Last second shot gives

Boat Shed control of Div. II

by Mark Butcher

Sports Writer

The rims where not as welcoming in the venerable Bremerton Brick Place (Sheridan Park gymnasium) to the men of the Parks & Rec Fall Basketball League (Div. II) Tuesday (Oct. 16^th) night. Only three players, Ulysses Williams IV (22 pts), Jensen Bumanglag (21), and Dontrel Madison (20), put twenty or more points into the scorebook. The week prior six players accomplished the feat. Williams being the only repeat performer.

As anticipated, the opening game between the league’s two undefeated team, Boat Shed (1-0) and Casey’s Bail Co. (1-0), was the most exciting of the three contests Tuesday night. It was a classic contest of young and energic (Boat Shed) versus mature and experienced (Casey’s Bail Co.). Boat Shed opened by jumping to a quick ten-point lead.

Fortunately, Casey’s had added Bumanglag, a Bremerton alumni, to their roster prior to the tip-off because the addition paid dividends immediately. Scoring 19 of his game-high 21 point in the opening period, behind three three-point baskets, Bumanglag’s hot-hand slowed Boat Shed’s advance and enabled Casey’s to take the lead, 39-to-37, by half-time.

The second twenty-two minutes of play was nothing like the first. Instead of a repeat of the speedy long-range shootout, in which a combined twelve three-point baskets were made, the second half became a controlled inside contest, Casey's preferred style. In the last stanza, only five long-range shots passed through the twine for scores

With the pace now better suited to his late-thirty years, Casey’s insider Dontiel Madison, an Olympic High alumni, became the player to stop, as he converted six field goals and two free throws for 14 points. Taylor Neal, a South Kitsap grad, help by dropping two threes in route to 10 second-half points.

Lacking size, Boat Shed had a difficult time defensively matching up with Casey’s and switched to a zone defense to clog up the paint. The strategy work, holding Casey’s to just 29 second half points, ten less than their first-half total. On the other end of the floor, last week’s leading scorer Atyus Smith found his touch and made seven baskets to record a team-high 18 points.

Fittingly, the well-played contest came down to a final second shot.

Tied at 66-all, with 2:20 left to play, both teams made several attempts to go ahead, with Casey’s final converting a field goal to take a 68-to-66 lead, with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game.

Boat Shed countered with several good shots but the ball refused to fall. Playing with a “we are not going to lose” passion, Bremerton alumni Teni Vaoifi passed up an offensive rebound putback, in which he mostly would have been fouled for an and-one trip to the free throw line, and instead dribbled the ball from inside the paint to outside the arc. With the clock ticking down to zero, the entire gym watched Vaoifi’s forwarded leaning three-point shot swish through the net to give Boat Shed a one-point win, 69-to-68, enabling them to retain their unblemished record.

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- image by Jim P.

Coach Dave Lewis giving instructions to Sound Life Church players during the final game time-out.

To follow behind an emotional win that charges up a gym is hard for any team, and that honor fell to All-State (1-0) and Sound Life Church (0-1) at 7:05 p.m.

New to the Parks & Rec Men’s Basketball scene, Sound Life jumped out to a quick 10-to-0 lead before All-State converted their first basket. With the absence of Jeffrey and Nathan Perry, both double-digit scorers last week, lack of offensive punch haunted All-State the entire game.

Trailing 21-to-17 at half-time, all seven All-State players managed to record a basket before the final whistle but Bremerton alumni Ulysses Williams IV would be the only All-State player to record more than five points.

Slowly through the second half, behind a game-high 22 points, Williams helped All-State claw back into the game. With 34 seconds remaining in regulation Sound Life coach Dave Lewis, a veteran Sheridan Park player now coaching, called time-out with his team leading 43-to-39. Out of the break, Williams stole the ball and scored his final three points to put All-State within a point of tying the game.

But another Bremerton alumni, Danny Broussard, would deny All-State a comeback victory and get Sound Life its first Bremerton Brick Palace win, 45-to-42, with two net only free throws. Broussard ended with a team-high 17, followed by Tim Cootz Jr. with 12.

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The third and final game at Sheridan, on any night, is the quiet game. With a 8:10 p.m. start time, the hour is getting late, the players from the two previous games have gone home, and the spectator seats have emptied.

It was in this setting that the league’s two unwon team faced off, McClouds (0-1) and Honey Badgers (0-1). Although both teams had stumbled on opening night, the game featured three 20-point scorers. McClouds’ Drew Vettleson, who stuck six three-pointers for a game-high 20 points, and Honey Badgers’ Mykhael Hayes and Dez Johnson, who together accounted for forty of the Badgers 52 points.

A low scoring affair, the Badgers held a 28-to-22 lead at half-time, behind three long-range baskets by Hayes. In the second half, Johnson took over the scoring role for the Badgers, tallying eight in route to his team-high 14 points. Hayes ended the game with 12.

On the other end of the floor, McClouds’ Tyler Baumgartner proceeded to outscored both Johnson and Hayes, with a game-high 16 points. Old man Jerry Vettleson, who graduated from Central Kitsap High in 1977, provided Baumgartner with strong support, converting four three-point shots for 14 points, and newcomer Alex Morales added an additional 13, garnering seven of those points at the free throw line.

With the win, McClouds (1-1) moved into a four-way tie for 2^nd place. Honey Badgers (0-2) falls to the bottom of the standing. They have an opportunity to correct their two-game slide with a win next Wednesday (Oct. 24^th) against Boat Shed (2-0) and more right back in the hunt for the league championship. An obtainable objective, being that both of Honey Badgers losses have been by six points or less.

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