NY Rens Roll to Rumble in the Bronx 17u Chip

In his first time back at House of Sports in Ardsley since his departure from the program after last summer, NY Rens head coach Andy Borman hoped to lead his new squad to a Rumble in the Bronx 17u Championship on Sunday in the building he once called home.

While that was Borman's goal, the fact that he was going to have do it without the services of guards Rawle Alkins, Mustapha Heron, and Devonte Green, was going to make his run significantly harder.

It may have looked like a tough proposition on paper, but Borman's Rens were confident in there abilities on Sunday and met each challenge head on throughout the day.

The quarterfinals against USAD to start Sunday posed the biggest issue for Borman's men as they needed double overtime to fight off the effort from the Connecticut based team, though in the semifinals things proved to be a big easier as they fought off a good showing from the Iowa Barnstormers by 10, and in the championship it was fellow NYC squad the Juice All-Stars that was left between them and taking home the title.

Without so much firepower The Rens were getting extremely impressive offensive outings throughout the first two games from the Christ the King trio of Jared Rivers '16, Tyrone Cohen '16, and Jose Alvarado '17, who came up from the 16u Rens team to help out the older group for their run on Sunday.

All three were coming big in the big spots, but they would be needed even more in the biggest spot, the Championship Game against Juice, if they wanted to be crowned Rumble champs.

Both teams were coming right back from wins in the semifinals to play in the title game, and with only 30 minutes in between games, the question going in was which team would have the legs in the early going to take control at the start.

The answer was quickly given as it was The Rens who jumped out on Juice as Rivers scored 6 points in the first three minutes of the game, and when wing Tyrn Flowers (Sacred Heart, CT '16) knocked down a trey from the left wing, it was a 12-2 Rens lead with 12:29 to go in the half.

After a Juice timeout, it was guard Rakym Felder (The Patrick School, NJ '16) who buried a three ball that gave the Brooklyn based team hope that they would be starting a rally, but the early domination by The Rens soon continued.

Alvarado was able to finish with his left hand in the lane against traffic, and then off a steal at midcourt, Alvarado again had the ball in his hands and found a cutting Flowerrs going in for an alley oop bucket.

The lead for The Rens grew to 21-5 with just until 10 minutes to go in the opening half before Juice finally started to find its way.

Kaleb Morton (Delsea, NJ '16) was able to knocked down a pair of threes from the right side, and then Felder started beating the Rens trap with more consistency and getting to the rim for easy buckets driving in, but while Juice was doing more offensively, they were still struggling to stop The Rens defensively.

Rivers had an enormous first half from the field as he had 14 opening half points, and when wing Opong Bramble (Brunswick School, CT '16) tipped in a Flowers miss at the halftime buzzer, it was The Rens with a comfortable 42-26 lead at the break.

Juice had at least stayed within striking distance, but all looked done for them less than a minutes into the 2nd half as after arguing with the referee about a call, guard Cahiem Brown (St. Raymond '16) was hit with two technical fouls and was ejected from the game. On the same incident, Felder also picked up a technical, which send Rivers to the FT line for 6 shots.

Rivers went 5 of 6 from the charity stipe, and the lead was swelled up 21 for The Rens, and without Brown there was a serious question of how Juice would make up for his offensive loss.

You have to give Juice credit for the effort they put together once Brown was thrown out as guard Jahlil Tripp (Abraham Lincoln '16) was able to put together a nice stretch of play from the midrange, and with Morton getting hot from behind the arc, the once 21 point lead of The Rens was cut to as little as 6 at 75-69.

As Juice started to warm up, The Rens guards started to cool off a bit, though a big Cohen finish off a feed from Alvarado helped stem the Juice momentum, and after Alvarado hit on a floater in the lane with just under 3 minutes to play, the Rens lead was back up to a comfortable 81-69 margin, and things were looking up for them to close out the game strong.

Morton and Tripp each sent home late threes from the left and right wings respectively, but a thunderous dunk late from new Rens big man Tyrique Jones (Vermont Academy, VT '16) in the end helped The Rens hold on when the final buzzer sounded for the 87-77 victory and the 2015 Rumble in the Bronx 17u Boys Championship.

It was a great win for the Adidas sponsored Rens program as even without some very important pieces on Sunday, they were able to run past three teams for the impressive Rumble title win.

Rivers was an offensive wizard as he led The Rens with 29 points in the championship game victory, scoring both inside and outside and doing just about everything his team could've needed. Alvarado added 23 points and 8 assists, while Flowers was named Tournament MVP and finished up with 8 points in the championship victory.

For Juice in defeat it was Tripp who had 17 points to pace the way, while Morton connected on 4 threes and had 16 points in a solid title game performance.

In the end, Borman got to leave HOS as a champion once again, only this time he did it with The Rens, and he didn't do it with the current big name Rens stars, rather he did it with players like Rivers, and Alvarado, and Cohen, players who now look well on their way to becoming big name Rens stars of there own.

City Rocks rock NY Lightning for 16u Rumble Championship, 82-66

Even while playing down a couple of stars in wing Hameir Wright (Albany Academy '17) and guard Dominick Welch (Cheektowaga '17) who were in St. Louis at the Nike Elite Top 100 Camp, it was City Rocks who rolled right through the 16u division as they won each game they played by double digits en route to the dominating 16u Rumble in the Bronx title win.

The Upstate power got a huge effort from Maceo Jack (Williamsville North '17) all weekend long as he was named 16u MVP pouring in 22 points in the title game victory, though he was a force in each game he played really making a name for himself in a big way with his stellar play.

It was a team effort though as everyone for City Rocks contributed in some way in the championship victory.

The Lightning were paced by Matt Turner (Blair Academy, NJ '17) as the guard had 20 points in the loss, though he had 31 in the teams quarterfinal win, and 22 in the semifinals making him one of the tournaments top scorers.