As the weekend progresses, more teams are being sent home everyday. During Saturday’s quarterfinals matchups, two more teams reached the two-loss threshold that automatically eliminates squads from Rumph Classic contention.
On Sunday, 8EYE will play Basketball Finders, and LOE will play CheckRock as the four teams compete for a spot in Monday’s championship game.
Game One
After leading 8EYE to a Friday night victory against LOE, Philadelphia 76ers center Paul Reed returned to the Rumph on Saturday to lead his squad to a 70-60 win and a spot in Sunday’s semifinals.
Both offenses flowed naturally with limited turnovers and high-quality shots. When Vinny Simpson, Kwahmere “Philly Flyer” Davenport and Juan’ya Green are in backcourt, nothing less is to be expected.
Simpson, who has been to the Rumph championship in each of the last three tournaments, finished with a game-high 17 points and earned Player of the Game honors. Reed scored 14 and snagged 15 rebounds en route to the victory.
8EYE started the second half hot, pushing the lead to a game-high of 12 on a Simpson stepback before REX6 called a timeout to successfully halt the momentum.
REX6 came out of the timeout with a renewed sense of urgency, trimming the deficit to one point around the eight-minute mark behind the savvy play of Davenport.
Davenport currently leads the Rumph in assists per game and refused to let REX6 go down without a fight. However, a late surge in the finals two minutes sealed the deal for 8EYE as they advance to Sunday’s semifinals for a rematch against Basketball Finders, who won Friday’s matchup 58-57.
Game Two
With the most talented roster in the Rumph, Blue Magic entered Saturday’s quarterfinal game against LOE without Brandon Austin, losing 68-47.
Blue Magic returned its roster from Friday night while former Temple guard Scootie Randall returned to action, and former Butler guard Mike Green filled in for Austin.
LOE wasn’t a full capacity either as former Penn State guard Lamar Stevens wasn’t in the backcourt with fellow Nittany Lion, Tony Carr. That didn’t stop them from going on a run and taking a double-digit lead into halftime, though, and cruising to a semifinal berth.
Once the second half began, there was no looking back for LOE as Carr and company were too much to handle, causing miscommunication and several defensive breakdowns from Blue Magic. LOE’s lead reached as much as 20 points in the second half as they prevented a Blue Magic-CheckRock rematch.
Carr finished with 23 points in his Player of the Game performance.
