HEIDELBERG, Germany — Bobby Seaberry swept Heidelberg’s 10th annual Martin Luther King Jr. basketball tournament Monday night.
Seaberry took an ad hoc group calling itself Giessen to the women’s title, 51-30 over the Heidelberg Lady Generals. He returned 20 minutes later to coach his Heidelberg men to an 81-65 title-game victory over the Kaiserslautern Panthers.
[CALENDAR]Giessen women 50, Heidelberg 31: [/CALENDAR]“We’re basically a summer league team,” tournament MVP Cathy Holmes said of the “Giessen” team after she scored 12 points on 3-for-4 shooting from behind the three-point arc and completd a three-point play. “We come from a lot of different places.”
Holmes said her team, whose players live in Kaiserslautern, Wiesbaden, Hanau, Stuttgart and Mannheim and whose jerseys carried no team name, became Giessen when tournament officials required the team to select a community name.
“I’m from Giessen,” explained Holmes, who was a mainstay of the Mannheim Lady Mustangs from 1999-2004.
Seaberry ended up coaching the eventual champions after a call from Holmes, who entered her summer-league teammates after Bamberg dropped out of the four-team women’s field in this four-day event.
“We had no practices,” Seaberry said, “so I couldn’t ask too much of them. We were basically freelancing. I told them just to play ball and have fun.”
Giessen’s Cynthia Jackson tied Holmes for high-scoring honors with 12 points. The champions put the game away by posting a 16-2 run over the first six minutes of the second half to expand their 24-19 lead to 40-21. Giessen did not allow a Heidelberg field goal in the first 8:55 of the second half.
“We kind of played around in the first half,” Holmes said. “We got serious in the second half.”
[CALENDAR]Heidelberg men 81, Kaiserslautern 65:[/CALENDAR] Tournament MVP Kenyatta Mack scored 16 points to lead the Generals. Terrance Flemons added 14 points, Ellis Nickson 13, and Rodney Bailey 10, but the game turned on the Heidelberg defense.
Heidelberg held K-town, a late entrant to the nine-team men’s field, to one shot-and-done, or less, per possession over a two-minute span early in the second half. The defensive blanket resulted in a 14-3 run and a 51-32 Heidelberg lead.
“We’re rebuilding,” Seaberry said. “We lost our leader, Craig (Marcelin), after Christmas.”
Marcelin, a seven-time All-Army and All-Armed Forces player, transferred to Japan, Seaberry said.
Taking up the slack Monday were the 6-foot-8 Mack and 6-9 Bailey, veterans who form a forceful inside presence.
“They have some age on them,” Seaberry said, “but we look to them because they know how hard you’ve got to work to get things done.”
Seaberry said this season will be his last coaching adults.
“I’ve done all I can in community basketball,” said Seaberry, who has won multiple European titles. “I’m going to try to do something on the youth level, to pass along to them all that was passed along to me. We’re going to try to get the community players to support the high schools and YS (youth services) programs more.”
