Dyckman 2008 champions Bingo’s All-Stars. Photo by BallGurl

Dyckman

B-I-N-G-O spells champions, or at least it did last night, after the world famous crew defeated Take No Prisoners for the Dyckman Tournament title.

Defense was the name of this game, and Bingo’s was just slightly better as they forced their opponent into critical turnovers down the home stretch. The new champs were also helped by uncharacteristic poor free throw shooting performances from TNP’s Jason “J-Hi” McLeish and Charles Jones. Both J-Hi and CJ easily buried from the field what they couldn’t hit at the charity stripe, but it just wasn’t enough in the end.

Ron “Tru Warier” Artest suited up for Bingo despite rumors he had obligations with the Rockets that would keep him away and played an incredible inside-outside game en route to the W.

The highly anticipated Dyckman championship between reigning T.O.C. winners TNP and Bingo’s All-Stars finally took place after a tornado warning forced a re-schedule of last Friday’s contest. The only visible tornado last night was the spin cycle Corey Fisher put his defenders through.

The youngster played an exceptional lead guard role, directing traffic for seasoned playground vets like Anthony Glover, Duane “40″ Woodward, and Andre Sweet. Fisher, Villanova’s current floor general, was named ’ship MVP at the end of the night after dropping 16 points and five assists. J-Hi led all scorers with almost 30 points for the losing side. Final score: 67-55.

West 4th 2008 MVP “Tommie Gun” Eddie of X-Men. Photo by Trevor Kapp

West 4th

“This is the greatest sports night of the year,” one excited fan exclaimed before Monday evening’s West 4th St. championship game between X-Men and Money Train. But by the fourth quarter, that die-hard was gone, as were most of the always-animated West 4th faithful.

The much-hyped contest between X-Men and Money Train turned into one of the biggest beatings of the summer, with X-Men knocking off the Tri-State champs, 115-79. This game was a blowout from the jump. Corey “The Undertaker” Underwood, Antawn “The Teacher” Dobie and Junie “Mr. Excitement” Sanders all arrived late for Money Train and X-Men took advantage, jumping out to a 33-12 lead after the first. The guys in black led 45-19 with 7:20 left in the second and Money Train never got closer than 17 the rest of the way.

“Tommie Gun” Eddie, who is basically the NYC playground version of David West, led X-Men with 30 points, 22 coming in the second half, and took home MVP honors. But Eddie believed it was more about the team than any individual.

“We had to come together,” Eddie said. “We’ve been fighting for this for so long and this was all mental, all summer.”

But don’t think Eddie’s overlooking his MVP award. “It’s very special. It means a lot to me, more than all my other MVPs,” Eddie said.

Mike “The Icon” Campbell, who was really the glue to this team and could have easily won MVP, added 28 points, 13 coming in the first quarter. But like Eddie, Campbell said it wasn’t as much about the numbers as it was the W.

“As you get older, you see that it’s not about individual stats,” Campbell said. “I know I can get points but I can also just be a facilitator and I just pick and choose my shots.”

Dobie scored 18 points for Money Train and Sanders dropped 16, but the team got just ten combined points from Ryan “Special FX” Williams and Underwood.

X-Men now advances to the Nike Tournament of Champions scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 23. Asked how he liked his team’s chances, Campbell said, “I think they’re good. We know everybody who’s gonna be in there and we’re hungry so we’re gonna go in and try to make some noise.”

Shout outs to Ron Creth, Rick Jackson, Arizona Pearson, and of course Kenny Graham for another great summer at West 4th. Already looking forward to next May.

Mike “The Icon” Campbell of X-Men at West 4th. Photo by Trevor Kapp

Contributed by Ball Gurl and Trevor Kapp