You can tell it's the holidays, because the D-1 guys were out watching high school games as most are on a few day Christmas break. I caught up with Stephen Baird (Liberty), Jonathan Landry (Coppin State), Travis Smith (Angelina JC) and of course my own son Chip Ivany (UT-San Antonio) was watching the games with me at Littleton.San Antonio Lee 89 San Antonio Reagan 77
Below: Paul Garnica (shown hitting a three in the face of Memphis Magic's Adonis Thomas during a summer game with the Texas D-1 Ambassadors) continues his assault on the San Antonio scoring record books. He dropped 54 tonight to equal his career high set earlier last month vs. Boerne Champion. Ganica now stands within 91 points of taking the crown away from former San Antonio West Campus and former NBA player, Devin Brown. Garnica had some great help tonight as undersized P 2010 Mike McPherson really busted his tail on the boards and hustled his way to 21 points and 10 boards.
What Garnica is doing is transcending basketball. He's taking a group of underdog kids and leading them to bigger things, and he's rallying a community around him and his team mates. The Lee "Red Army" was out in force tonight as well as other curiousity seekers to see the sllightly built Garnica do his thing. At least four of Garnica's three pointers were from 28-30 feet out. Reagan players had no answer.
At half time a gentleman approached me (he'd sent me an email earlier this week) saying that his little boy used to want to wear Spur Manu Ginobili's number in his youth games but now wants to wear Paul Garnica's #3. Wow. I tell these kids all the time, that youngsters look up to them.. PROOF!
Tonight was no day at the beach for the Reagan Rattlers. Thought ya'll might enjoy this photo of the Texas D-1 Ambassadors at Myrtle Beach after capturing the prestigious Atlantic Slam II, in South Carolina. Summer team mates from left to right: 2011 G Tre Demps who had 31 tonight for SA Reagan, 2011 P Mark Nwakamma of Leander, 2010 G Cody Doolin of Austin Westlake (San Francisco), 2010 G Jonathan Perry of Kerrville, Paul Garnica of Lee who had 54 tonight (Northern Colorado), 2010 W Conner Kemper of Austin Westlake, Daniel Alexander of Dripping Springs with hand raised (Texas A&M), 2011 Jake Kocher of St. Michael's who is currently leading the City of Austin in scoring at 28ppg, and last but not least D.J. Stephens of Killeen Harker Heights who is now with the Memphis Tigers.
2011 G Tre Demps (shown below at John Lucas' Camp this past summer) of San Antonio Reagan had 31 points and 5 assists tonight in an impressive performance for the Rattlers in their loss to Lee. Demps has improved his strength, balance, ability to get to the rim and has become a much more consistent three point threat. Reagan team mate Max Yon also had a great night for his squad with 26 points.
San Antonio Madison 38 San Antonio MacArthur 36One of the better 2012 prospects in the San Antonio area is PG Matt Gramling of MacArthur. (Below) Playing in the backcourt with his brother, 2010 G Chris Gramling he scored 8 points tonight and is gaining confidence as his first varsity campaign unfolds. The other solid 2012 prospect, Madison's Christopher Campbell was no factor as he picked up fouls immediately and was never part of the flow.
This was a snoozer to watch, until the last few seconds when MacArthur inexplicably allowed a post to handle the ball twice, allowing Madison to first steal the ball to tie the score and then again at the buzzer, Madison's Jamaal John (Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo) threw up a runner from about 18 feet out at the buzzer for the Madison win. Johnson finished with a game high 15. Jonathan Landry's younger brother 2013 PG Trayvon Landry of Madison was not in uniform as he's nursing a strained groin. We wish him well and a speedy recovery from a very annoying injury.
