CJMS is top team in South tournament
by Jason Hollins, reporter

    CJMS squeaked out a 37-26 win over E-block Wednesday, Feb. 14, in the South Campus 3-on-3 basketball tournament.

    From the opening whistle, there was a lot of physical contact in the paint. Lawrence Alexander's team, CJMS, took an early lead against Marcus Lewis' team No Limit. Every time the game had finally gotten into a rhythm, the whistle blew stopping play again.

    No Limit tried pushing the ball down into the paint to Brian Blakley; however, the defense of Patrick Kalihamy proved to discourage and frustrate the entire No Limit team.

    On the other side of the ball, CJMS used an outside strategy using both Alexander's and teammate Joe Smith’s outside range to win the first game 32-19.

    After the game, Lewis voiced his opinion of the rough play by saying, “I would just like to say the officiating was horrible.”

    Lewis and his team would soon get their chance to redeem themselves when they took on the third team E-Block in game two.
    Both of these teams seemed to be out of sync. Turnover was the name of this game. A strong dissension among teammates became apparent. At the half No Limit led the game 13-5. Bad passes and missed shots continued in the second half, leaving the final score No Limit 37, E-Block 14.

    “I guarantee victory,” Alexander said to open the final game as his team faced E-Block.

    The same strategy seemed to work in this game for CJMS. E-Block was able to score down the lane to make this the closest game all day. Alexander hit a long three from the corner with less than a minute to go in the half, leading his team to the half. At the half CJMS led E-Block 23-17.

    In the second half the game stayed the same. Although it was close, CJMS was always one step ahead of E-Block. In the end Alexander was able to keep good on his guarantee.

    Winning teams received t-shirts to mark their tournament victory.