Can Noah Pope's St.George's Team Pull The Upset?

The 2011-2012 MAM Christmas Tournament schedule has been released and the the field is loaded with talented squads. The defending MAM Champions,Ridgeway Roadruners,runner up Lowrance Lions,my #1 ranked Germantown Red Devils led by Darrell Brown Jr,American Way Middle and Lester Middle coached by Desmond Merriwether,just to name a few. Some teams teams on the scene new to the MAM this year are Arlington led by Coach Lang Wiseman and the St.George Gryphons who feature a young but pretty good team in St.George’s with Noah Pope(up top),Jessie Neloms and Chase Hayden. There are some pretty intriguing possible matchups some as early as the second game in one being Ridgeway and possibly St.George. Can they Gryphons pulls off the upset? It’s a tall task to ask but they have the talent at guard to do so,the only thing is,I don’t think they have played the fire power that Ridgeway possesses in their guard play as well.

Germantown could possibly match up with Fayette East who has DJ Jackson and already boast a win over my then #1 Lester Middle. Fayette will bring a lot of fans but so will Germantown. That could a matchup that many will want to see. American Way could have any interesting game on Wednesday if Hamilton beats SBEC who has big James Babb and Hamilton I’m hearing has one of the better guards in Small schools. The game that everyone will want to see is a WOW game. Lester vs Ridgeway. Even though Lester must get past Appling and Ridgeway has to beat St.George’s,that is a game that most people are already predicting. If they play,that game will be on Thursday at 6:00 pm at the MAM center. That’s a big time game. I won’t look to far ahead but what a game that could be. Below are some guys who have to be key if their teams are to go far in the tournament next week.

1. Paris London Jr (Ridgeway Middle) This young post has to show why he’s getting better and better. I know they have  a big 3 but he has to play well in this tournament. He’s very key.

2. Noah Pope (St.George) Will have to rebound and score if they have any chance to beat Ridgeway on Wednesday.

3. Kavion Hancock (American Way Middle) They need someone to step up with Dedric and Jordan Johnson in this tournament.

Jacob Ivy & Jonathan Bins (L-R)

4. Darrell Brown stirs the coffee for this undefeated team but Jonathan Bins and Jacob Ivy must be the cream and the sugar if they are to win the tournament. Bins scoring ability will be needed.

5. Nathan Gool (Mt.Pisgah) Could make more of a name for himself if he plays well.

6. Kobe Freeman (Lester) Have a feeling this young guy is going to make a big shot in the biggest game of the tournament.

7. Jaylen Fisher (Arlington) Some people say Fisher is top 5 in the 2016 class? I say,let’s see.

8. DJ Jackson (Fayette East) Same for Jackson,some say he’s top 2-3 in the 2017 class?

9. James Babb (SBEC) He will have to be huge if they can defeat Hamilton with at least 20 points and 15-20 rebounds.

10.Tyler Brewer (Lowrance) Kind a of a disappointing season right now but that all can change,question is,can he lead this still very very dangerous team in the MAM.

Potential Matchups

Lowrance vs. Arlington- Thursday 7:00

Germantown vs Fayette East – Thursday 8:00

Ridgeway vs Lester – Thursday 6:00

10.

Coach Desmond Merriwether (Lester Lions)

Today in the “My Life” section on the Commerical Appeal,there was a well deserved story done on Coach Desmond Merriwether who last year went through a tough ordeal with Colon cancer.  I didn’t want to copy and paste his story from the article however I wanted to write down a few words to describe not only a great Coach but an even better person. I met Coach Dez almost two years ago and immediately was taken back by his passion for not only the game but for his community in general. I had heard through a source that Desmond was in the hosptial but I didn’t know the severity of what was taking place for him and later found out that Coach Desmond was battling cancer. Immediately,I was shocked by the news that later came out that they had given Coach Desmond 24 hours to live and the first thing that I thought was,he is going to pull through,he has too much heart the boys need him to much. God was just testing him and his  faith that he could see him through anything including a usually deadly disease. A few weeks went past and some including myself were wondering how Coach Desmond was doing so I sent Coach Cedric Franklin at American Way  a text and anyone that I knew that could tell me how Desmond was doing. I recieved a message that he was doing much better but I knew that Coach Desmond would probably would miss the season getting his strenght up and probably return this season however he had something else in mind.

I’m sitting with my cousin at the MAM Tournament and I’m wanting to see how the boys were doing. They had started the season with an undefeated record and were about to be challenged with some tough teams in the tournament. Here comes Coach Desmond,through the door and the first thought to my head,wow,this guy has been through so much but yet back on the sideline and coaching. Facing his toughest battle,Desmond fought it like a true champion,no quit and all heart like I heard he was as a player at East High School. The Lions ended up eventually losing in the tournament but I think they still won because of Desmond and now he’s  back at again this year as his Lions who started the season as my #1 Middle School are back having a great season with a 4-1 record. Through it all,Desmond is still the same guy that I met a few years ago, still the same Coach who will do just about whatever he can for anyone,still the same Desmond who loves his family and his Lester and East family, same guy who is as upbeat and positive as anyone can be. Still the same Desmond who loves Bing Hampton and still the same Desmond who I truly respect as not only a person but a true Lion.

Matt Butler (East High School)

Robert Houston (Craigmont)

Darius Gibson (Craigmont-Left Down Low)

Sam Craft (Craigmont)

Clarence Wilson (Carver)

James Rooks (Frayser)

Andre AppleWhite (Central)

Jeremy Jackson (Fairley)

Bennie Williams (Kirby)

Jerry Johnson Jr (Woodale)

Braxton Gillesspie (Whitehaven)

Markell Crawford (Melrose)

Jemerrio Jones (Melrose)

Davonte Hampton (Melrose)

Matt Butler (East)

Earvin Morris (East)

KJ Lawson (East)

Nick King (East) MLK MVP

Melrose Trio Makes All Tourney Team

A-Way Goes Back To Back For MLK Titles

6th Grader Jordan Johnson Scores 17 Points

When Hickory Ridge and American Way played about 2 weeks ago at American Way, the Eagles escaped with a 2 point lead at Hickory Ridge’s house but on a neutral floor,could they pull off the upset? Looked that way early with the score 30-26 at the half  but  as you can see from the top however,American Way got a 65-55 win with a pretty balanced effort. 6th grader Jordan Johnson had an outstanding game with 17 points followed by Dedric Lawson who also had 17 points, 17 rebounds and 5 blocks. 7th grader Kavion Hancock had 11 points as well.

MLK All-Tournament (Middle School)

1. Stevonte Freeman (Sherwood)                                                                                            

Dedric Lawson (MLK MVP)

2. E.Neland  (Sherwood)

3. E.Thompson (Sherwood)

4. Braxton Bush (Hickory Ridge)                                                                                                       

5. Michael Taylor (Hickory Ridge)

6. Jacob Ingram ( Hickory Ridge)

7. Kavion Hancock (American Way)

8. Jordan Johnson (American Way)

9. Dedric Lawson (American Way) MLK MVP

Note* Sorry if I left off any players names or for the mispelling of any players on the above list. Thank you.

East Wins MLK Championship

East Looks For Real In 73-64 Win

A little rain didn’t stop no show and it certainly didn’t stop the large crowd in attendance as Melrose took on East in the Championship game of the MLK Tournament. Melrose got into the game with wins over Kirby,Woodale and beating defending state champion,Craigmont by double digits in a game full of emotion on Friday evening. East cruised to the title game beating Overton by over 20 points, Fairley and Whitehaven all by 20 points but Saturday would be their first true test as well and what a test it was in what some consider to be the best rivlary in the city and it was obvious from the start. Junior forward,Nick King hit a 3 in the corner but was hit with a tech for taunting for apparently talking afterward giving him his second foul in the 1st quarter. Freshman G/F KJ Lawson  would score on the jumper and hit senior guard Earvin Morris with a pass to take East up 17-16 with 25.6 seconds left in the first quarter. Alex Anderson’s jumper would end the period but senior Melrose guard, Davonte Hampton was about to go off. After 3 straight big time 3-pointers and an and 1 by freshman Marlon Hunter off a Mustang turnover,Melrose went up 30-22 on an 11-0 run but King who was sattled early with foul trouble let the crowd know that East wasn’t going anywhere. King caught a shot off the rim with a huge putback dunk off the missed shot attempt with 1 hand bringing the East faithful to their feet and after and Anderson lay up and a Lawson 2,the score was tied, 30-30 as East went on a run of its on but at the end of the half,the score was 37-37.

You had to wonder where Melrose would possibly be without Hampton’s 14 points in the first half but you also had to wonder when junior guard Markell Crawford would get on track who went scoreless in the first. The quarter didn’t begin well for Golden Wildcats who looked as though they had left there emotion in the locker room as East got a wide open corner 3 from Morris and Matt Butler who was big in the second half going up 45-37. There was Hampton again though with a 3 pointer and Crawford’s first 2 points of the game off a lob by Hampton to pull within 1 point for Melrose with 2:38 left in the 3rd quarter. On the very next play,Hampton known for his shooting threw down a big one handed flush plus the foul on Morris as the gym went crazy with guys running on the floor but Morris answered right back with a bucket plus the foul as East went back up 51-50. Remember when I said Butler was big in the second half? He started off the 4th with  2 treys followed by a Lawson jumper and Butler came right back with another jumper as East went up 65-56 and Melrose just couldn’t recover. The closest they would get was 5 but East answered as the shots the Melrose hit against Craigmont and early in the first half against the Mustangs,went short or long as East took home the MLK Title, 73-64

Leading the way for East was Earvin Morris with 21 points,followed by Butler’s 16 points and KJ Lawson’s 16. Senior point guard Alex Anderson had 12 points. N.King who had a big tournament was named tournament MVP

King Named MVP Of MLK Tournament

L-R (Lucky Cheatham and Romero Hill)

Ridgeway Duo Comes For 36 Points

With new names and new leaders, Ridgeway and American Way got it on in a much talked about game as both looked to come out and make statements about their young seasons thus far. Both looked different and both had new leaders at the helm with Coach Cedric Franklin returning and Coach Albert Jones taking over for state champion,Coach Phillips but it’s obvious that the rivalry lives on and it was on display very early. 6’6 8th grader Dedric Lawson came out like a man of a mission scoring almost at will but it was Ridgeway who shot lights out in th 1st half. 6’1 8th grader Romero Hill and point guard Lucky Cheatham made big shot after big shot. Cheatham who looked like he as obviously been in the gym working on the j showed it off early hitting 2 3 pointers as well as Hill who scored all of 20 points in the first half. After some adjustments in the locker room by American Way and Ridgeway,the game in the second wasn’t as wide open with the offenses slowing down a lot. American Way went to a zone which seemed to bother Ridgeway a little bit but it didn’t stop Cheatham from keeping what he had going in the first on the 3rd quarter. Him and guard Javion Hamlet would go on to hit back to back 3 pointers as Ridgeway went up 43-34 and looked like they were about pull away as the game went to the 4th quarter.

With only 1 quarter left,American Way had to make a move quickly as Kavion Hancock got a steal and lay up and Lawson got a steal to make the game 43-39 with 4:23 left in the game which forced a quick timeout by Ridgeway. Hamlet,who scored 8 points in the game scored on a big floater with 3:28 remaining but Lawson was right there again with another 2 on the stick back but Ridgeway went to the stall right after where they dribbled a lot of time off but Hamlet would miss a short shot attempt wtih 1:14 left and A-Way would call a timeout. Off the inbound, 6th grader Jordan Johnson would find Lawson who went baseline and scored to make the game, 45-43 with 1:00 minutes. Cheatham would dribble off another 27 seconds before American Way would foul but that didn’t put them in the 1 and 1. American Way would try and pressure Cheatham into a turnover but he made the right passes and American Way didn’t get a chance to foul as Ridgeway got a good victory on the road, 45-43.

Leading Ridgeway in the win was Romero Hill who scored 20 points followed by Lucky Cheathams’ 16 points. I thought Lucky played as well as I’ve seen him play since last year’s MAM win over Lowrance. His shooting along with Hill’s is the reason they won the game. Hill by the way was great tonight and should be among the top 6-7 players mentioned when talking about the 2016 class locally. Leading all scorers was Lawson with 31 points and 18 rebounds. Ridgeway now goes to 5-0 and face Brighton Middle tomorrow at Brighton. American Way begins play tomorrow in the MLK tournament at Kirby High School.

901PrepScoop Internet Radio Station

901PrepScoop Is Introducing Internet Radio

I would like to thank everyone who has supported 901PrepScoop.com for the last few years and I hope to continue to bring more exposure for the young athletes across the region. Now 901PrepScoop.com  introduces to you our new internet radio station which will bring you music throughout the days as well as various shows on everything from sports to relationships. The two main shows to start will be Courtside W/Chuck and Jerry which is be coming over from KWAM990 am which will feature myself Chuck Lawson and Jerry Anthony and 901PrepScoop “The Radio Show” with me and various co-host including 901PrepScoop’s Internet Radio Station co- founder,Keelon Lawson. Courtside will be based on more national sports stories, NFL,college and much more  and 901PrepScoop “The Radio Show” will be based on high school and some middle school basketball talk as well and run 3 times per week. The station will also play music throughout the day for various audience bases from R&B and Blues to hip hop artist as such as Memphis based rapper, Gyft and many many more.

Please be patient with us as this will be process but in the end we hope to bring you good music and quality shows for your entertainment. So when you get a chance in the upcoming week,come relax and enjoy our new vision, 901PrepScoop’s Internet Radio Station