ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Brickett’s Soleil Chea, left, tries to wrestle the ball away from Sewell-Anderson’s Neveah Eth.
By MIKE ALONGI
LYNN — There’s a new prize awaiting the winners of the 40th Annual Lynn Elementary Basketball Tournament. In past years, teams were split into three divisions and battled it out, with only two wins sometimes earning a team a tournament championship. So to alleviate that, tournament organizer Sean Morris and his team decided to change things up a bit by consolidating the teams into two divisions and then creating a city-wide championship game for each division winner.
“One of the main reasons we changed it is because with the three divisions, there just weren’t enough teams, and teams were playing a couple games and winning the tournament,” Morris said. “We had a double-tier format a long time ago, like 25 years back, so we decided to bring that back and then add a brand-new element with the city championship. When we had three divisions that wasn’t really possible, but now that we have two we figured we should add in another game at the end so the winning teams can keep playing.”
Morris, now in his sixth year running the tournament, said that there were a number of factors that went into the decision to switch things up.
“We got a lot of feedback from coaches, players and parents about the little amount of games played, so we wanted to change things,” said Morris. “This is all for the kids, we just want them to be out there having fun so we’ll do whatever we can to make that happen.”
The teams are split into Division 1 and Division 2 for both boys and girls, with each team playing in a double-elimination bracket to decide a division winner. Then, the division winners will match up for a winner-take-all city championship on March 31.
The teams participating in the tournament this year are Cobbet, Ingalls, Brickett, Sewell-Anderson, Ford, Sisson, Washington, Lynn Woods, Callahan, Aborn, Lincoln-Thomson, Drewicz, Shoemaker, Harrington, Tracy and Fallon Elementary.
RESULTS
The tournament got going Thursday with a Div. 1 boys game, as Ingalls took down Cobbet, 36-13.
Cobbet was unable to contain the balanced attack of the Rockets, who had eight players score, including 12 from Mitchell Purter and eight from Canei McLoed. Cobbet’s Edwin Valenzuela and Greg Scipion each had five points in the loss. Ingalls plays again next Friday at 3:15 p.m.
Game 2 was the first of three girls games of the day, pitting Brickett against Sewell-Anderson in a Division 2 matchup, as Sewell-Anderson came out on top, 14-7. Despite a late surge by Brickett, Sewell-Anderson prevailed behind six points from Nevaeh Eth and four points each from Jomary Lora and Gabriella Willis. Jaeliegh Perry was the high scorer for Brickett.
The day’s third game saw the Eagles of Sisson taking their first step to repeat last year’s divisional championship against the Ford Falcons, as Sisson won 27-16. Sisson’s potent offense was led by the 1-2 punch of Lorynes Suriel with 13 points and standout point guard Brooke Moloney with 10 points. Ford was led by Ahjeanee Hyacinthe‘s nine points and four points from Aaliyah Avalo. Sisson plays again next Thursday at 3:15 p.m.
The final game of the day was a contest between Washington and last year’s Division 3 champs, Lynn Woods, as Lynn Woods emerged victorious in a lopsided game.
Lynn Woods pulled out the victory behind Kaleigh Bullock‘s 14 points and six points from Arelys Ruiz. Wendy Macario was the high scorer for Washington. Lynn Woods will meet Sewell-Anderson in the semi-final next Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
First round games will resume Friday afternoon at Pickering at 3 p.m. All games are open to the public and admission is just $1.
