By Jacob Moreno

The calm before the 21st Danny Rumph championship game was hardly calm. Local middle and high schoolers competed in the boys and girls Next Bright Stars games before the main event between Rumph Center and TBB at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Monday night.

GIRLS GAME: TEAM JESSIE 34, TEAM JASMINE 25

Team Jessie beat Team Jasmine 34-25 in the girls’ contest that offered a glimpse of the future of women’s basketball with middle schoolers around the city. The game was a tight defensive battle that saw Team Jessie pull away at the end to come away with the win.

The game was close early on, but Team Jessie took a commanding 17-8 lead midway into the first half. Their ball movement and shot-making were impressive and Team Jasmine couldn’t close the game and went into halftime down 25-16.

Team Jessie ballooned their lead to 11 and never let up behind a strong defensive effort. It was the defenses that took center stage after the break, holding the offenses at bay, which gave Team Jessie the edge.  The defense worked as they scored timely buckets down the stretch to seal it. 

BOYS GAME: GRAY TEAM 54, WHITE TEAM 51

The girls showcase was followed up by the boys game, featuring some of the best players in the Classes of 2029 and 2030.

To no surprise, they put on a show.

It was fast-break offense, dunks, dunks and followed up by, you guessed it, more dunks.

In the end, Team Gray was able to scrape its way to a 54-51 win against Team White in an action-packed prequel to the championship. Neither team was able to secure a stable lead, being stuck together like glue, but it didn’t matter as Team Gray did enough to squeak out a victory. 

Aggressive drives to the basket headlined the first half as Gray squeaked to a 15-12 advantage after seven-and-a-half minutes. The athleticism and shiftiness that was on display energized the crowd and benches, especially as Gray continued to push. They enjoyed a lead as large as 11 before the halftime buzzer.

White came out of the break with more defensive focus, cutting its deficit to two less than three minutes in. Both teams continued to dominate in the open floor, dunking in ways that left the crowd in awe. Gray got the stops needed to clinch victory to end the middle-school slate.