Celtics not SCARED of Braves; Take Halloween TITLE!

2006 Hardwood

Halloween Hoopbuster Champions

High School Division

Tulsa Celtics

Top:Brock Morton, Tyler Thalken, Stephen Smith, Coach Morton, Nick Harris

Bottom: Robert Aery, Alan Santos and Matt Reynolds
Less than 6 hours after suffering a heartbreaking triple-overtime loss to last years 5A State Champions, the CELTICS dismantled the Braves in the 2nd half to take another Hardwood Championship with a 54-47 victory.



The Celtics held a 23-17 lead late in the 1rst half, before turnovers and hot shooting enabled the Braves to tie the score at 23 to end the first half. After some scoreboard controversy which left the Celtic fans yelling about an error in scoring, there were no changes made and the score stood even at 28 though our fans believed it should at least be 29-28 in our favor.

Soon after, we established a lead and had the court demeanor that we expected to win. Harris battled the much taller Braves inside while receiving excellent help from Tyler Thalken & Steven Smith. Robert Aery, Alan Santos and Matt Reynolds defended well outside while being cognizant of when the Brave center posted up at the free throw line. Brock Morton took the taller #1 sharpshooter and eliminated any open looks from 3 pt range.

During a long Celtic run which broke open the game, Smith & Reynolds each knocked down a three pointer, and Aery and Morton each hit two 3-pointers while Thalken and Harris scored inside. We actually held a 53-37 lead with just a few minutes left before some sloppy Celtic play ballhandling, coupled with hot shooting by the Braves kept the final score from being out of hand.

The key to the victory though was the defensive effort by the Celtics. Thalken and Morton kept rebounds alive and blocked out the Brave center on numerous occasions; Smith had 3 highlight blocks; Harris delivered his consistent, powerful inside game to lead us in rebounding again; while Reynolds toughness created turnovers that he, Aery and Santos would end up with. It was a total team victory and a great way to end the "off-season" hoop action as these and past Celtics will be playing for their High Schools from now until after the State tournaments in March of 2007.

These seven Celtics bought into this coach's philosophy of teamwork, effort and defense can win championships. And, luckily, the CELTICS DID WIN ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP!

Congratulations to newest Celtic Robert Aery and Steven Smith, Alan Santos, Nick Harris, Brock Morton, Matt Reynolds & Tyler Thalken.

Celtics take out Bounty Hunters

The Tulsa Celtics broke open a tight ballgame and eliminated the Bounty Hunters 71-52 to earn the right to play the Central Braves for the 2006 Hardwood Productions Halloween Hoopbuster High School Championship.

The Celtics held a 20-19 lead with about 4 minutes left in the first half before stringing together 9 straight points for a 29-19 lead. They never let up and coasted to a 71-52 victory. Big man Nick Harris battled out of his free throw slump by nailing 4 consecutive throws, and added a long assist to Alan Santos who split two defenders on his way to a layup.

The Celtics played with six men as Steven Smith was busy icing both ankles in preparation for playing in the championship game. Thalken, Reynolds, Morton, Aery joined Santos and Harris with a balanced scoring attack.

The victory allows the Celtics an opportunity for quick revenge as they get a rematch with the Braves just 6 hours after losing in double overtime on a last second shot, 56-54. The good news is that the winner is the CHAMPION.

Celtics Meet the Central Brave's in Winner's Bracket game

Saturday morning. Alarm goes off at 7 am. Time for the Celtics to prepare for last years 5A State Champion Central Braves. We faced the Braves twice in the last tournament, and knocked them off twice with come from behind victories.

With the luxury of seven Celtics, it was a nice feeling to begin the game. We started the IRON MAN five from Saturday, as Steven Smith's ankle had 15 hours of ice treatment and was feeling fine. The Celtics took it to the Braves at tipoff and exploded to an 8-0 lead behind two 3-pointers by Brock Morton.

[My personal thought was "Oh no... this is opposite of the last two times we met when Central had control throughout the first half, and the Celtics came back to win both times."]

Robert Aery came off the bench and wearing the green of the Celtics for the first time, nailed his first 3 point attempt. We played strong and depended heavily on point guard Matt Reynolds and inside presence Nick Harris on both ends of the court. Supporting Harris and Reynolds, most of the game we ran a box and one with Morton keeping track of the 6ft 5" Brave sharpshooter. Smith and Thalken battled the athletic Braves on the inside and Santos provided quality minutes of solid play.

The Celtic coach (this author!) was reprimanded by the younger official after a Brave got entangled with Hall of Fame official Johnny. While receiving a pass, the Brave collided with Johnny and stumbled with 3 or 4 short steps while having possession of the ball. I spoke (yelled?) loudly asking the younger official "How can that NOT be traveling?"

After either my 2nd (or was it 3rd?) repeat of the same sentence, he pointed, walked at me, and scolded with "You're NOT gonna be out on the court yelling at me!" and the unsaid THREAT of a technical foul shut me up quickly.

After that exchange, the younger official did the CELTICS no favors as he repeatedly called charges against us, and other questionable foul calls.

Central came on strong in the 2nd half and took control with a 5 point lead late in the game. Aery's 3 pointer knotted the game at 54-54 with 90 seconds left. There was a short debate on whether it was a 2 or 3 pointer, but the referee claimed it was a 3, though at least one of our Celtics informed me after the game that Robert was not behind the line. Coincidentally, this was the same official which had made some terrible charging calls against us. The Braves held for a last shot and were unsuccessful, sending the game into a 1 minute overtime.

The first overtime was quite boring to the paying fans as the Braves got the ball and held for a last shot. They missed.

In the second overtime, they gained control of the tip again, and though we had several opportunities to steal, the second overtime was similar to the first. The Braves missed their game winning attempt again.

OVERTIME #3: We almost came up with the jump ball, but it wasn't meant to be. They kept the ball outside and we allowed them to run the clock down again like the 2 previous overtimes. Except, this time, a Brave who possibly had not scored the entire game, nailed a jumper with 2 seconds left in the 3rd overtime to send the Braves into the Championship game, with a 56-54 squeaker over us.

After the game, I pointed out that it was a well played game; a tremendous experience with super effort by both teams. However, the loss didn't really mean diddly squat as far as our goal of winning the tournament championship is concerned.

Now it is our mission to battle back, and get a rematch with them in the championship game.
It sure is nice that we don't have to wait weeks for the rematch. All we have to do is win one game and we will get another shot at the Braves AND another Championship.

2006 Halloween HoopBuster~

Coach Bunyan from Beggs requested a venue change due to some OSSAA "rules" concerns, and forced the Celtics to battle Edmond Santa Fe, or for this tournament known as MY BIG MOMMAS KITCHEN, in the smaller gym at Central High School.

The athletic Edmond athletes were more than a formidable foe against the Celtic IRON MAN Five consisting of Matt Reynolds (Kelley HS), Nick Harris (BTW HS), Steven Smith, Brock Morton & Alan Santos of Holland Hall HS. The CELTICS were short two SCHOLAR hoopers {Robert Aery (HH HS) & Tyler Thalken (BK HS)} who were taking their SAT College admittance tests. The 12:40 pm tipoff didn't quite mesh with the five hour test, and neither player was able to make to the game.

Edmond Santa Fe took control early and held a 9 point lead when Steven Smith went down the wrong way on his ankle. The Celtics were forced to play with four men, and surprisingly not only held their own, but actually trimmed the MY BIG MOMMA'S KITCHEN lead down to 2 points. Tremendous effort & execution by all four Celtics provided Smith time to ice his ankle and regroup.

During the 2nd half, Smith came up with key rebounds to support Harris on the inside; Morton, Reynolds and Santos played solid and the Celtics somehow opened up a 7 point lead with about 7 minutes left in the game.

Reynolds comined 3 pt shooting with strong drives to the hole to key our offense. Harris added inside strength and deft inside passing to his solid interior defense and rebounding.

The Edmond Santa Fe coach was slapped with a technical foul, and in further discussion with Referee Holdman was assessed a second technical foul. With four free throws coming and then getting the ball out of bounds, I felt it was definitely a turning point in the game.

As it turned out, the Coach took the game out of the hands of his talented players, and the game was forfeited at that point. Although we had the lead and the momentum the game, there were 7 minutes left in the game, and it was far from decided at that point. I felt fine in receiving the gift from my opposing coach. Our five players were pretty gassed and had expended enormous amounts of energy up to that point.

As we shook hands with Big Momma's players, I told each of them I was sorry they didn't get to finish the game. It's too bad they drove a 100 miles to play in a basketball tournament, and then the game was decided by their Coach's attitude, as opposed to the players on-court performance.

It was a superlative performance by the five Celtics, and a gutty effort by Smith just to come back and play a solid 2nd half with his twisted ankle. Our reward? A Sunday morning matchup with defending 5A State Champion Central Braves.