On a weekend when the regional race was settled in Italy, neighborhood rivals Kaiserslautern and Ramstein set up a Tuesday-Friday showdown this week to see who will go to the boys European Division I tournament as the Region II champion.
Two-time defending European D-I champ Ramstein walloped visiting Baumholder, 76-44, Friday to win its seventh straight game and improve to 10-2 overall and 7-1 in regional play.
Kenrick Ellis led the way, tying Baumholder’s Tahrell Harris for game-scoring honors with 16 in a game that essentially was over at halftime. The Royals led 45-21 at that point.
For its part, Kaiserslautern, which dumped visiting Wiesbaden, 67-48, Thursday night to win its 11th straight, will take an 11-1, 8-0 mark into Tuesday night’s home game against the Royals. Friday, the two are to play at Ramstein in the regular-season finale for both teams.
On Thursday, K-town’s mega-producers kept on churning out the numbers. Seniors Bernard Burwell (26 points and 11 rebounds) and Thomas Russ (14 points and 17 rebounds) took care of the front end of the court; freshman Andrew Stern (17 points, five assists) and 6-foot-5-inch junior point guard Derryk Scarvers (nine assists) took care of the backcourt. For Scarvers, Thursday’s impressive nine dishes actually comprised a bit of a comedown — he handed out 14 assists in his previous outing.
In other boys games of note:
Sigonella 75, Naples 64: Saturday at Naples, four Jaguars scored in double figures as Sigonella rebounded from their hosts’ 72-39 title clinching victory on Friday night with a win.
Larry Stevenson (21 points), Jack Wegman (14), Chris McKissick (12) and Marco Montero (10) led the scoring parade Saturday as the Jaguars completed a 12-2 regular season by handing the Region IV champion Wildcats (13-1) their first loss of the season.
Jun Jun Gallardo of Naples took game-scoring honors for the second straight day. He scored 28 points in Friday’s romp and 26 Saturday.
“We came ready to play on Friday, and Saturday we did not,” Naples coach Craig Lord lamented in a Saturday e-mail. “We simply did not play nor execute well….”
Black Forest Academy 59, Bamberg 57 (OT): Naples’ defeat Saturday might well have cost the Wildcats the top seed in the European Division II tournament Feb. 23-26 in Mannheim, had not another D-II school, Black Forest Academy, intervened. BFA’s win Saturday probably consigned the Barons, whose only previous setback this season had come on the road at D-I power Heidelberg, to the No. 2 seed.
Javonte Knuckles’ 3-pointer at the buzzer brought Bamberg back from a 10-point deficit with a minute to play and forced the overtime. However Bamberg (9-2 overall, 7-2 in Region III) was unable to sustain the momentum and was outscored 7-5 in the extra period.
“It was a tough, hard-fought game,” Bamberg athletic director Jim Davis wrote in a Saturday e-mail.
BFA (4-7, 3-7) rode a game-high 25 points from Josiah Kelley, 12 points and eight rebounds from Andrew Lindberg, and five assists each from Anthony Purpero and Aaron Ling to the upset.
Brian Hargraves paced Bamberg with 19 points; Knuckles finished with 18.
SHAPE 39, Brussels 32: Saturday at Steerebeek, Belgium, Fabio Petrocchi scored a game-high 16 points as the Division I Spartans completed a weekend home-and-home sweep of their neighbors from D-III. SHAPE turned back visiting Brussels, 39-34, Friday.
The victories were just the second and third of the season for SHAPE (3-11, 3-5 in Region I), which will spend this weekend preparing for next week’s European D-I tournament in Mannheim.
Brussels, which Saturday got a double-double effort — 14 points and 16 rebounds - from senior Ryan Bottesini and trailed just 19-18 at halftime, is to host another D-I school, ISB, on Thursday in its regular-season finale. The Brigands (4-10, 4-6) will then head to the Division III tournament the following week in Mannheim.