Jr. Celtics Continue Streak - "Hammond Time!"

The Tulsa Jr. Celtics won their third straight tournament with a slightly different cast of players last week in the Tulsa Bulldog Basketball Tournament played at the Frank Herald gym at Jenks HS.



Cale Hammond, Brock Morton, Jarred Wise, C.J. Sidorakis and Chaquelle Quinn were joined by two Verdigris players; Jared Whitmire and Chris Reif. Since it was Jared and Chris's first game with the Celtics, we focused on teaching "Celtic" and two inbounds plays. The Celtics easily handled their first opponent, the BLAZERS on Saturday after receiving a first round bye to advance to Sunday's semifinal against the Tulsa Hawks who had defeated the Owasso Rams and the DAWGZ (or maybe Tulsa HEAT).

It was a very hard fought game. The refs allowed pretty physical play and we squandered a 10 point lead late in the second half and it became a full fledged dogfight, appropriate I guess since the tourney was the BULLDOG tournament.

The Hawks hit a 3 pointer to tie the game with less than 20 seconds to go; we handled the pressure and took a shot with seconds left that was a blatant foul; however, in reality, it was NOT a foul because the referee did not call it. The shot bounced off and we went into a one minute overtime period.

OVERTIME: Hammond Heroics

The Hawks scored on a follow shot (our inside defensive positioning was horrendous!) and we called timeout with about 14 seconds left in the game. Brock got the inbounds pass and reversed several times before driving left of the lane with two guys hanging on him; he passed to Jared Whitmire in the corner as the clock ticked down to five seconds; handling pressure he threw a short 5 ft pass back to Brock but it was directed at Brock's ankle; 3 seconds left; Brock grabbed it with two hands, pivoted and fired a two-hand overhead pass to a wide open Cale Hammond, just right of the top of the key; he caught & launched with a nice release..... 1 second......and as the buzzer sounded, the Celtic contingent of players and fans were relieved as the ball almost simultaneously cut through the cords without touching rim,,,,,and the junior CELTICS had continued their undefeated streak and advanced to the Championship game to be played later that day.


As expected, the Hawks advanced through the losers bracket for a rematch. This time the stakes were higher. One game championship. Individual trophies for the players.

The Celtics were up to the task as they seized control early and built a 16 point lead; however, they couldn't keep the athletic & tenacious Hawks from coming back to make it a ballgame. The Hawks actually cut the lead to 35-28 with about 3 minutes left.

We did what was necessary and ended up taking the championship by 10 points. Three straight Championships. Still undefeated as Junior Celtics.