Mike “The Icon” Campbell scoring one of his game-high 28 points at West 4th. Photo. Trevor Kapp

West 4th

It’s been a good summer for former St. John’s Red Storm players. Kyle Cuffe and Eugene “Built Ford Tough” Lawrence have made names for themselves all over the city. Ryan “Special FX” Williams has become a superstar before our very eyes. And Daryll “Showtime” Hill and Ron Artest took home a Pro City title last week.

Wednesday night, that Lou Carneseca magic seemed to run out, as X-Men routed the Lawrence and Chudney Gray-led Big Apple Basketball, 106-86, at West 4th St (3rd St., 6th Ave.)

Eugene “Built Ford Tough” Lawrence at West 4th. Photo. Trevor Kapp

This contest wasn’t really close from the start, as X-Men led by 10 after the first and took a 58-39 lead into the break behind “Tommie Gun” Eddie’s 14 first-half points.

B.A.B. came out on an 8-0 run start the second half, which seemed to reinvigorate the crowd, but X-Men countered that with an 8-0 run of its own to extend the lead back to 19. The X-Men put it on cruise control the rest of the game and dispatched of the over matched B.A.B. squad.

Mike “The Icon” Campbell dropped a game-high 28 points, 18 coming in the second half and Eddie finished with 23 for X-Men. Gray finished with 17 and Lawrence tallied 15 for B.A.B.

X-Men’a Tommie Eddie at West 4th. Photo. Trever Kapp.

Tri-State

Money Train was fully loaded in the back court with Smush Parker and Antwan “Anti-Freeze” Dobie. Suiting up for Bingo’s All-Star’s was Ron Artest, the Glover Brothers, and Kareem “Big Game” Reid. Money Train got off to a slow start despite a quick 10 points by Darren “DP” Phillips early in the game.

In the second, Bingo’s Kareem Reid took over, dishing seven first-half assists and leading them to a 58-45 half-time lead. Bingo was up 64-51 in the middle of the third when Smush Parker went with a triple-cross move that caused crowd spill-out on to the court. The move sparked Money Train and slowly played their way back into the game.

In the fourth quarter, Junie Sanders hit three tough off-the-backboard mid-range jumpers cutting into the lead. Then, Anti-Freeze rang long distance scoring 11 straight points, the highlight move – a double in-and-out cross, bringing his team within 1. After a defensive stop, DP corralled an offensive rebound and put it back for the score and one putting them up by two with 27 seconds to go.

Bingo came out and couldn’t manage a good look at the rim. After a mad scramble and a defensive deflection, the Cab Driver got the ball on the right side at the three point line with a second to go. The ball hit the rim twice before bouncing off to the left giving Money Train a 106-104 victory. Anti-Freeze led all scorers with 32 points, DP had 22, and Corey Underwood scored 21. For Bingo’s, Ron Artest dropped had 30 points and the Cab Driver went for 24.

In the Second semi-final, a strong Ed’s All-Stars crew battled against the X-Men. The X-Men came out on fire with Gary “Harlem Sniper” Plummer hitting treys. Ed’s countered with the strong inside play of Gordie Malone. Ed’s took over on the offensive boards in the third quarter coupled with strong drives by Kenny Satterfield to extend their lead to 75-58, but the X-Men fought hard. Tommy Eddie and a late-arriving Steve Burtt Jr., who showed up at half, put together a run with Steve scoring 10 fourth quarter points to tie the score at 84-84 with 2 minutes to go in the contest. But then Quinton “T2” Hosely converted in the post with a big bucket for the score and one to put them up 87-84 with 30 seconds to go and Ed’s outlasted the X-Men 91-86.

Contributed by Sean Couch and Trevor Kapp