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Campion College Basketball: The Finale! [2007-2008 Season]

diphoenix — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:14 +0000

TEAM LEADERS

Points: Russell Thompson (16+ points per game)
Rebounds: Xavier Thompson (11+ rebounds per game)
Assists: James Deane (3+ assists per game)

Blocking Leaders:
Leighton Samuels
Xavier Thompson

Stealing Leaders:
Russell Thompson
Jason Blankson

Team MVP: James Deane
——————————————–
AFTER THE SEASON

2008 – 2009 Season
This will begin the rebuilding period for Campion College Under-19 (Varsity) Team. The next two years should be rough but in a matter of time players such as Javier Gordon, Jonathan Mitchell & Leekem Brown, among others, should have the team back on track.

Season (League) Awards
James Deane was awarded a plaque for being the best 3-point shooter of the league.

In-house Awards
At their graduation, multiple members of the team were awarded plaques for their dedication and contribution to Campion College Basketball. These Players were as follows:

Jason Blankson
James Deane
Graham Reid
Leighton Samuels
Russell Thompson
Xavier Thompson

The Sports Chronicles would like to congratulate the 2007-2008 Campion College Under-19 (Varsity) Team for their achievements this year and for putting together a very exciting season and the best finish the school has seen in over seven years.

…………

Posted in 2007, 2008, 2009, basketball, best, campion college, life lessons/personal, xavier thompson Tagged: basketball, campion, campionite, college, diphoenix, high, high school, high school basketball, jamaica, jamaica basketball, jamaican high school basketball, nba, school, sports, the sports chronicles

Campion College Basketball: Campionites end season on high, trouncing Tarrant

diphoenix — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:11:04 +0000

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Campion College Basketball: Campionites end season on high, trouncing Tarrant

Date: 31/01/08 [56-10] {Record: 3-5} Venue: Radley Reid Arena (Campion College)
[Home: 3-1][Away: 0-4]

Campion College finished their season in the same manner in which they started it – with a win – as action continued in the Southern Zone of the ISSA/KFC/Pepsi Basketball Competition. Campion soundly beat the lowly Tarrant High to complete and cap off a better than average (and expected) season. Though playing slopely, possibly due to their season having being over AND/OR the fact that they knew Tarrant was winless, the Campionites still managed to demolish their opponents 56-10.

Impressive Home Record

Though a sloppy match, the Campionites ended their season with an impressive home record of 3 wins and just one loss. The fans obviously playing a factor with this year being the only year in recent times that Campion fans came out in their numbers and actually outnumbered opponents. All-in-all, it was a great sending off for the Campionites with all but one of their members playing their last year of basketball with the school.
————————————————————————————
STATS

Leading Scorers
James Deane 29 points
Russel Thompson 13 points
Jason Blankson 6 points

Leading Rebounders
Xavier Thompson 11 rebounds
Leighton Samuels 11 rebounds
Jason Blankson 9 rebounds
————————————————————————————
Starting Lineup:
C Leighton Samuels [6'4, 170 lbs]
PF Xavier Thompson [6'3, 205 lbs]
SF Russell Thompson (Vice-Captain) [5'10, 195 lbs]
SG Jason Blankson [5'9, 185 lbs]
PG James Deane (Captain) [5'11, 145 lbs]

Bench:
Kim Sing Yung [5'10, 150 lbs]
Graham Reid [5'11, 155 lbs]
Darren Mitchell [5'10, 150 lbs]
————————————————————————————
GAME NOTES
The second game more than two players had 8+ rebounds (X. Thompson, Samuels, Blankson).
Blankson, Samuels and Xavier Thompson collectively tallied 31 rebounds [X. Thompson, 11, Samuels, 11 and Blankson, 9]
Russell Thompson, Xavier Thompson, Leighton Samuels, James Deane & Jason Blankson played the majority of the match.
Darren Mitchell, Graham Reid and Kim saw minority minutes.
Mikhail Mattis did not play due to injury (knee).

IN ATTENDANCE:
Racquel Dawkins, Shawntoll Buchanon, Damar Pessoa, Leikim Brown, Javier Gordon, Ashton Blankson.

Posted in 2008, basketball, campion college, DIphoeniX ('DI' writer/reviewer - [music & sports]), xavier thompson Tagged: basketball, campion, campionite, college, diphoenix, high, high school, high school basketball, jamaica, jamaica basketball, jamaican high school basketball, nba, school, sports, the sports chronicles

Campion College Basketball: Campionites season comes to an end, with loss to St. Catherine

diphoenix — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:01:43 +0000

Monday, February 4, 2008

Campion College Basketball: Campionites season comes to an end, with loss to St. Catherine

Date: 24/01/08 [44-58] {Record: 2-5} Venue: Radley Reid Arena (Campion College)
[Home: 2-1][Away: 0-4]

St. Catherine High officially put an end to Campion College’s bid for a playoff/quarterfinal spot as action continued in the Southern Zone of the ISSA/KFC/Pepsi Basketball Competition. The Campionites, who came into this match needing to win, went down in a match that was for the most part closely contested. At halftime the score was 17-26 and the Campionites looked a bt shaky. However they made great efforts in their comeback and drew close to St. Catherine team before finally allowing the match and hence their season, to slip away. The match eventually ended 58 – 44.

SLIPPED AWAY
As the match came down to the final five minutes Campion had drawn withint two points of their opponents. However, offensive blunders turned into easy fast break points which allowed St. Catherine to balloon back the lead to double digits. As the match came to a close, they knew that their spirited season was over.

FIRST HOME LOSS
This match was the first home loss for the Campionites who had previously been undefeated (2 – 0). (Though the loss to Calabar came at their home, it was scheduled and is still regarded as an away encounter).

ONE MATCH TO GO
They still have one match to go against Tarrant and the team is hoping to end their season on a high, not only due to pride but also the fact that most of these players are also seniors meaning this is their last year of high school basketball.
————————————————————————————
STATS

Scorers
Russell Thompson 23 points
James Deane 9 points
Xavier Thompson 8 points

Rebounders
Xavier Thompson 14 rebounds
Jason Blankson 13 rebounds
Leighton Samuels 8 rebounds
————————————————————————————
Starting Lineup:
C Leighton Samuels [6'4, 170 lbs]
PF Kim Sing Yung [5'10, 150 lbs]
SF Graham Reid [5'11, 155 lbs]
SG Darren Mitchell [5'10, 150 lbs]
PG Jason Blankson [5'9, 185 lbs]

Bench:
James Deane (Captain) [5'11, 145 lbs]
Xavier Thompson [6'3, 205 lbs]
Russell Thompson (Vice-Captain) [5'10, 195 lbs]

————————————————————————————-GAME NOTES
Benching Russell Thompson, Xavier Thompson & James Deane was a coaching strategy.
This was the only match where Campion’s top three scorers (Deane, R. Thompson & X. Thompson) all came off the bench.
The first game more than two players had 8+ rebounds (X. Thompson, Samuels, Blankson).
Blankson, Samuels and Xavier Thompson collectively tallied 35 rebounds [X. Thompson, 14, Blankson, 13 and Samuels, 8]
Russell Thompson, Xavier Thompson, Leighton Samuels, James Deane & Jason Blankson played the majority of the match.
Darren Mitchell, Graham Reid and Kim saw minority minutes.
Mikhail Mattis did not play due to injury (knee) and is doubtful for their match against Tarrant.

Campion College Basketball: Campionites get trampled on by Ardenne

diphoenix — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:53:14 +0000

Friday, February 1, 2008

Campion College Basketball: Campionites get trampled on by Ardenne

Date: 23/01/08 [22-64] {Record: 2-4} Venue: Ardenne Arena (Ardenne High)

Ardenne High further dampened hopes of the unlikely Campion College of qualifying for the playoffs/quarterfinals as action continued in the Southern Zone of the ISSA/KFC/Pepsi Basketball Competition. Th Campionites, who came into this match needing to win at least 2 of their last 3 matches, went down to a handy 22-64 defeat at Ardenne. Th Campionites who managed to take an early lead and obviously caught Ardenne a bit by surprise did a good job defensively of containg the Ardenne offense. However, the Campionites faced their own problems as Ardenne too played great defense nullifying the Campion offense to only 10 points in the half (Season Low), to their 22. The second half seemed to be the breaking point as Ardenne began to exert more effort and caught out Campion College on many fast breaks. Further more, the defense of Ardenne kept the Campion offense locked up tight, resulting in their season-low in points scored in a game.

Dunking Phenomena & Triple Double
As with most blowouts that Campion College faces, there was one outstanding player who, though not scoring a lot of points,15, is the only player to come this close to a triple double againt the Campionites, missing it by only ONE block. Yes Ardenne’s #15, Alex Lubsey, blocked anything and anyone in sight repeatedly, with quite a number of his 9 blocks done at the 3 point arc. He also had a 10+ rebound game to go with the fact that he dunked the ball at least 6 times throughtout the match, especially the second half.

Season in Jeopardy
Campion College’s home record will be severely tested when they come up against their toughest competitor’s at home, St. Catherine. They very well know that a loss tomorrow would ultimately mean the end of the season for the guys.
————————————————————————————
STATS

Scorers
James Deane 11 points
Russell Thompson 9 points
Darren Mitchell 2 points

Rebounders
Xavier Thompson 7 rebounds
Leighton Samuels 6 rebounds
————————————————————————————
Starting Lineup:
C Leighton Samuels [6'4, 170 lbs]
PF Xavier Thompson [6'3, 205 lbs]
SF Russell Thompson (Vice-Captain) [5'10, 195 lbs]
SG Jason Blankson [5'9, 185 lbs]
PG James Deane (Captain) [5'11, 145 lbs]

Bench:
Kim Sing Yung [5'10, 150 lbs]
Mikhail Mattis [5'11, 165 lbs]
Darren Mitchell [5'10, 150 lbs]
————————————————————————————-GAME NOTES
Russell Thompson, Xavier Thompson, Leighton Samuels, James Deane & Jason Blankson played the majority of the match.
Darren Mitchell, Mikhail Mattis and Kim saw minority minutes.
James Deane, Russel Thompson and Darren Mitchell were the only contributors offensively.
Xavier Thompson was the main contributor defensively.
Samuels and Xavier Thompson collectively tallied 13 rebounds [Thompson, 7 and Samuels, 6] – SEASON LOW
This was the only match where only two starters scored.

Posted in 2008, basketball, campion college, DIphoeniX ('DI' writer/reviewer - [music & sports]), xavier thompson Tagged: basketball, campion, campionite, diphoenix, sports, the sports chronicles

Campion College Basketball: Campionites upset Meadowbrook to remain undefeated at home

diphoenix — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:03:54 +0000

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Campion College Basketball: Campionites upset Meadowbrook to remain undefeated at home

Date: 16/01/08 [38-37] {Record: 2-3} Venue: Radley Reid Arena (Campion College)

Campion College upset Meadowbrook to record a narrow 38-37 win to remain unbeaten at home as action continued in the Southern Zone of the KFC ISSA Basketball Competition. The match was close from the get-go as their previous match, with Campion eventually pulling it out in a ‘must win’ match for the Campionites in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. The match went back and forth as both teams exchanged the lead. At the end of the first the score was tied at 9. At halftime the score remained close with Meadowbrook having a narrow 20-18 lead. The third quarter saw much of the same with both teams exchanging baskets and deseprately vieing for the win. In the end Campion got it together and kept their cool as they came away winners by one point.

LOST?
Campion was allowed to dribble away the last 18 seconds of the match witho Meadowbrook not seeming to have the presence of mind to foul in order to get back the ball.
CLOSING SECONDS OF THE MATCH

REBOUNDING MONSTERS
Xavier Thompson and Leighton Samuels were monsters on the glass as they combined for a SEASON-HIGH 36 rebounds. Both had 10 rebounds each at the half and 18 rebounds (each)at the end of the match.

‘MEN OF THE MATCH’
All starters contributed tremendously and all deserve an award for their outstanidng play.

REFUSED TO CHOKE
Even though they are well known for choking, the Campionites stuck to their guns and came away with an impressive victory.

BIGGEST HOME CROWD
Campion saw their largest crowd at a home match in a number of years. Campion is notorious for having away team crowds outnumber their own.

DAY OF CAREER HIGHS:
Xavier Thompson and Leighton Samuels both had whopping 18 rebounds each which broke their previous career highs. Prior to this Xavier Thompson’s carEer high was 13 rebounds and Samuels 11. This made it back-to-back career highs for Xavier Thompson who had only the match before recorded a new career high in rebounds. Jason Blankson also tied his career high in points with 8.

UNDEFEATED AT HOME
Campion remained undefeated at home with their second win from as many matches.

DOING WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED
The Campionites who will lose all but one member of their Under-19 squad next year are doing way better than many pundits expected. Last year they were expected to show real improvement as many thought they had the ‘dream team’. However, with injury to James Deane and obvious inexperience they slumped to yet another disappointing season winning only one match. This year many thought that with second-leading scorer Raymond Wilson gone, they would not have much of a season. As you can see however they have already won more matches than last year and 2 of their losses came in very close encounters away from home. It is obvious the players want to leave with a bang.
————————————————————————————————
FEATURE PLAYERS :

We continue our look at the individuals on the team Point Guard, James Deane:

James Deane is known as the ‘tactitian’ of the team with a very high basketball IQ. This is why he is the captain. He leads the team with vigor and obviously knows what he wants out of the members of the team. He always plays hard and with passion and is somewhat of a perfectionist on the court. An essential asset to this team and its success.

STRONG POINTS:
Great passer and vision of the court, great scorer/offense, stealing, great defender.

We continue our look at the individuals on the team Center, Leighton Samuels:

Leighton Samuels has become a very depedable center playing with much gusto and willing to challenge the big men inside. He is a great rebounder and blocker who gives his all and his best.

Xavier Thompson had this to say of Samuels

“I used to think of him as my protege a couple of years ago but he has really grown into his own. He is a great player to work alongside of.”

STRONG POINTS:
Great rebounding, blocking and defender.
————————————————————————————————
Post Game Press Conference

Mikhail Mattis:

“We played pretty hard, straight through the game. We were definitely active on the boards, which was a great advantage, and the main reason I believe we got the win. Our defence was good, but not great, as i saw that Meadowbrook was definitely not a good shooting team, so i think we should have pressured them to make more jump shots. I don’t think we hustled how we ought to, but we still got the W, and at the end of the day thats all that counts. I would have liked some more minutes, but sometimes you, got make sacrifces and just work hard, and the minutes will follow. But that win was good, and now we look forward for our next opponent.”

Russell Thompson

“It was a good team performance. I was impressed with how Deane created a lot of chances for us.”

Xavier Thompson

“It was a match where everyone and i mean EVERYONE played well. We really put our heart into this and dug deep to pull off this deserving victory. It was also great to have some support at home for a change which I’m sure made a difference to our intensity. I’m just hopoing we can win at least two more matches, that would be incredible!”

Leighton Samuels

“I was hoping we could’ve beaten them by more. I think we depend too much on Russel and James. It was an overall good effort but we need to beat the zone offense for the Ardenne and St. Catherine.”

James Deane

“It was a splendid match and everyone played very well.”

Jason Blankson

“I think it was a very good, hard fought match.”

————————————————————————————————
STATS

Scorers
Russel Thompson 14 points
James Deane 11 points
Jason Blankson 8 points

Rebounders
Xavier Thompson 18 rebounds
Leighton Samuels 18 rebounds

————————————————————————————-
Starting Lineup:
C Leighton Samuels [6'4, 170 lbs]
PF Xavier Thompson [6'3, 205 lbs]
SF Russell Thompson (Vice-Captain) [5'10, 195 lbs]
SG Jason Blankson [5'9, 185 lbs]
PG James Deane (Captain) [5'11, 145 lbs]

Bench:
Graham Reid [5'11, 160 lbs]
Kim Sing Yung [5'10, 150 lbs]
Mikhail Mattis [5'11, 165 lbs]
Darren Mitchell [5'10, 150 lbs]
————————————————————————————————
GAME NOTES
Russel Thompson, Xavier Thompson and Leighton Samuels played all 40 minutes of the match.
James Deane & Jason Blankson played the majority of the match.
Darren Mitchell, Mikhail Mattis and Kim saw minority minutes.
Graham Reid DID NOT PLAY (Coach’s Decision)
James Deane, Russel Thompson and Jason Blankson were the main contributors offensively.
Samuels and Xavier Thompson collectively tallied 36 rebounds [Thompson, 18 and Samuels, 18] – SEASON HIGH
This was the only match where ALL starters scored.

REMAINING SCHEDULE:
@ Ardenne – Wed. 23/1/08
vs. St. Catherine – Thu 24/1/08
vs. Tarrant – Mon 28/1/08

IN ATTENDANCE:
Ryan Brown, Audley Gordon, Miya Gentles, Kimberly Shaw, Steven Hamilton, Joni-Kay Johnson, Chad Brown, Steven Moore, Shaun Dufus, Patrica Taylor, Monique Smith, Sheree Henry

Campion College Basketball: Campionites lose close encounter to St. Jago

diphoenix — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:58:47 +0000

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Campion College Basketball: Campionites lose close encounter to St. Jago

Date: 14/01/08 [32-37] {Record: 1-3} Venue: De La Vega Arena (St. Jago)

Campion College came up unlucky yet again, away from home, as they lost a close encounter to St. Jago, as action continued in the Southern Zone of the KFC ISSA Basketball Competition. From the opening whistle the match was closley contested with both teams playing great defense. The teams were tied going into the half, at 16. The Jagonians extended their lead in the third quarter as the quarter finished 30-25. The game came down to the wire with Campion within a 3-point shot from the lead. However this did noot materialize and though coming close, Campion fell short going down 32-37.

Best Defense
This was the best defensive tactics used by Campion. It was very effective and St. Jago had a arduous time scoring.

3 pointers
Campion’s offense was not as effective as it might have wanted to be due to St. Jago’s disciplined defense but kept close with perfectly-timed three point shots. Russel Thompson went 4 of 7 behind the arc and scored a timely three in the closing seconds of the match.

Rebounding Tossle
The first half saw St. Jago outrebounding Campion. However, the second half saw Campion turning the tables and outrebounding the home side.

Career High
Xavier Thompson had a career high in rebounds as he recorded 13.
————————————————————————————-
Highlights and Stats:

Scorers:
Russel Thompson 16 points
James Deane 13 points
Xavier Thompson 3 points

Rebounders:
Xavier Thompson 13 rebounds
Leighton Samuels 7 rebounds

Main highlights
James Deane driving and hitting critical free throws.
Russel Thompson’s 3 point shooting.
Xavier Thompson’s circus ‘ballerina’ shot.
Leighton Samuels opening block.
Graham Reid’s surprising burst of energy of the bench.

Bench:
Graham Reid [5'11, 160 lbs]
Kim Sing Yung [5'10, 150 lbs]
Mikhail Mattis [5'11, 165 lbs]
————————————————————————————-
GAME NOTES
James Deane, Russel Thompson and Xavier Thompson played all 40 minutes of the match.
Leighton Samuels had played the majority of the match before fouling out.
Jason Blankson played majority of the match.
Graham Reid and Mikhail Mattis saw substantial minutes.
James Deane, Russel Thompson and Xavier Thompson were the only contributors offensively.
Samuels and Xavier Thompson collectively tallied 20 rebounds [Thompson, 13 and Samuels, 7]
Kim Sing Yung was sick and only able to play a few minutes of the match.
Campion’s coach was not present at the match and they were coached by a stand-in coach.
Mikhail Mattis made his debut for Campion.
————————————————————————————————
RESCHEDULED MATCH – The match against was postponed due to rain and will be rescheduled.

Remaining Schedule for Campion

diphoenix — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:11:20 +0000

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Remaining Schedule for Campion

January 10 – vs. Tarrant

January 14 – @ St. Jago

January 16 – vs. Meadowbrook

January 16-22 – @ Ardenne *

Janaury 24 – vs. St. Catherine

* The Ardenne match has not yet been officially rescheduled.

Features on James Deane, Leighton Samuels and Jason Blankson will be done in-toe with the three next matches. Features of members on the bench will be done within the last two matches.

Matches already played:
vs. Innswood [W] (64-24)
@ Jamaica College [L] (35-47)
@/vs. Calabar High [L] (27-81)

Record: 1-2

Starting Lineup:
C Leighton Samuels [6'4, 170 lbs]
PF Xavier Thompson [6'3, 205 lbs]
SF Russell Thompson (Vice-Captain) [5'10, 195 lbs]
SG Jason Blankson [5'9, 185 lbs]
PG James Deane (Captain) [5'11, 150 lbs]

Bench:
Graham Reid [5'11, 160 lbs]
Kim Sing Yung [5'10, 150 lbs]
Darren Mitchell [5'10, 150 lbs]
Mikhail Mattis [5'10, 165 lbs]

Campion College Basketball: Calabar demolishes Campionites

diphoenix — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:04:04 +0000

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Campion College Basketball: Calabar demolishes Campionites

Date: 13/12/07 [27-81] {Record: 1-2}

A lot of lessons were taught and learnt with the end result seeing Calabar easily put aside Campion as action continued in the Southern Zone of the KFC ISSA Basketball Competition . Calabar put on a display which seemingly mesmorized the Campionites who found themselves down by a whopping 30 points at the end of only the first quarter! Campion was obviously not prepared for the up-tempo minded “Lions” and offensively were shut down by the seemingly mind boggling press Calabar employed throughtout the first quarter. Obviously a ploy to tire out Campion and to bury the game as early as possible, Calabar saw there defensive mechanism reward them generously as they burst out to 10-0 lead. Campion were not able to generate much offense in the first quarter because of this and the quarter ended 34-4. Signs of Calabar tiring were evident though at the end of their blistering first quarter blitz and saw them turn down the heat a bit. They didn’t turn it down too much however and kept up their efficient play throughtout the match thus keeping Campion from recovering. The “Lions”/”Rabalac” , their goal being to score 100 points fell 19 short as the match ended in a 81-27 blowout.

One Man Show

Campion was also subjected to a one man offensive onslaught by Calabar’s #8 who collected 30 points to go along with 19 rebounds. He was dominating in the post with noone being able to slow him down or stop him. This was similar to Campion’s match last year against J.C. where then center, Eugene had 44 points and almost 20 rebounds.

Injury Scares

James Deane was clearly winded as he was knee’d in the stomach region in the first quarter. Though he finished the match strong, he seemed to still be suffering from the blow at the end of the match.

Russel Thompson complained at the end of the match of back pains resulting from a fall in the second half as he drove the lane and was fouled by a Calabar player.

Both should be okay however and their injuries not seen as threatening.

Is there a lesson to be learnt?

Even though they were blown out Campion could take some positives as well, from Calabar’s play. They were very efficient and demanded only perfection (or something close to it) of their team. They were organized and though much teams may have come and ‘relaxed’ against Campion who is seen as a ‘beating stick’ by most opponents, they came with a plan and wanted to carry it through to the end.

————————————————————————————————

FEATURE PLAYER :

We continue our look at the individuals on the team by starting with the teams Shooting Guard/Small Forward Russel Thompson:

Known for being the joker of the team, Russel Thompson has always been a great offensive player with a variety of plays in his arsenal. Always energetic he puts his all out on the court on both ends as he is also a great defender. He leads the Campion team in scoring and on a good day is their most dangerous player.

TSC: How did you feel about your perfomance today?
Russel Thompson:

“I was playing like a punk. That’s about it. That’s all i have to say right now. I had very little shot attempts and turned over the ball too much. It wasn’t a pretty performance.”

TSC: How did you feel the team on a whole played?
Russel Thompson:

“The team tried. We just couldn’t get it going offensively or defensively.”

STRONG POINTS:
Great scorer/offense, stealing, great defender.

IDEAL PLAYER (inspiration): Dwyane Wade (yes that’s how it’s spelt)

FEATURE PLAYER (CONT’D):

Xavier Thompson:

STRONG POINTS:
Great overall defense/defender, rebounding, blocking.

IDEAL PLAYER (inspiration): Carlos Boozer

————————————————————————————————
Starting Lineup:
C Leighton Samuels [6'4, 170 lbs]
PF Xavier Thompson [6'3, 205 lbs]
SF Russell Thompson (Vice-Captain) [5'10, 195 lbs]
SG Jason Blankson [5'9, 185 lbs]
PG James Deane (Captain) [5'11, 150 lbs]

Bench:
Graham Reid [5'11, 160 lbs]
Kim Sing Yung [5'10, 150 lbs]
————————————————————————————————

GAME NOTES

All starters played majority of the match.
James Deane, Russel Thompson and Xavier Thompson were the major contributors offensively.
Leighton Samuels was the major contributor defensively.
Samuels and Xavier Thompson collectively tallied 20 rebounds [Samuels, 11 and Thompson 9]
The match was played at the Radley Reid arena (Campion’s home) due to Calabar not having home facilities.
Campion were once again subjected to a series of “No calls” as the referees allowed a lot of fouls on Campion to go by.

Mikhail Mattis has been cleared to play in the remaining games according to team captain James Deane.

————————————————————————————————

REMAINING SCHEDULE – This will be posted in the next blog.

Campion College Basketball: J.C. shut down the short-handed Campionites

diphoenix — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:59:53 +0000

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Campion College Basketball: J.C. shut down the short-handed Campionites

Date: 3/12/07 [35-47] {Record: 1-1}

Jamaica College shut down the short-handed Campionites in the 4th and final quarter to come away with an umimpressive victory over Campion College as action continued in the KFC ISSA Basketball Competition (Southern Zone). The Campionites, playing with only 6 players gave J.C. a scare, a team with their full compliment of 12 players, all the way through to the last quarter. Heading into the 4th J.C. led by one,29-28, after allowing Campion back into the game. HoweverJ.C. ran away after James Deane and Leighton Samuels both fouled out before 4 mins into the last quarter, leaving Campion to play the rest of the match with only 4 players. Their problems were compunded as Xavier Thompson and Jason Blankson were on the verge of fouling out. This was too much for the Campionites, who allowed the most points in a quarter for the match. Campion is away to Calabar on Thursday the 13th of December.

Bench:
Graham Reid [5'11, 160 lbs]

GAME NOTES:
Xavier Thompson played all 40 minutes of the match.
James Deane and Leighton Samuels fouled out.
All remaining starters played majority of the match.
Jason Blankson played very aggresively and was at points the most dangerous player for Campion.

What’s with the slump?

diphoenix — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:48:16 +0000

Monday, December 10, 2007

What’s with the slump? by Xavier Thompson

Any body notice lately how a certain MVP has seemingly taken a backseat? Well if you are an avid fan of basketball you would probably have a clue about who I am referring to. It’s none other than Mr. Dirk “i can’t handle pressure” Nowitzki. Being a fan of the Dallas Mavericks for the past six seasons , I have seen this player grow into a mega superstar in the NBA and I’m not using this word lightly. Last year seemed to be the year where everything was coming together and I as well as the millions of other Mavericks fans would finally be compensated for our loyalty. I mean, we were only TWO games out of tieing the nba record for most wins in a season (67-15), so what could go wrong? Lamentably, this dream was not realized as the Mavericks slumped to a 4-2 series loss to the upstarts from Golden State (coached by our former coach & GM, Don Nelson). This was of course riding behind the lacklustre play of Mr. Nowitzki himself, who of all times decided to go to sleep in that crucial series. Of course other factors were at fault as well, such as Avery Johnson’s bad decision to not play a full squad in a near-end season match against the same Warriors who were battling for dear life to clinch a playoff berth. As everyone knows, we were disgraced and sent crashing out of the playoffs, my second time experiencing this in my ‘tenure’ as a fan. Now you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this and why I won’t just get over it? Well after that season of two tales I was expecting the Mavs to make trades and for the ‘great one’ to go back to Germany, use his anger to fuel his off-season training and come back this season better than ever before;come back with a vengence. However, what have I been subjected to? A Maverick squad FIFTH in the West, THIRD in the Southwest and 13-8. Now you’re probably saying I’m just overreacting and that it’s only the start of the season. But being a fan who likes and is used to seeing my team in the top 3 for the past 4 seasons, this start has me a bit shaken. Sure it’s nothing like the 0-4 start we had last year, but most will remember that after that 0-4 start we went 40-4! Granted, maybe that’s the reason we lost out in the first round, playing too hard in the season and being too tired to play an up-tempo team in a series. The concern I have really lies in how ‘on & off’ Nowitzki has been. Most would be shocked to know that he isn’t even our leading scorer this season. In addition he has had only 2 30-point games in 21 matches. Yeah, sure, maybe I’m expecting too much but if we’re not playing as well as last season you begin to look around for the reasons and to me a big reason is due to his play. Then again maybe he’s just waiting for the right time. Maybe over the off-season and while playing for Germany he realized that he has to wait for the playoff run to get heated. Maybe he is wary of what happened last year and is conserving energy. Maybe he’s distracted. Maybe he’s been instructed by the mastermind Avery Johnson to ‘cool’ it for now and lull opponents into thinking he’s lost his mojo or has passed it on to Josh. Maybe he just needs fans like myself to start bad-mouthing him for him to wake up. One can only speculate but in my mind it’s very likely that this guy is in a major ’superstar’ slump and we may just be witnessing the fall of a star! Who wants to bet on him being a contender for MVP this year? Certainly, not me.

Maybe someone really has ’stolen’ his mojo right from under him :)

6 comments:

Mikhail said…

First it is only the beginning of the season and as a fellow mav fan, i am disappointed that the Dirkanator is not performing, as i expected him to, but what we all need to realize is that Dirk’s offense is still superb, and what i believe he and the Maverick administration is doing is giving him less shot opportunities, to take the scoring burden off of his shoulders and allow him to work on other parts of his game (eg, Post, passing, passing out of the double team, and maybe even defense), and allow other players to pick up the slack and improve (Devin Harris, JHO and even Bass). As seen in last year playoffs, when Mr, Dirk was “shut down”, we had nobody to turn to as JHO scored only in the early moments of games and devin was never in a position to take the scoring burden. therefore everything was left for aging stackhouse and terry, who are streaky shooters.

So when you say he is not performing like a true MVP, i do agree, but what is the point of being mvp, if we may get knocked out in the first round again.

December 10, 2007 4:26 PM

DIphoeniX said…

Yes mikhail, you do have a point and i will acknowledge the fact that there has been nice improvements in Devin Harris Jho and Bass is coming along nicely. I’m hoping you are right and they are really looking to improve on others to take the burden off his shoulders and as you said, it’s pointless to have a mvp if the team is just going to get knocked out in the first round. Let’s just hope this is a strategy by the coaching staff.

December 10, 2007 7:10 PM

DIphoeniX said…

I would also like to turn your attention to this article:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/7547056

It shows that I’m not the only one who beleives he’s ’slumping’

December 10, 2007 8:56 PM

princeruss said…

first of all your article is not factual… you stated that you started 0-4 last season, which is true, but then you go on to say that you went 40-4 which is absolutely ridiculous. In order to do that you would have had to win 40 games in a row. second of all the most wins a season is 72 games and, unless you can’t count, that is FIVE games from tieing the NBA record for most wins in a season. so “diphoenix” please get your facts right first. Now I think that you are over reacting. We are approximately 21 games (on average) into the season and being 14-8 does not cause for concern or any panic whatsoever. I think all of you Mavericks fans were spoilt with a GREAT season that they had last year and as a result are expecting way too much out of dallas.They will still get to playoffs and they will still finish top 5, probably even to 3 in the west.
Now Dirk’s numbers are still pretty good 21.1ppg 8.3rpg 3.8apg… and you would have to be silly to think that those numbers will not improve, however it won’t be as impressive as last year or the year before because of the emergence of josh howard… who by the way is putting up career numbers. he is averaging more points, rebounds, and assists than he ever has in his career.
At any rate your team is more complete this year than they were last year with devin harris starting at point and howards’s increased production. so “DiPhoenix” don’t worry, not yet at least, there are around 60 games left and dirk will improve soon.

December 10, 2007 10:09 PM

DIphoeniX said…

I must clear this up in an instant…when i said we went 40-4 i meant 40 wins and 4 losses which added to the first 4 losses of the season would give us a 40-8 record. secondly yes i was mistaken in saying two games out when it was actually five. I also see your point about Josh and Devin’s increase productions and I can understand that Nowitzki may not be required to score as much. However I still believe that even if we were ’spoilt’ last year, it’s no reason not to want and expect the best of a team which as you said is more complete this year. Therefore I think that the Mavs should be doing better than they are currently. It is very ironic that Nowitzki scored a season high on the night I posted this (36 points)…maybe he’s reading after all. Back to the point though, it is early yet and many games left to go but at this position we are battling with 5th,6th place teams and to me, that’s unacceptable at any point during a season. Furthermore if we do finish below the top 4 then my concerns would be justified as that is completely disappointing especially after last season. Hence Dallas needs to yet again be in the top 3 of the west else that would indicate that the team is on a decline. I’m sure you want the team you’re a fan of to do extremely well and if you are okay with your team not playing to their full potential then I would have to question your fanhood. If you are a TRUE fan and you realize the potential of your team then you SHOULD expect the best and not become ‘okay’ with the thought of them finishing and playing below par.

December 10, 2007 10:44 PM

Mikhail said…

also it seems that Dirk, saw your article and decided to prove you wrong, with a great game vs New York.

but then again it was New York

December 11, 2007 10:20 AM