The Playoffs at iS8
Fifty-Four teams began but only eight teams remain. The Elite Eight play tomorrow in the Quarterfinals.
In a veritable who's who of top D1 talent, the four do or die games begin at 10:30am EST and end with the last game starting at 2:15pm, with the Semifinals beginning and hour and change later, at 3:30pm. The championship will be on Sunday at 12 noon. These seven exciting wars of attrition will take place to determine who will be this years champion in the iS8/Nike Tip-Off Fall Classic. The strategy is simple. Win every game you play. The teams in the quarterfinals all belong there and have all gotten there in different ways. Here are the match-ups:
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10:30am Team Odom vs. Playaz Club-Seniors
The Playaz Club-Seniors are stacked. With 5'11, Fordham bound point guard, Jiovanny Fontan and Rutgers bound shooting guard, Mike Rosario plus Pittsburgh bound Travon Woodall, they are formidable however Team Odom is a scrappy unrelenting team. Team Odom's backbone rests with small forward Ryan Pearson. The recent George Mason commit showed a never say die attitude when Team Odom, which include his Christ the King teammate Sean Johnson, were 'Playaz slayaz' by defeating the Playaz Club-Juniors last Sunday. The Playaz Club-Seniors, however, may simply have too many weapons.
11:45am Mt. Vernon vs. The CT Basketball Club
Kevin Jones and Sherrod Wright of the Mt. Vernon Knights have their eye on the prize against their next door neighbors but the Chris Prescott and his CT Basketball Club see things differently. Prescott and his teammate, BJ Monters will have to play a flawless game and keep the ball out of Jone's hands to win this one.
1:00pm Gauchos vs. Shooting Stars
UConn commit, Kemba Walker wants this one bad and he and his Gaucho teammates Jordan Theodore, Durand Scott, and Chris Fouch will be right there to help him. The Shooting Stars come into this game fully loaded as the have Big men Samardo Samuels and Devin Ebanks plus (oh my gawd) Christian Morris, the beast, coming off the bench. This game, however, will be a battle of the little guys as the Gauchos will have to contend against Shooting Stars, guard and Florida commit, Erving Walker who has a knack for making a way out of no way. If the Gauchos are really hot from the outside they can win it but if not… Then again, the Gaucho's have been winning all summer long.
2:15pm Boy's & Girls vs. St. Ray's
This is the PSAL vs. CHSAA part two as Boy's & Girl's (Brookyln, NY) faces off against the team that upset Lance Stephenson & the Juice All-stars, St. Ray's (Bronx, NY). Truth be told, Lance was probably at 50% awesomeness due to just arriving back moments before from Indiana's Midnight madness but a win is a win regardless. The interesting thing about this game is that it's two "teams" playing each other. Two teams that play with each other all year 'round and run therefore more involved plays and sets. Boy's & Girl's led by Brandon Romain, Pat Jackson and big man, Kyrie Sutton haven't lost a game in the iS8. St. Rays has simply willed their way into the playoffs behind the veteran leadership of Darryl Bryant and Omari Lawrence plus keys buckets from Kevin Parrom. To me this game is a pick 'em.
The two semifinal games begin at 3:30pm and all promise to be "off the hook". The iS8 is located at 108-35 167th St. in Jamaica, NY 11433-2945. Come early and stay late or you can wait to see the webcast of the semifinals and championship game on HSBnetwork.TV, which will be available FREE to all Rivals.com subscribers. Highlights will be available to the public on NYCHoops.net.
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