OCEAN CITY PRO AM 2007

The 2007 Ocean City Pro-Am Tournament is one of the premiere basketball calendar events in the Mid-Atlantic region. The O.C. had twenty or more adult, pro-am, quality teams from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, New York and other coastal states. The weather forecast for the weekend was overcast, cloudy, with thunderous dunks...Variably mild to strong crossovers, mixed with lightning quick ballas, who would rain three pointers over a two day period! There can be only one champion!

The Ocean City Final Four were characterized by the cream of the 2007 crop, with the strong showing of FRANK'S FINEST, CROSSOVER, PURE GAME and ENTERPRISE. All four of these teams were undefeated on day one and would clash for all the marbles [$2,000] on day two.

PURE GAME [Philly], O.C.'s Defending 2006 Champions is a veteran club, and was led by the ball-handling and penetration of Fahreed Cheatham, the rebounding and defense of Mike "Low Post" Lewis and the long range shooting of Antoine "Downtown" Brockington. PURE GAME is coached by Tracy Madison.

ENTERPRISE [Camden/Philly] has appeared to be faster and more defensive this year, a youthful club with various ways of beating you...Led by Chew "Shaft in Africa" Bostic, the rebounding of Tyrone "Bam-Bam" Hill and the shooting of Lamar "Radar" Singletary. ENTERPRISE is coached by Ron Griffin and Avery Watkins.

FRANK'S FINEST out of Baltimore, Maryland, who hit teams hard with a "3 Piece Combo" of the scoring and passing of Omar Smith, the lefty low post maneuvers of Darnell "Zonk" Hopkins and the offensive fire-power of Mark "Da Spark" Karcher. Just about every one of their victories, over this two day tourney, found FRANK'S FINEST trailing a team at half-time...Only to offensively explode in the final minutes with a strong come from behind attack for the "W's". FRANK'S FINEST is coached by former BKNY balla Lance Fuller.

The final team advancing into the title round was CROSSOVER out of Washington, DC. CROSSOVER is always tough, and have won a number of these East Coast tourneys over the years. Thy are led by the scoring and defense play of Corey Burns, and the able floor leadership of Johan "The Jet" Matos. CROSSOVER is coached by Ardell Jackson.

In a see-saw battle CROSSOVER eliminated PURE GAME at the buzzer [61-59]. In yet another come from behind victory, FRANK'S FINEST defeated ENTERPRISE in OVERTIME [75-70] The 2007 Ocean City Championship Game would be between CROSSOVER and FRANK'S FINEST. CROSSOVER led for most of the game, with strong play from Matos, Burns and the CROSSOVER front line. But you can never count-out FRANK'S FINEST in Ocean City ...They have won this tournament eight times and a few years ago they won it three times in a row! In the second half FRANK'S FINEST countered with scrappy "D" and buckets from Darnell Hopkins, Zonk Patterson and Karcher. It was a long b-ball weekend, and many of the eliminated teams headed for the doors, for their return trips home...For those that left early, they missed the end of game 3-point theatrics...Down the stretch it was once again, the hot shooting of Karcher and company hitting big time buckets. ["Stop complaining about the refs! Big Time Playas Hit Big Time Shots!"] The final score was 69-64 for the FRANK'S FINEST Victory and Mark Karcher was named the O.C. Tournament MVP!

The NYDLBALL.com selections for Ocean City All-Tournament are Fahreed Cheatham [PURE GAME], Corey Burns [CROSSOVER], Chew Bostic [ENTERPRISE], Hugh Jones [Just Us], Mark Karcher [FRANK'S FINEST] Not only did these ballas put serious numbers on the score-boards, they played good "D" and displayed leadership for each of their respective teams. Peace and Defense.