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By
Dan
Vance
Franchise484@aol.com
April 13th, 2005
NBA
Draft: College Seniors Raise Stock at PIT
From April 6 to 9, the
annual Portsmouth Invitational Tournament was held at Churchland High School
in Portsmouth, Virginia.
The tournament featured
sixty-four of the best college basketball seniors and is the only
post-season event for NBA prospects prior to the Pre-Draft Camp in Chicago
this June.
The tournament has three
rounds of play between eight teams (each with eight players). This year’s
winning team was the Portsmouth Sports Club, consisiting of Chuck Hayes
(Kentucky), David Simon (IPFW), Judson Wallace (Princeton), Quemont Greer
(DePaul), Tyrone Salley (West Virginia), Andre Owens (Houston), Doron
Perkins (Santa Clara) and Corey Santee (TCU).
With the exception of
Wallace and Salley, each of the members of this team earned All-Conference
honors in their respective conferences.
Round one saw wins from
Holiday Inn Porstmouth, Norfolk Sports Club, Norfolk Naval Shipyard and the
championship team, PSC.
PSC picked up and 86-81
victory over Beach Barton Ford in the first round, led the by the
double-double of Hayes, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Greer (19), Owens
(16) and Wallace (13) also were in double-digit scoring for PSC.
Jackie Manual (North
Carolina) led Beach Barton Ford with 22 points.
In semi-final action on
Friday evening, Holiday Inn Portsmouth was the first team to advance to the
title game via a 99-90 win over Norfolk Sports Club. David Logan
(Indianapolis) led Holiday Inn with 23 points. Jared Homan of Iowa State
chipped in 20 of his own.
Norfolk Sports Club had
five players in double-digit scoring, led by 19 from Taylor Coppenrath of
Vermont.
In the other semi-final,
heavy favorites Norfolk Naval Shipyard fell big, 92-59 to PSC.
NNS boasted seven players
on their eight-man roster who were in the NCAA Tournament this year.
Included on the team were Aaron Miles (Kansas), D’or Fischer (West
Virginia), Taron Downey (Wake Forest), Ed McCants (UW-Milwaukee) and Omar
Thomas (UTEP).
PSC shot early and often
in the semi-final pulling ahead 43-30 at the break. The champions took 54
first half shots compared to the 30 taken by NNS.
Mindaugas Katelynas
(UT-Chattanooga) led NNS with 17 points in the loss. Leading the way to the
title game for PSC was Greer with 23 points. Also in double figures were
Hayes (18), Owens (14), Perkins (10) and Santee (10).
Greer also had 10
rebounds while Hayes added 11 to give each a double-double.
In the Saturday night
title game, a tied halftime game turned into a comfortable win for PSC.
Despite improved shooting in the second half for Holiday Inn Portsmouth, PSC
shot 60 percent from the field in the second half to walk away with the
101-91 win.
In addition, six PSC
players were in double figures scoring. Greer again led PS, this time with
18 points. Simon, who was the only player out of an Indiana college to test
the draft waters as an underclassman in 2004, broke out a double-double of
13 points and 12 rebounds.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard
won the third place game 88-87 over Norfolk Sports Club. In the consolation
meeting, MD Designs topped Tidewater Sealants 122-100.
This was the fifty-third
annual year for the tournament.
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