3/2/2018

Today my dad and I are flying to Houston, Texas because my Gauchos team will be playing in the John Lucas Tournament this weekend. It’s our first time playing in it, so we are definitely excited…one, he’s a legend and two, all the top teams in the country will be there.

Our flight was at 9:40am and we were supposed to get to Houston by 1:30, but there was a slight delay so we got to Houston at 2:30 instead. There weren’t any games scheduled for Friday, so my dad and I just checked in to our hotel room and went to get something to eat at Chik-Fil-A which was across the street from our hotel. 💪🏾😋

My dad signed me up for a clinic that was going on at 7pm til 8:15pm. We went over there later on in the evening and I got a chance to do some great drills and have fun with so many kids from all over the country. This basketball world is so big that you get a chance to make so many friends from all over and just bond and communicate through social media. I’ve met so many cool kids who are good in basketball, but have even better hearts. After the clinic we went back to the room to rest and relax because Saturday is when the tournament begins.


 

3/3/2018

Today is Saturday, my dad and I are heading to meet the rest of the team at the gym so we can prepare for Game 1.

Our first game was at 11:30am if I’m not mistaken and we won by 21 points and I scored 12 points. The game started off competitive, but after the first half we got in our zone and started playing great defense and ended up beating them by a lot.
 

Second game was at 3:30pm. I played well and scored 15 points. We ended up winning by 18 I think, but I was proud of how our team played. Our defense was on point and we got after it and really gelled with each other.

We thought we were only going to play two games Saturday, but they ended up making us play a third game at 7:30pm which was a playoff game. Although we were tired we got enough rest before our 3rd game started. This game was against former NBA player Larry Hughes’ team. We ended up beating them by a lot and I scored 26 points that game. I had it going from all over the court. Hitting 3 pointers, lay ups, stealing the ball and the list goes on. After the game my dad and I went back to our hotel room to rest, shower and prepare for Sunday…when the real competition begins.

 

3/4/2018

Playoff time at John Lucas.

We knew coming in that it would be very tough to get past a few teams because we had played them before in Florida last year. One team I knew was going to be tough was a team called Drive Nation, which is former NBA player Mo Williams’ team. Although we beat them at Nationals last year, I knew they were going to try to get revenge this year. The game was intense from the beginning…both teams scoring back and forth. My teammate Danny was killing in that game and also our two new teammates from Memphis, Billy and Braxton. They’re both real good and helped us win this game and other games as well. We ended up winning against Drive Nation by 8 points I think. We are now one of the final 8 teams, we played another good team from Louisiana, I forgot their name, but they were good. We as a team played well all around. From the starters to the bench, we played well and won the game.

So now we are final 4 game and we played against a team from Minnesota. I was on fire this game and I made 4 3’s and a few other lay ups and ended up with 19 points. Championship game is up next against a team called Houston Hoopers. They had two tall kids and they were the home team so we knew that some calls weren’t going to go for us. We just had to play hard and not worry about the referees. Team was tough, I can’t lie they had two good guards and they played hard and aggressive. But our coach Dante always prepares us for tough games by motivating us and telling us to match the opposing team’s intensity. We ended up winning the game by 14 points and I scored a team high 28 points making 4 3’s including an “and 1” 3 point shot. I was so exhausted, but I knew we came this far to win and to come back to NY with those rings. Overall it was a great tournament and great competition and we will be back next year. All the players got rings and the team got $500 plus $750 in uniform vouchers.

 

3/11/2018

Today was the championship game for middle school against Wagner. We played Wagner two times during the regular season and we lost the first game by 2 points and won the second game by 5 points. I was super nervous because although I’ve played in many championship games with my AAU team Gauchos, with this being my first year playing for a school it felt different. I didn’t play well at all and I hurt my thumb as well and we ended up losing by 10 points. Tough loss, but I still have two more years to play in middle school and going to try my best to make it to the championship game my last two years

3/17-3/18/2018

We played in a tournament called “Made Hoops” in Brooklyn NY. Competition was good and we played some good teams especially NJ All stars.

We ended up playing them in the championship game. They were beating us the whole game by 10 points. My boy Danny Carbuccia was killing all weekend, but in the championship game he played his best. He started making 3’s and attacking the basket, he made two huge 3’s to bring us back to tie the game with 30 seconds left. We got the ball back and my boy Nas attacked the basket and made the game winning lay up and we won the championship!! 🏆. Danny scored 26 points, Nas had 18 points and I scored 15 points, but everyone on the team played a big part in the win.

3/24-3/25/2018

We went on the road to play in Pennsylvania in the “A-Game” Tournament in Spooky Nook. The competition is always high in this tournament. You had some of the top teams in the country here like Dreamchasers, Team Thrill, Team Thrill DC, Takeover, New Heights, NJ All Stars and other teams just to name a few. Our pool was very tough and every game was down to the wire. All of them! But we came out victorious in all except the championship game where we lost to Team Takeover by 3 points in OT. We beat Team Takeover two times so far, but couldn’t pull it off in the championship game. They are a great team and we could’ve won, but we were all exhausted and the game started real late at 8:30pm smh.

Congrats to them and congrats to my team as well because we know we could’ve won the game if we would’ve made a few changes or if the game started on time and not so late. But we will keep working at every practice to get better. Until next time 🙌🏽