CELTICS REIGN SUPREME IN CHAMPIONSHIP TILT

The Tulsa Celtics squared off against the Supreme Court Soldiers in a rematch of an earlier tournament game which the Soldiers won 46-41. This time the Championship was on the line and it looked like another Soldier victory as the athletic Supreme Court unit struck early and often to erect a 12 point lead in the first half.

The Celtics were cold from outside, and were getting beat on the defensive boards by the Soldiers. The 5 Celtics in the game when we went into the forty full court press were Santos, Shannon, Reynolds, Pinkerton and McIlroy. They pressured the Soldiers into three straight turnovers and converted to cut the 20-11 lead to 20-17. A slick, spinning power move by Hall of the Soldiers made it 22-17 at the half, but we had the momentum.

The second half was CELTIC basketball deluxe. Crisp, unselfish passing created open shots; Matt Reynoldswrap (Bishop Kelley HS), Brock-coli Morton(Holland Hall HS), SeanJohnMcIlroy (Kelley HS), ChrisCrossCaresio (Kansas HS), PriceisrightPinkerton(Cascia Hall HS) & AlanVonSantos(Holland Hall HS) all played their roles and defended intensely. We blocked out a lot better than we had the first half. Jaredthe Wiseman (Union HS) was in basketball mode and dominated the inside and provided the STRENGTH we desperately needed against the leaping Soldiers. That covers seven of the Celtics.

The eighth Celtic, Corey Shannon(Broken Arrow HS), provided the necessary ingredient to spark us DEFENSIVELY. We went to a BOX and ONE on the Soldier who had been killing us offensively. The first two possessions we were in the box and one, the soldier worked hard (but unsuccessfully!) to get open; he did NOT receive the ball. After that, he kind of gave up on working hard; Corey basically knocked out their scoring punch. In fact, I don't believe he touched the ball the remainder of the game. The box did their job, with Brock and Matt out front defending hard AND smart. The backend, Jared, Sean & Chris, snatched most of the rebounds on the first Soldier miss.

Defense is what won this tournament for us. Shannon, Morton and McIlroy drew multiple charging calls. Caresio improved his blocking out and was powerful in the paint offensively. Reynolds played his usual stellar game of running the offense, tenacious defense & knocking down big shots. McIlroy and Morton played large inside and produced timely points. Santos had some spectacular plays. Pinkerton provided needed lift on offense with his quick, twisting power drives and also executed well on the 40 press. Wise progressively played better throughout the tourney, culminating with a dominating Shaquille like performance in the Championship game.

All eight of the Celtics gave great effort on defense and showed improvement on our man-to-man "team" defense, providing great help when necessary.

Coach Art & I so look forward to watching all the former Celtics as they continue their success playing for their High School teams. As Corey Shannon reminded me this weekend, with words he has heard for many years:

"The harder you are on yourself; the easier LIFE is...on you!"

It was a classic and well deserved CELTIC TEAM victory, 41-29, and another hard earned championship added to the CELTIC resume.

Congrats to the CELTICS@