Aug 02, 2004 00:00 by sbadmin
In front of a crowd of a little over 12,000 fans at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC, the SBA All-stars took the challenge of playing the top CIAA Alumni All-stars during Super Saturday of the CIAA Basketball Tournament. With SBA All-stars Randy “White Chocolate” Gill (formerly of Bowie State) and Charles “Flat Out” Ward (formerly of St. Augustine) playing with the CIAA Alumni team the “SBA Show” featured some impressive, competitive, and extremely entertaining basketball with the CIAA Alumni All-stars winning a very DON KING like controversial ending street ball challenge, 122-118 in double-overtime.

The SBA All-stars treated the fans from the opening jump with Larry “The Bone Collector” Williams instantly displaying his mad handles and his ridiculous quickness, crossing him man on the opening possession. After a few missed opportunities by the CIAA Alumni team, Hugh “Baby Shaq” Jones unleashed his game with back to back thunderous dunks (the first one came off a vicious right to left cross-over on the left side of the floor going baseline “Kiss the Rim” style, with the second coming off a Greg “Killer Cross” Jones, The Wizard alley-oup off the backboard to a launching “Baby Shaq”).

After the initial street ball showmanship between the two teams, the CIAA All-stars began to work as a unit finding each other when open and hitting the 3-pointer. Larry “Dead-eye” Patterson and Randy “White Chocolate” Gill each had 34 and 29 points respectively hitting most of their shots from beyond the arc, while Charles “Flat Out” Ward found room inside scoring on impressive moves to the bucket and strong finishes. The entire game featured high-flying acrobatics, thunderous dunks, and extremely accurate outside shooting. The SBA All-stars decided to get everyone involved in the second quarter rotating the line-up evenly. During this stretch of the game the SBA All-stars were playing one-on-one style show ball entertaining the multitudes in attendance at the RBC Center while the CIAA All-Stars came out strong in the second quarter playing as a team racing ahead to a 16-point lead at the halftime.

The second half of play saw the SBA All-Stars come out flying with several rim-rocking dunks by John "Helicopter" Humphries who demonstrated his 50-plus inch vertical leap on a number of occasions, Jason “The Birdman” Williams finishing on a variety of dunks, and big James “Swool” Rhodes controlling the rebounds and contributing with a thunderous follow-up dunk getting the SBA All-Stars back in the game, erasing a 16 point lead, in a three minute 20-4 run, orchestrated by the guard play of “The Wizard,” Greg Jones, who had 30 points and 12 dimes.

The run culminated on one of the sickest alley-oups ever, (after grabbing a rebound on the defensive end, The Wizard sprinted up the court leading the fast break, he then spotted “The Helicopter” on the wing, with both player in full-stride, The Wizard arched the ball about 25 feet from the basket to a flying “Helicopter” who caught the ball in mid-air and somehow wind-milling it down right on Charles “Flat Out” Ward). The alley-oup was beyond sick. As players from the SBA All-stars bench ran out on the floor and with the fans going crazy the referees called a quick official’s time-out.

The time-out seemed to help re-focus the CIAA Alumni All-stars, as Randy “White Chocolate” Gill and Larry “Dead-eye” Patterson hit clutch back to back 3-pointers to end the run and to keep pace with the streaking SBA All-stars. “The Wizard” and “The Helicopter” once again responded hitting consecutive 3-pointers, giving the SBA All-stars a 3 point lead. Then moments later with 20 seconds to go Larry “Dead-eye” Patterson calmly connected on a 21-footer from the left side of the court to tie the game.

With a little under 20 seconds remaining, the SBA All-Stars put the ball in the hands of their leading scorer who was fouled going to the hole on a quick move to the bucket. Greg “Killer Cross” Jones, The Wizard, a 90% free-throw shooter, smoothly hit a pair of free-throws giving the SBA All-stars a two point advantage with 4.2 seconds to play. After a CIAA Alumni time-out the CIAA somehow went the length of the floor with Charles “Flat Out” Ward finishing on a lay-up as time expired sending the game to its first extra frame. (For the record that was the longest 4.2 seconds in the history of basketball; Don King was flown in to run the clock his way giving the Super Saturday fans what they wanted…OVERTIME!)

Both teams went back in forth in the first overtime, with blazing outside shooting by Randy “White Chocolate” Gill and John “Helicopter” Humphries. The SBA All-stars seized a two point lead in the final moments converting on a Rashid “Seven and Change” Byrd block shot to an ensuing fast break finish by Hugh “Baby “Shaq” Jones. With the SBA All-stars up by two with ten seconds left in overtime Charles “Flat Out” Ward caught a short outside jump shot from his teammate in mid-air dunking home the equalizer and sending the game to a second overtime (It was like Déjà vu of the amazing NC State Championship where Lorenzo Coleman finished a short shot by Derrick Whittenberg).

In the second overtime, due to time constraints at the RBC Center, the game had to be decided in a one-minute running clock final period. The CIAA Alumni All-stars scored on their first possession while the SBA All-stars missed on an outside 3-pointer. The CIAA held onto the ball running out the clock at the free throw line as Larry Patterson hit a pair as time expired.

"THE SHOW," SBA All-stars versus CIAA Alumni All-stars Street Ball Showcase during Super Saturday easily became an instant classic with the city of Raleigh and the CIAA fans receiving an outstanding and entertaining game and a great finale to the weeklong tournament.