Elm City Ballers Take It Downtown

A match-up between the New Haven Heat and Beaver Hills Sunday evening had all the trappings of a semi-professional basketball game. Fans filled bleachers and hung on railings ringing the court. Music boomed from speakers in the out-of-bounds area. At the center of it all, the players played hard, hustling for loose balls, fighting past defenders and running back on defense, their efforts producing hoots and hollers from the crowd.

Beaver Hills and the New Haven Heat, although talented, are not professionals. The two squads are composed of New Haven high schoolers, and their match Sunday was the championship game for the 16 – 18 year old age division of the Connecticut Big 3 Ball Out tournament.

The tournament, which is in its fourth year, gives kids and young adults from across Connecticut an opportunity to play fun, competitive basketball against one another. Games took place on Saturday and Sunday on the stretch of Church Street in front of City Hall, which was blocked off and transformed into 16 basketball courts for the event. Most of the teams that competed in this year’s tournament were from New Haven, Hartford, and other towns in the state. Others came from New York, New Jersey, Boston, and even Philadelphia.

Ebony McClease, one of the organizers of the competition, said 74 teams of four competed Sunday across five age brackets, ranging from 7 – 9 years old to 19 years and over. The tournament was single-elimination; match-ups within each age bracket were made randomly. Three players were on the court for each team at a time, and matches were 20 minutes long.

Pete Duglenski, one of the referees, who officiates college basketball games professionally, said Saturday was a free-play day and had no bearing on the games Sunday. He said teams knocked out in the earlier rounds on Sunday were invited to stick around, play on the open courts, and watch the remaining games, and many did.

Beaver Hills’ path to the championship game was not an easy one. After knocking out a team called CBG in the first round, Beaver Hills’s players found themselves pitted against a very talented squad, Team Separation, in the semi-final. At the end of 20 minutes, Separation and Beaver Hills were tied, forcing a sudden-death overtime. The first team to score two points would win.

After a few changes of possession, Beaver Hills’ Trayvon Sherman held the ball.

“I was just thinking, I’ve gotta win this,” Sherman said.

Sherman did just that, driving to his right and sinking a shot from beyond the three-point arc to send his squad to the next round.

Beaver Hills did not prevail in the championship match against the New Haven Heat, falling 14 – 12. Michael Wooton, a member of the squad, said the Heat’s size advantage made it difficult to play against them.

Still, Wooton said he enjoyed the competition and planned to play again next year, as did all the other players who spoke with the Independent. Joshua ​“Duck Sauce” Pearson of New Haven, who played in the 10 – 12 year old division, said his favorite moment from the tournament was hitting three three-pointers in a row in one of his games. Pearson said his nickname is Duck Sauce because he’s ​“sweet on the court.”

In the 7 – 9 year old division, the Ankle Breakers, a New Haven team, reigned supreme. The Ankle Breakers held off Lights Out, another New Haven squad, by a score of 12 — 4 in the championship game.

Lomell Satchell, who played for the Ankle Breakers. was named the MVP of the championship game. He said he thought his team played well because they passed the ball well and because no one hogged the ball. He said his team played the Lights Out twice, once Saturday and again in the finals, and said it was the toughest team he faced in the competition.

After the Ankle Breakers won the championship, City Youth Services Director Jason Bartlett presented the team with a trophy and a custom-made ball with Tremont Waters’ picture on it. Waters, a New Haven native, was the #38 ranked high school basketball prospect in the nation this past year and will play college ball at Louisiana State University on a full scholarship starting this fall. The Ankle Breakers also met and took picture with Waters.

The winning team from each age bracket Sunday received those same honors.

Bobby Moore, a New Haven native whose son played Sunday, said the city should sponsor more activities like the tournament.

“There’s really not much for kids to do in the city,” Moore said. ​“This tournament is nice because the kids can go out and play in front of a crowd … we should have three or four of these a year.”

Basketball was not the only attraction on Church Street last weekend. The city set up rides and other amusements, including a jumpy castle and a large rock-climbing wall, on the Green. Fans at the games also were treated to live music performances from local artists.

One of the musical groups that performed Sunday, a brother-and-brother duo called N Finity Muzik, has performed at the competition for the past three years. Michael Bethune Jr. and Kejuan Simmons, the two brothers, told the Independent that they perform mostly hip-hop, but that some of their music mixes genres.

On Sunday, the brothers rapped over beats from Desiigner and other popular hip-hop artists, but they said they make their own beats for some of their songs. They added that they would like to be professional musicians when they grow up.