 points in that span to close out the quarter. Diamond answered with a 13-1 run of its own to come within one point. James “Stixx” Williams took over the game controlling the offensive boards scoring 11 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to lead Diamond to a 103-98 victory in this rough, physical contest. Sean “Murda” Simpson scored 25 points and Perry Wilkes had 22 for the winners.
In the second game, former University of Albany forward Aquawasi St. Hillaire scored 21 points, including five threes in the second half to lead Sean Bell All-Stars to a 72-69 victory over Bowen Basketball. Dave Capers, the former University of St. Bonaventure Star, had 16 points for Bowen and Rahmel Allen, formerly of the University of Bridgeport had 15.
If you’re looking for something to do tonight, swing by Nike Pro City (68th and Lexington). The Uptowners take on Smush Parker and Gold’s Gym in the 6:30 game and Queensbridge, led by Ron Artest and Ryan “Special FX” Williams take on Andre “Dre 3000” Barrett.
Contributed by Sean Couch
July 24th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
splash20 says:
i’ve been covering aquawasi, who goes by q, all summer at west 4th. he won the dunk contest and hit a buzzer beater at the all star game on the same day. if he had a handle, he’d be unstoppable.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
dave capers and i ran together for 97th St. in the SBL this past winter. he’s plays super smart and has NBA experience written all over him. you can kind of tell when someone has had a bit of coffee in the league. they just play different. i heard he had a bad knee injury that greatly affected his career, but that he still rocked overseas for a while. cool dude, be nice to hear more about him this summer.