On Thursday, the 66th Annual CYP Basketball Tournament at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Portchester, NY kicked off the start of the NY 2012 AAU season. The tournament took place in a small shoebox size court where players quickly found out they were in a tough man's competition, no harm no foul.

The Connecticut Select squad made their presence known in the opening quarter and the NJ team struggled with the small surroundings at first but Aaron Bodie (13pts) soon would give them the spark they needed later in the quarter. Haikim Sanitil (28pts) later hit a three-pointer that boosted NJ's lead. Select's Marcus Robinson (11pts) then made a jumper and the score was 21-17.

The Select played with a fully loaded team and the second quarter reflected that but the NJ squad did not go down without a fight. The score was tied twice in the quarter and Sanitil hit three-pointer that took the lead away from the Select with a minute remaining. As the minutes went down Sanitil dished a nice pass to Tyler Roberson to close out the half with NJ ahead, 40-35.

That was the last time the NJ team led in the match-up. Foul trouble and poor shooting got the best of them and Connecticut soon had a ten point lead. At the end of the third quarter the score was 54-49.

In the fourth, scoring became evenly distributed amongst the players on the Connecticut team which left NJ to rely on Sanitil, a one man show. Later, CT sent NJ packing and dribbled out the end of the quarter to a 75-64 finish.

This match-up came down to experience versus inexperience. Frenji Jr.,comprised of an all sophomore class, came out to prove that they could run with the big boys. NY Blaze, a mix of seniors and junior class men, showed up.

Frenji Jr. relied on the Rye Country HS duo, Tyler Fernandez (18pts) and Matt Staubi (17pts), to keep them in them game. By the end of the half the game was not even close with Frenji Jr losing by 15 points. NY Blaze senior, Antwan Boyd (20pts), scored a point at the line to close the half making the score 43-28.

The NY Blaze lived up to their name and lit up the young sophomore squad throughout the third quarter. Frenji Jr. only came within sixteen points and by the end of third quarter the score was 71-55.

In the fourth, with three and half minutes left, the NY Blaze were up 74-61. This was the closest the young squad came in this quarter. Super sophomore, 6'10' Chima Azuonu dunked two in for the Frenji Jr. but Blaze schooled the young team and sent them home packing; Tremaine Fraiser (14pts) scored the last bucket to close out the quarter making the final, 85-72.

On Friday the matchups will be: PC Savages vs. BC Eagles at 7:15pm followed by the Metro Hawks vs. Playmaker Academy at 8:30pm.