Kenner League Championship Today

The Kenner League comes to a close today with the Kenner League championship games, with all Georgetown-related teams already having been sidelined in earlier rounds.

Yesterday, the last Georgetown team fell as Beyond Belief crushed Clyde’s, 66-50.  Beyond Belief lived up to their moniker, as Clyde’s started a lineup of Jonathan Wallace (the PG from the 2007 Final Four team), sophomore Jason Clark, Jeff Green (the PF from the Final Four team and member of the OKC Thunder), sophomore Henry Sims and Roy Hibbert (C of Final Four team and member of the Indiana Pacers).

Needless to say, with a lineup of two NBA players, three Final Four vets and two Georgetown players figuring to play meaningful minutes this year, the crowd in the Kenner stands expected Clyde’s to emerge victorious.  Yet with James Gist, formerly of Maryland, and Jeff Allen of Virginia Tech, Beyond Belief stifled the Georgetown team’s rally in the second half.

Good news for the current Georgetown squad - the game gave Clark an outlet to demonstrate his new, improved ball handling skills and Henry Sims got mean in the second half, bullying players on Beyond Belief for rebounds.

Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 3:52 pm by bryan

Kenner League Game 3 Quick Hits

Game 3: We Are One vs. Tombs

Tombs = Austin Freeman, Jerrelle Benimon, Vee Sanford, Stephen Stepka, Julian Vaughn

We Are One = Hollis Thompson, Ryan Dougherty

While the last game of the night featured two teams with seven Georgetown players combined, only three suited up for the game – freshman G/F Hollis Thompson for We Are One, freshman F Jerrelle Benimon and junior G Austin Freeman for Tombs.

Freeman got involved early and often, playing point-forward for Tombs on most of their trips down the court. He was happy to play the delegator role early, dishing three quick assists and getting involved on the defensive glass, before starting to look for his shot later in the first half.

Benimon and Thompson were held to much more quiet first halves. As has reportedly been the case all summer, Thompson found himself open on the key on numerous occasions, only to have his teammates pass him up for their own one-on-one opportunities. Benimon subbed in and out repeatedly throughout the first half, as Tombs had a glut of big men on the bench looking for their chance to play.

With teammates who would actually pass him the ball, Thompson showed flashes of brilliance tonight that should leave all Georgetown fans encourage. With his outside stroke, he could be the team’s most talented three-point shooter since Jonathan Wallace (who only set the all-time Hoya 3-point record).

Out of the three games tonight, this game by far resembled a summer league game the most, with players sprinting up and down the court with little semblance of structured offensive sets. In this game, these two teams were straight battling the entire night in a horse race of sorts. The game felt like a much more disorganized, D’Antoni-patented “Seven Seconds or Less” for both teams. Unfortunately, that left it hard to take away any conclusive opinion about G-Town players from the game – all I could leave with were stats.

Stats for Georgetown players are below - thanks as always to FL Hoya’s excellent recaps on HoyaTalk.

For pure morbid amusement, I also kept stats for former Hoya commit Chris Braswell – a player who was supposed to arrive on campus with Monroe, Henry Sims and Clark last year. I wanted to see what could have been. Braswell is set to play for Charlotte this upcoming season.

Austin Freeman: 13 points, 5-11 2pt, 0-1 3pt, 3-3 FT, 11RB, 3A, 3TO
Jerelle Benimon: 6 points, 3-4 FG, 1RB, 2A, 2BL, 1TO
Hollis Thompson: 5 points, 1-5 2pt, 1-4 3pt, 6RB, 1A, 1TO

Chris Braswell: 14 pts, 2-4 FG, 1-2 3FG, 7-7 FT, 2RB, 0A, 1BL

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 8:27 pm by bryan

Game 2 of Kenner League

Clyde’s features Henry Sims, Jason Clark, and special guest Kevin Durant.

Clark started the game electrically, showing flashes of his pure speed on relentless drives to the basket all half. He filled up the stat sheet in the first half, recording a team-high 12 points while scoring on a variety of moves. Clark remained active defensively, grabbing rebounds and steals, notching an assist and blocking two shots.


Sims, on the other hand, was a complete non-factor, with only one assist all half.

Sims must have got the memo at the (three-minute) half, as he started out the second half scoring two quick baskets before getting stripped while driving for a third straight score. Clark remained relatively quiet for the second half, yet showed unbelievable grit and hustle for a summer league game.


The second half quickly turned into the Kevin Durant show, as he began a scoring salvo that gave his team a comfortable double-digit lead for the game. A steal at the end of the game gave Durant an open court to rain dunk on – an alley-oop off the backboard to himself brought loud cheers from the Kenner crowd.


Stat lines for Georgetown players thanks to FL Hoya of HoyaTalk (and Durant):


Clark: 18 pts, 7-13 FG, 0-1 3FG, 4-4 FT, 4 reb (3 off), 1 ast, 1 stl, 3 blk
Sims: 8 pts, 4-8 FG, 6 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 blk
KD: 28 pts 7-8 FG, 4-10 3FG, 2-5 FT, 6 rebs, 0 ast, 1 stl

at 8:02 pm by bryan

Live Blogging from Kenner League

Game 1: Beyond Belief vs. DCX (Greg Monroe, Chris Wright, special guest Kevin Durant)

In warm-ups, DCX appears to have a guest star for the night in local Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Durant, a Maryland native, was the #2 pick for the then-Sonics two years ago. Beyond Belief started the game down two players to DCX (Beyond Belief with eight dressed, DCX with ten).

Georgetown fans had reaso be optimistic early, as their two players led off the game with impressive finishes. Monroe scored the first basket of the game after backing a smaller player down, while Wright converted a nice steal into an and-1 (and hit the FT for good measure). A few minutes later, Monroe gathered a strong rebound and passed full-court to Wright, who dribbled once before converting an easy layup.

Things quickly got out of hand for DCX in the next ten minutes, but DCX battled back to enter the break down four points.

DCX leaned he fulcrum of Wright, Monroe and Durant early in the second half, as Durant took off the under-T and started shooting NBA-range threes, to the dismay of Beyond Belief. DCX tied the game at 45 with 10:15 left in the second half, and the triumvirate took over fthere. The three players combined to score around 60% of the team’s points, dominating the second half with Durant and Wright leading the point.

Down two with 35 seconds left, Wright darted between two Beyond Belief-ers he way to an easy lay-up and drew a foul; he iced the first FT and clanged the second, leaving DCX down one. After two FTs for Beyond Belief, Wright led DCX down the court and drained a dagger 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, knotting the game at 64. Two more FTs for Beyond Belief left DCX down two and needing some magic; unfortunately Monroe would not be providing any highlights tonight, falling way short on a game-tying bucket f12 feet away.

DCX won/lost by four, 68-64; individual player stat-lines below thanks to FL Hoya of HoyaTalk.

Greg Monroe: 13 points, 6-10 FG, 1-3 FT, 6RB, 3A, 3TO, 1STL
Chris Wright: 13 points, 4-6 2pt, 1-3 3pt, 2-4 FT, 2RB, 0A, 5TO, 1STL

at 7:32 pm by bryan

Kenner League Kicks Off

A classic Georgetown summer tradition kicked off this weekend as the oft-delayed Kenner League began at McDonough Gymnasium on Thursday night.

Current and former Hoyas joined local basketball stars in summer league games this weekend. Calling these “games” might be a stretch - Kenner League tends to be not much more than glorified pick-up basketball (with little coaching).

The crowd that came out was treated to the return of Georgetown favorite Jeff Green (of the Oklahoma City Thunder) and local Michael Beasley (Miami Heat) on Friday and Saturday.

Georgetown fans also experienced their first viewing of Hollis Thompson, the incoming freshman who enrolled at Georgetown last spring to get a head start on his Georgetown education.  All early reports have come back positive, and perhaps most importantly, Thompson reportedly has the outside shooting stroke that Georgetown desperately missed last season.

Other returning starters have looked strong early on - with sophomore center Henry Sims, sophomore guard Jason Clark, and junior guard Austin Freeman all cracking the 25 point barrier (Freeman twice) in the first weekend of play.

Monday, August 3, 2009 at 10:47 am by bryan