The Jumpmen got to play at home in Pueblo over the weekend of April 25-27. The Jumpen competed in the U15/9th grade division and went 4-0 in winning the championship.
The Jumpen opened with a gutsy Aguilar HS team in an ice-breaker game and won 102-18 (Devon Manning, 32 pts/8 assts; Josh Medina, 18 pts/6 reb; Cody Sorensen, 18 pts/10 reb/7 stls; Nicholas Marinucci, 14 pts/6 asst/6 stls; Scott Schwab, 10 pts; Nick Haning, 8 reb). Aguilar is a small town in southern Colorado and this team will be competitive in 1A in the future.
The Jumpmen opened bracket play against a solid Buffalos team, beating them 71-37 (Marinucci, 18 pts; Delandis Wright, 13 pts/6 stls; Manning, 10 pts; Medina, 10 pts/9 reb; Sorensen, 11 reb/6 asst).
The semifinal was against a great Pueblo Central HS team featuring several freshmen and sophomores (including Chuck Bailey, Josh Chavez, London Fuller, Abel Gallegos, Joey Gallegos, Brandon Smith and Taquan Nicholas), from Central's HS teams and coached by Brad Ranson. The first quarter ended in a 14-14 tie. The Jumpen had a solid second quarter to go up 12 at half. The Jumpen maintained their lead and won 61-44 behind an outstanding game by Devon Manning (Manning, 26 pts/6 asst; Marinucci, 10 pts; Sorensen, 12 reb; Medina, 6 reb).
In the final, the Jumpen defeated the Pueblo Prowlerz, featuring Abel Montelongo-Gallegos and Zach Gallegos, both of them sons of the coach, Floyd Gallegos. The Jumpmen got off to a solid start winning the first quarter 14-7. Sorensen and Medina spent most of the second quarter on the bench each with two fouls and the rest of the Jumpmen stepped it up and held the Prowlerz scoreless in the period, taking a 27-7 lead at the half. The third quarter was another solid defensive effort, with the Jumpmen holding the Prowlerz to 4 and going up 42-11. In the fourth quarter, Abel Gallegos showed off his scoring skills hitting three treys and a layup in a two-minute span. The Jumpen finished with a 62-25 victory and Nicholas Marinucci was named the Championship Game MVP (Marinucci, 21 pts/5 asst/5 reb; Wright, 12 pts/7 reb; Schwab, 9 reb; Sorensen, 7 reb).
We missed Eddie Johnson (who was out of town) and Kameron Wilhite (who played with the Hornets 6th grade team).
April 22, 2003
The Jumpmen defended their Basketball Congress International Spring Tip-Off title going undefeated (5-0) in the tournament held in Phoenix, Arizona from April 18-20.
The Jumpmen won their three pool games over the Arizona Suns, 106-29 (Marinucci, 37 pts/8 asst/9 stls; Manning, 21 pts/5 asst; Sorensen, 11 pts/10 reb; Schwab, 10 pts; Haning, 9 stls), Phoenix West, 113-28 (Johnson, 23 pts/13 reb; Sorensen, 23 pts/15 reb/10 stls; Marinucci, 20 pts/6 asst; Schwab, 14 pts/7 stls; Wright, 14 pts; Haning, 11 pts, Manning, 10 assts), and the Arizona Cagers-Black, 63-41 (Marinucci, 15 pts/6 stls; Haning 14 pts; Sorensen, 12 pts/8 reb; Wright, 10 pts/8 reb).
The Jumpmen then played an incredible LA Watts Magicians team (with 5 HS freshmen) in the semifinal. The Jumpmen got down early and trailed by 12 points at half-time, 35-23. They outscored the Magicians 17-10 in the third quarter to cut the margin to five. The Jumpmen took their first lead of the game with around 25-30 seconds left. LA Watts answered with about 15 seconds left setting up Manning's game-winning drive for a layup with 8 seconds left, giving the Jumpmen their second lead of the game and the final margin of victory of 58-57. Cody Sorensen (great defense and rebounding), Devon Manning (scoring and rebounding) and Eddie Johsnon (rebounding and defense) all had awesome games (Manning, 21 pts/7 reb; Marinucci, 16 pts; Sorensen, 11 reb/5 stls; Johnson, 6 reb).
In a repeat of last year's championship game, the Jumpmen met a disciplined and talented Arizona No Ego Irish in the final. The Jumpmen started off strong and got out to an early first quarter lead of 24-17. They increased that lead to 39-28 at half-time. Showing their usual pride and determination (as they did in their thrilling comeback in their OT semifinal over the Tucson Sporting Chance), No Ego battled back and took the lead twice. Both times the Jumpmen answered back and finished the game with a run to take a 66-54 win. Marinucci led the Jumpmen with 20 points and Manning and Haning had solid efforts with 15 and 10 points, respectively. Sorensen finished with 9 rebounds. Coach Loomer does an excellent job and we have enjoyed playing against his team and getting to know the boys and their parents over the last couple of years. Good Luck in high school next year!
The LA Watts Magicians went on to take third place by defeating the Tucson Sporting Chance, 79-56. Thanks to Josh for his great support over the weekend! Josh was unable to play because of his age, but he never whined. It was hard watching him not play, but we were glad he was there.
April 14, 2003
The Jumpmen played in the North American Youth Sports tournament held in Boulder from April 12-13. The Jumpmen went 2-0 in winning the championship of the 9/10th grade division. The Jumpmen defeated the Nederland HS JV in their first game, 104-35 (Marinucci, 25 pts/9 asst/5 stls; Wright, 20 pts; Sorensen, 15 pts/9 reb/5 stls; Manning, 12 pts/8 asst; Johnson, 12 pts/5 asst/5 stls), and the Loveland HS JV in the final, 62-32 (Marinucci, 14 pts; Manning, 12 pts; Medina, 11 pts/6 reb; Haning, 8 reb).
We missed Kameron and we would have been fine competing against the older kids.
News (Continued)