Falcon Basketball Team opens 2008-2009 with 63-55 Win

The 2008-2009 basketball season opened up in Upper Marlboro, as the Falcons took on highly rated junior, Roscoe Smith and his Walbrook team (Baltimore). Since I have no real life, I decided to make the trip down there to see the defending Philadelphia Catholic League champs start the year. The game was at Wise High School, which is a few miles west of Washington D.C. It took about 3 hours to get there, but that’s mainly because I took the scenic route down there. Coming home, we took the more traditional trek up the beltway and I-95, and that took a little over 2 hours.

The Wise High School looks like a brand new building, and their gym is NOTHING like our Pit. Actually, it’s bigger than some college gyms that I’ve been in (see photo below). I may have been the only North Catholic fan in the joint, as many of the folks at this tournament were scouts who were there checking out the talent of the 10 or 12 teams who played over the weekend.

Preliminary game between Wise HS (MD) and Archbishop Carroll (D.C.)

This gym is huge

One thing that was very noticeable in this game was that the Falcons really moved the ball around very well. Our guys seemed much quicker and, as a team, much more talented than the Walbrook team. Rakeem Christmas was a real force in the middle. I don’t have the stats handy, but he had to be in double digits in rebounds, and what I remember, he scored about a dozen points, with 2 or 3 baskets coming on dunks. Walbrook’s Smith scored about 23 points, but he really did seem to be full of himself, including one play where he had a blocked shot, and while he was busy pounding his chest and screaming, the Falcons took the loose ball, made two quick passes and got an easy lay up. This was the first time I’ve seen transfer, Jack O’Neill since he rang up 27 in a game against North last season, while he was playing for Episcopal Academy in an early season 80-78 win at the GA tournament. O’Neill came off the bench to score a team high 18 points in this win. Actually, the entire team played well. There was no selfish play, as the ball was moved around quite well on offense, with Woody Redding acting as the quarterback in this high powered offense, as the Falcons came away with a 63-55 win.

Some random comments about the experience:

- While I went to just be a spectator and take some pictures, I was pressed into service as the score-keeper for the team. So, sitting at the scorers’ table didn’t give me much of a chance to take pictures. But, I’m glad I could help.
- The food at the tournament was not the best, but it certainly was expensive. A hotdog was $2.50 and a combo (dog, fries, soda) was $4.50. The fries were those little skinny fries and there was no relish for the dog. What’s with that?
- At halftime, and after the game, there were stat sheets available for every game. You don’t see that at many games during the year. Overall, the folks running this tournament seemed to do a decent job.