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Tyrone Bullocks of the Osan Defenders tries to find room around Keith McCauley of Truth, Okinawa, during Monday’s championship game in the 2nd Kadena Basketball Classic at Falcon Gym, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. Truth won 74-66.

Tyrone Bullocks of the Osan Defenders tries to find room around Keith McCauley of Truth, Okinawa, during Monday’s championship game in the 2nd Kadena Basketball Classic at Falcon Gym, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. Truth won 74-66. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)

Tyrone Bullocks of the Osan Defenders tries to find room around Keith McCauley of Truth, Okinawa, during Monday’s championship game in the 2nd Kadena Basketball Classic at Falcon Gym, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. Truth won 74-66.

Tyrone Bullocks of the Osan Defenders tries to find room around Keith McCauley of Truth, Okinawa, during Monday’s championship game in the 2nd Kadena Basketball Classic at Falcon Gym, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. Truth won 74-66. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)

Ryan Vaught of the Defenders loses possession of the ball as Kevin Gilbert of Truth defends during Monday's game.

Ryan Vaught of the Defenders loses possession of the ball as Kevin Gilbert of Truth defends during Monday's game. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)

KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — For Truth coach Dietrick Glover, just winning the game was going to be tough enough. But taking the court against his old mentor, Tony Jones, and his old team, Korea’s Osan Defenders, made Monday’s Kadena Basketball Classic championship game even tougher.

“I love that man with all my heart,” Glover said after Truth captured the tournament title by topping Osan 74-66. “He was my coach and mentor. He’s my best friend.”

Glover is an Air Force staff sergeant with Kadena’s 18th Security Forces; Jones, a civilian with the Defense Commissary Agency at Osan Air Base. When Glover was stationed at Osan, he assisted Jones for three years.

“It was very hard,” Jones said of facing his former assistant. “We’re so much alike in so many ways. He knows the game very well. I’m happy for him. I know we’re going to meet again somewhere down the line and next time, I won’t be so easy on him.”

Monday’s showdown culminated a Kadena Classic originally scheduled for March. But it was moved up to January to replace the Martin Luther King Open Tournament, which Marine Corps Community Services Semper Fit Athletics officials called off due to troop deployments.

The showdown also capped a sometimes contentious tournament: In the three games leading up to the championship, five players and a coach were ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct and a spectator was ordered to leave the gym.

Monday’s first game, the loser’s bracket final won by Osan 66-58 over the Okinawa Heat, was terminated with 51 seconds left after three Heat players were ejected for unsportsmanlike behavior.

The championship included no such rancor but began as a tight, physical, see-saw battle, including five ties and eight lead changes in the first 9:50.

Truth pulled ahead by nine points, 39-30, by intermission.

“Everybody knows we play a zone, but because they [Defenders] played a hard game against the Heat, we came out with a man-to-man” defense, Glover said. “They appeared to be tired after that first game.”

The Defenders fought back, scoring the first 10 points of the second half, but Arrington Littlejohn’s three-point play, with 12:46 left, put Truth ahead 45-42. Wayne Mobley helped keep Truth in front by scoring 13 of his 17 points in the second half.

“This is a game of peaks and valleys,” Glover said. “We hit a valley to start the second half. I just told the guys to weather the storm until we hit another peak.”

Down the stretch, three Defenders fouled out, none more important than All-Air Force forward Ramon Moss, who left the court with 8:40 left.

“That was pretty much it for us,” Jones said of Moss, who led all scorers with 22 points.

The backbreaker came with 4:34 left, when the Truth’s Carl Little — a former Defenders player when Glover assisted Jones — sank a three-point goal and was fouled.

“That was a big one,” Little said. “I hadn’t hit one since before the half. That kind of took the heart out of them. But it was great to reunite with the old team and the old coach. It brought back a lot of things.”

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Dave Ornauer has been employed by or assigned to Stars and Stripes Pacific almost continuously since March 5, 1981. He covers interservice and high school sports at DODEA-Pacific schools and manages the Pacific Storm Tracker.

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