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The Seminole Tribune 17 April 7, 200640th Annual Howard TigerMemorial Basketball TournamentBy Tony HeardHOLLYWOOD — The longestrunning memorial tournament around is theAnnual Howard Tiger Tournament. Honoringthe individual who played and brought focusto many of the sports played on all the reservationstoday, is something everyone looksforward to each year.This year the tournament was heldon the March 9–11 for the legends andadults. The youth would play the followingweekend in honor of Howard Tiger. Thisillustrious basketball tournament consists ofthree different age groups legends, adults,and youth. The legends division consists ofthe elders who paved the way for all of us.They round up able bodies who stillget up and down the court to compete for afew friendly games. It is always a joy watchingthe elders compete and have a good timeplaying this wonderful game. The women’sside of the legends was a bit limited this yearand the men were hard to find also. Throughword of mouth and a few phone calls the menrounded up enough to have a game.It was back and forth for most of the game,then a couple steals, and a couple three point shotswent down and the lead opened up for the home team.The teams were mixed and matched with people fromdifferent reservations, and a couple employees wereasked to join in on the fun. In the end, everyone had agreat time and the elders gave us a good basketballChris Osceola protects ball from the defense.game to watch.The next group to hit the hardwood was theadults. Due to the other activities and families notbeing in town, March 11 is the day all the actionkicked off. The teams topped off with five men’steams and four women’s teams.The Lady Sem Rec team started the day offwith a overwhelming win over the Contenders. TheRichard Osceola coaches his team on the court.press and youthful legs of the Sem Rec team was simplytoo much for the Contenders to handle. The SemRec men’s team then captured a win in the next matchup.The game began sluggish and a bit sloppy inthe beginning, but bothteams woke up and thegame became moreinteresting. With threepointersraining fromeverywhere and intensedefense being applied,the Sem Rec team ranaway with the victory inconvincing fashion.The action continuedall day with goodgames from the men andwomen. But perhaps themost exciting game ofthe day was the TrailKings and Str8 Ballinmatch up that tookplace. The game wasback and forth with bigoffensive runs by bothsquads. With a minute togo Trail Kings looked asif they had the win inthe bag with a five pointTony HeardAaron Billie shooting over John Billie in the Howard TigerLegends Tournament.Seminole Legends after the big showdown.lead.The guys from Str8 Ballin had other plansthough. Committing fouls to stop the clock and usingtheir timeouts wisely, the guys from Str8 Ballin gavethemselves a chance to steal the win from the TrailKings. Although the Trail Kings missed a fewfreethrows and was not getting stops they still had thegame in hand.The strategyworked for Str8 Ballinand with 0.4 secondsremaining they had theball out of bounds neartheir basket. The passwas thrown in tippedand then caught in theair by Pete Osceolanear the foul line, notlooking at the baskethe tossed the ball overhis head as the hornsounded.The ballsoared toward the rimas the gym got silentfor a split second;bank, swish and everybodyin the buildingwas going crazy. Itwent in and the refereesignaled that the basketwas indeed good. TrailKings protested andtalked to the officials,Tony Heardand for good reasonconsidering the amountof time that was left onthe clock.The discussiontook place for about 10 minutes with clock keepers,and tournament directors. But in the end the callstood and the basket counted. The end of this gamewas exciting and it was a shame one of those teamshad to lose. There was good sportsmanship showed bythe Trail Kings when they heard of the decision.Although the game was highly competitive everyoneknew we were here to honor Howard Tiger andremembered that by showingclass in defeat.The women’s side ofthe bracket were exciting alsowith Sem Rec Matching upagainst Sundown in the finals.The Sundown ladies were a bitshort handed but still put up afight and competed to try andcapture the victory.The Sem Rec teamwas determined to utilize theirstrengths on defense and intransition to make sure they didnot fall short in the championshipgame. They followedthe game plan of pushing theball up the court and a fullcourt press that gave them theedge over the Sundown ladies.The Sem Rec ladies ending upbeing crowned the championsof the 40th Annual HowardTiger Basketball Tournament.The match up for themen in the championship gamewas the Sem Rec team versusthe Str8 Ballin guys. The gamewas pretty nip and tuck theentire game until about 10 minutesto go and the Sem RecTony Heardteam got a few defensive stopsand hit some big shots to put adamper on their opponents.The lead climbed andthe Sem Rec team continued toput the pressure on the guys from Str8 Ballin, just toinsure there would be no last second heroics. Thegame ended and the champions were crowned. SemRec had captured the win but saluted the efforts of theyoung guys competing against them.Tony HeardYouth Play in Adult Howard TigerMemorial TournamentBy Tony HeardHOLLYWOOD — The adults had their timeto shine and now it was time for the real die hardballers to step on the court and strut their stuff. Theyouth tournament was exciting and entertaining asever this timearound. Everyonewho came to playand have a goodtime did just that.The sevenand under groupwas ready to go assoon as theystepped on to thecourt. It was easy tosee that all the kidshave been workingon their skills andimproving. Thescore and team playwas a great exampleof that. With BigCypress and SemRec 1 meeting up inthe final game theheat was on.Diving onthe floor, hard fouls,big rebounds, andeven some goodpasses were all ondisplay. The youngstersfrom B.C.were a little morefine tuned and wasable to put the ballin the hole a fewmore times than theSem Rec team. Inthis age group allthe participants arewinners and it wasjust great to seethem out there playinghard and havingfun.The 10 andunder brackets werecompetitive and fullof action. TheBrighton team facedthe Sem Rec 2 teamin the semi-finalsand gave them a good game. The Sem Rec team had afew more kids that were an impact on the game andended up coming away with the win tomove on to the finals against the talentedBig Cypress squad.The championship game wasbeing controlled by B.C. with transitionbaskets and a trapping defense. BigCypress had a big lead until about sixminutes to go and then the Sem Rec teamcame storming back behind a full teameffort.Everyone who was on the floorcontributed in getting their team back inthe game. Unfortunately, when the finalhorn sounded the comeback fell short andBig Cypress hung on to claim the muchdeserving win. Both teams fought hardand wanted to win badly, but the teamfrom Big Cypress was the better team onthat day and did what it took to win. Theyplayed as a team and more importantly,played with passion and had fun.Lady Seminoles win with their dominating defense.Tony HeardAdult Straight Ballin' proudly brings home the 2ndplace trophy.The 14 and under girls championship camedown to the Lady Seminoles and Brighton. Comingfrom the loser’s bracket the Lady Seminoles weredetermined to not let this game slip away. Brightongot a few come from behind wins to advance to thechampionship gameand was also lookingto go all out to takehome the championshiptrophy. Thegame ended thesame way it began,intense!The youngladies that were onthe court playingthis wonderful gamewere giving it theirall and each playerwas doing everythingin their powerto make sure theirteam was the victors.Both teamsgave their all and itwas a shame one ofthem had to suffer adefeat.Althoughneither team wascompletely in control,the Lady Seminoles had the edge with just a fewminutes to go and played smart and got a few keydefensive stops to lock up the win. Brighton gave asupreme effort but ended up falling a little short. Theway these young ladies compete this will be anintense match upevery time theymeet.The 14and under boyschampionshipgame wasbetween Brightonand Big Cypress.Being these werethe only twoteams in this agedivision theyplayed a best outof three series.Brighton won thefirst game bysimply makingshot when it matteredand playingtough defense.But the next gamewas won by B.C.which created aTony HeardJoseph Osceola shoots the jumper inside the paint inchampionship game.Tony HeardLady Seminoles take the championship in the women's adult tournament.Tony HeardTony HeardMoses Billie gets a good shotunder the basket but fell shortin the Semi-Final men's game.tie breaker match up andthat everybody was readyfor.Big Cypressjumped out to a nice leadand then Brighton went ona run to close the deficitwith just under three minutesto play. Big Cypressthen began to execute andtighten up on the defensiveend. Brighton gave agreat effort but could notget over the hump andpull out the come-frombehindwin. The 17 andunder boys had the samescenario only having twoteams in the age division.But the Str8Ballin guys fromHollywood pulled theirforces together in a closechampionship game and were crowned the champions.The game had many excited points and tons of talentthat were being showcased. This isanother rivalry in the making andboth teams will be ready for thechallenge every time.The 17 and under girlswere the Lady Seminoles oldergroup split up into two teams. Theteams were fairly even and the girlswere competing, biting, scratching,laughing, fouling and pushing likethey were not team mates. It wasgood to see them competing so hardagainst each other trying to makeeach other better.They were all winnersbecause they played hard, had fun,and showed sportsmanship. But inthe end the Lady Seminoles 1 teamcame away with the slight moralvictory and claimed the championship.It was all laughs and goodtime when the final horn sounded,but I know all the kids had a great3rd place Moses's Team.time throughout the tournament andlook forward to the next one.Tony Heard