report from the Arlington Gazette weekend edition: the All Star weekend in reviewIn the annual Rookie challenge the SSBA's top newcomers were able to overcome the experience of the sophomores to take a 114-107 victory behind superb shooting and by using their height advantage on the boards. The Nuggets Buck Williams led all scorers with 26 points and added 13 rebounds to take home MVP honors. Helped by the solid playmaking from Kings Isiah Thomas he was unstoppable early on as the rookies built an early 16 point advantage, that still was 10 points at the end of the first quarter.
In the 2nd the shooters from both teams took over briefly. The sophs did close the gap to 4 pts when Mike Brooks hit all 5 of his shots, but a cold spell allowed the rookies to move the advantage back to double digits. Soon the action moves back inside and JBC provided enough offense to keep the distance until halftime.
After the break, the sophomores had their best minutes when Buck Williams took an early seat with his 3rd foul. Consistently pounding the ball inside to Rick Mahorn and Mike Gminski they even took a 3pt lead midway through the quarter. But when Ronaldo Blackman and even SF Tripucka started hitting the three pointers the rookies regained control and quickly were up by 10 points again - the sophs couldn't get anything going there as they finished 0-7 from long distance in the 2nd half. So despite shooting 61% int he 3rd the sophs still found themselves down 12 as the Rookies had shot 60% on the game up to that point.
The 4th quarter was a display of running and gunning with little defense played and still nobody managed to score. The final score of 114 - 107 was as close as the Rookies allowed their opponents to get.
Behind MVP Williams it was Thomas with 9 assists, Bill Laimbeer with 13 rebounds, and Blackman with 18pts on 7-10 shooting who shined on the Rookie team. The Sophomores were led by Gminski with 20/9 and Mahorn at 19/12 as well as PG Ian Magloire who finished with 11 and 11 assists.
next up: the dunking and shooting showcase ...