TRUE GAME GIRLS BASKETBALL PRO
Understanding Douglas’ contributions to basketball prompts journeying back to when pro leagues didn’t allow Black participants in segregated America. “The long-term impact was that (the Renaissance) inspired so many young Black people to play basketball that they made integration of the game inevitable,” basketball legend, culture writer and New York native Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told The Athletic by way of his longtime manager and business partner of 30 years, Deborah Morales. Logwood finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and three steals for Oakland Tech.This year marks the centennial anniversary of Naismith Hall of Famer Bob Douglas assembling arguably the best pro hoops team preceding integration: the New York Renaissance.
The Sharks’ McKinley Willardson put up a valiant effort with 21 points and 10 rebounds. “It’s a parade inside my city,” Sellers said postgame, referencing the cry popularized by the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant, her teammates roaring behind her. They certainly had the energy postgame, carrying the adrenaline from arena-wide chants of “O-T!” after the win, an Oakland team’s second big win of the night over a Southern California champion after the Oakland High boys beat Buena in the Division III final. I mean, my kids could play another game right now.” “I just thought we wore them down,” Hurt said. Nia Hunter darted in for a layup, and then a second later Erin Sellers ripped a steal and ducked in for a layup, and suddenly Oakland Tech was up 11 and running away to an eventual blowout. In that fourth quarter, after the convenient “Dog Food” zoom, she spun over her right shoulder for a layup and then rejected a Santiago shot a few seconds later. Logwood was chaos incarnate Friday, the 5-foot-9 forward zipping down the court for coast-to-coast finishes after forcing turnovers. In that game, Santiago came back from down double digits before ultimately falling, and brought confidence and resilience into Friday night’s matchup.Įxcept Oakland Tech had an “ace of spades,” as Hurt put it, in junior forward Taliyah Logwood, who didn’t play in that first matchup. But true in a game where Oakland Tech forced 25 turnovers, simply putting their foot down in that fourth-quarter stretch as the Sharks’ free-flowing offense hit a dam.īy the time bodies started smacking the hardwood unusually hard and stares lingered a few seconds after whistles, it was clear these teams had at least some history, and indeed - slightly unusually for state matchups - they’d already faced each other in a regular-season tournament. “They don’t have the team speed we have … we’re bigger than them, we’re faster than them, we outshot them,” Hurt said postgame.īold. Marching into the postgame news conference, Hurt and his girls delivered an endless stream of quotables: feeling like they should’ve been an Open Division selection in state play, feeling a pride in the city of Oakland, feeling a whole lot of emotions that came out gloriously in smiles and claps and cheering from alumni in the back of the room.
0 kommentar(er)
