Chaos Reigns At Conclusion Of Tournament

On the third night of games of the third Preseason NTT, things took a turn towards the surreal. Four teams entered the night with 1-1 records, and for the second straight year, point differential would determine the champion. In the opener, Bethlehem and Helena would take on one another and allow Brunswick and Branson to know what margin they needed to win by to secure the title.

In the opener, Helena ran past Bethlehem and recorded another 27 FTAs on the way to a 91-77 victory. The impressive win meant that the winner of the nightcap would need to put on a show in order to secure the championship. Branson would defeat Brunswick by a score of 79-67, but the final margin was not enough to throw Helena off of its perch as the new Preseason NTT champions. At least that’s what was supposed to happen.

Coach dwetzel and his players were back in street clothes and came out onto the court to accept their trophy. Up on the podium, Jim Nantz presented the hardware to dwetzel and asked him what this win meant for his team.

“Thank you, Jim. This has been a very hard fought tournament throughout its short history, and to say that we are the champi–”

Then, without warning, Vince McMahon’s “No Chance” entrance music flooded the arena and overpowered the voice of the coach. The WWE chairman strutted onto the floor and instructed Nantz to throw him a microphone. McMahon then began his soliloquy.

“2-1? You’re proud of going 2-1? What kind of man are you? You think you’re a champion? Let me tell you something, coach. Where I come from, we have a rule that says a champion can not lose his title due to disqualification. It seems to me that claiming to be the new champion based on point differential is alot like claiming ownership of a title belt after a disqualification. No, no, no, that’s not gonna fly here, boy. If you want to beat the champion, you’ve got to beat the champion!”

At that point, another microphone was tossed to dwetzel who pointed out that Helena had defeated Branson in the second game of the tournament, and quite handily.

The sellout crowd came to its feet, but not for the reason dwetzel thought. Still preening over the point he had just made, dwetzel was unaware that coach fallooooon and the rest of the Luchadores came out of the tunnel behind the Helena players and coach. They each ascended the platform with steel chairs in hand and clobbered their counterparts from behind. Then each player tossed a Pretzel off the podium. Jesus Watts then came over and picked dwetzel up. Fallooooon slapped him, and then stepped back as Watts thrust dwetzel’s head between fallooooon’s legs. Fallooooon hooked dwetzel’s arms behind his back and delivered a vicious pedigree to the bloodied coach.

Fallooooon stood back up and made the belt motion around his waist, as McMahon climbed onto the podium and grabbed one of fallooooon’s arms and raised it triumphantly in the air.

“That was a real slobberknocker!” Nantz bellowed into the microphone and the arena faded to black as the show went off the air.

At a press conference held moments later, PNTT officials said they didn’t know what the hell was going on, but Helena was still the champion of the third annual Preseason NTT. Congratulations to the Pretzels!

PNTT Stays Open Late on Opening Night

The third installment of the Preseason NTT got off to a unprecedented start Monday night.  A pair of overtime games meant the kids on the East Coast were put to bed well after midnight, but their parents are to be applauded for recognizing when school takes a back seat.

In the opener, Brunswick and Helena clawed at each other all regulation long until Brunswick put together a 12-3 run late in the second half to grab hold of an 85-75 advantage.  They led by 10 with as little as 2:16 left, but the Pretzels then began twisting the Harvest defense in knots.  Emmett Lenz got things started with 4 quick points thanks to a steal by Jose Adame.  An unsuccessful time draining possession followed by a crucial turnover from Laurence Espinoza, who had snared a key offensive rebound off his own miss, resulted in an old school three pointer from Nathaniel Utley and Brunswick led by only three with over a minute left.

Another turnover, this time by Leslie Kovar, gave possession right back to Helena and Emmett Lenz’s star shined bright again.  Trying to go for what he thought would be a lightly contested deuce inside, he was instead met by Zachary Caudill, who rejected his attempt.  however, Lenz raced to retrieve the ball when Caudill assumed he would let it roll out of bounds to try another tactic drawn up by his coach at timeout.  Instead, Lenz’s hustle allowed him to grab the ball and square up behind the arc for a wide open three ball to tie the game.  Caudill tried to atone for his freshman miscue but missed his attempt to win the game, and Utley’s putback came only moments after the backboard began to glow with the red that signified overtime was on its way.

You couldn’t be blamed for expecting the Harvest to finish folding up
in the extra session, but Leslie Kovar has been around for all of the Preseason NTTs and knows a little about what it takes to get things done at this level.  He answered an early Pierre Malik bucket with a three pointer that started him on the way to 7 points in the OT and propelled Brunswick to the 99-91 win.

That gave Kovar a team leading 25 points on the night to go with 12 huge rebounds.  Hank Gerrish got his PNTT career off on the right foot with 20 points in 19 minutes off the bench.  Emmett Lenz led all scorers on the night with 27 points and his comrade Malik dropped 25 as well.  Unfortunately for them, they did not receive the same type of bench support, getting 23 from all five reserves.

The crowd was still buzzing when Bethlehem and Branson tipped off in the second game.  It didn’t take long for those teams to get the crowd’s attention, as they slugged it out right from the outset.  These teams have met on the last night of the first two PNTTs with the title on the line, and there cant help but be animosity between them at this point.

A couple of six point leads for Bethlehem were the farthest either team could get away from the other.  Still, things looked good for the No Limit after Stewart Alford made one of two free throws with 0:16 left to put his team up by three.  But he should have made them both.  Bethlehem’s stellar defense meant that none of Jeffrey Porter, John Mellon, Glen Przybylski, or Jesus Watts could get any kind of look for a game tying three.  But Rod Russo didn’t draw much attention, and Przybylski gave him the ball as the clock ran out.  Russo, who was previously 0/3 in his career from outside the arc, sunk this one and the crowd gasped at both the unlikely event and out of excitement over another looming overtime.

The overtime was also played closely, but this time it was Branson which found itself with the three point edge late thanks to a pair of Przybyski free throws with 0:15 left.  Jesper Rohmann is Bethlehem’s star, but even though he has made some threes in his career, it is not his forte. His attempt to match Rod Russo’s earlier heroics clanked off the iron and a late free throw from John Mellon made the final score 81-77 in favor of the Luchadores.

Jeffrey Porter pulled a Gerrish in this one and scored 20 points in his first PNTT appearance, although he was a starter.  He was helped along by 15 and 10 from Jesus Watts.  Randy Lin and Rohmann were the predictable stars for Bethlehem, each scoring 24 points.  Rohmann had 10 rebounds as well to record a double-double of his own.

In Wednesday’s games, Branson will take on Helena while Brunswick and Bethlehem will mix it up.  These games are sure to be action packed as well, although they will be very hard pressed to equal what we got on Monday.

Bethlehem Holding It Down In NTT

Coach Jayd35 told anyone who would listen that this season’s version of the No Limit was not that good compared to previous teams, including the one that won a national championship last season. It turns out that he was being coy all year, trying to relieve the pressure on a team starting three sophomores. And they did lose two of three in the Preseason NTT to give us all some reason to believe him. But they clubbed their regular season competition about the head, and only incurred one loss, by a single point, to division rival Cooperstown.

Once they got to the NTT with a 7 seed, it looked like there was good reason to think their run would be a short one. A probable second round game with Shawnee would be tough, and even if they won that game,  Branson would most likely be waiting.  And Branson had beaten them by 26 in their Preseason NTT matchup.

But backcourt mates Randy Lin and Noah Sanders went off against Shawnee for a combined 49 points to get Bethlehem to the Sweet 16.  And Branson fell out of the running to Durham.  Durham presented a substantial roadblock itself, but Randy Lin moved back to SF for that game and dropped 32 on the Bada Bing to lead his team to a 91-83 win.

Surely, this would be where it ended.  A game with top seed Baton Rouge for a trip to the Final Four would present too many challeges for a worn down squad.  No one would blame them for losing, especially since people hadn’t stopped believing what their coach had been saying all year.

But the players on the bench, even though they sit next to the coach most of the game, weren’t listening.  Franklin Vaughn scored 11 points and assisted on 5 more baskets in relief of Emmitt Schuelke and the No Limit won the battle of the benches 29-11, producing a ten point margin of victory over the Bearcats, and Bethlehem was back in the Final Four.

Tonight they will face the top seed from the Northeast bracket, the Corpus Christi Chaos.  We’ll see if they are the first to realize from the start that Bethlehem will not go quietly.  The Chaos has had a relatively easy path to the Final Four, defeating 16, 9, 12, and 7 seeds to get there.  Bethlehem is not the same type of 7 seed as Lancaster, and this one should be hotly contested.

Third PNTT Schedule Announced

It’s been a rather unsuccessful NTT for the Preseason NTT participants.  Only Bethlehem, which was allegedly in the midst of a down year, still has something to play for as the tournament reaches the Sweet 16.  They’ll take on Durham, which defeated Branson 73-72 in the second round.

Amongst all the pain felt by the other programs, the PNTT committee released the schedule for next season in an attempt to give fans and members of those programs something to look forward to.

On opening night, Helena and Brunswick will tip things off, followed by the first game for the two-time defending champs from Branson, who will square off with their almost NTT nemesis Bethlehem.

Wednesday night will feature Branson and Helena facing off in the second of hopefully four epic battles between Jesus Watts and Pierre Malik down low.  There have been whispers that Branson may try experimenting with Watts at SF, but we can hope that this mathup stays intact.  That game will be followed by Brunswick and Bethlehem.

The final night of festivities will begin with Bethlehem and Helena.  Hopefully there will be much on the line in that game as well as the tournament finale, highlighting the rivalry that started it all, Branson versus Brunswick.

The third Preseason NTT promises to provide another display of superb basketball that will rivet the passionate and casual college hoops fans alike.

Season 48 NTT Preview

For the second consecutive season, all four Preseason NTT participants are members of the season finale’s field of 64. Helena enters the tournament on a 17 game winning streak and earned a 3-seed in the NW Bracket. Branson also enters the tournament as a 3-seed with three losses to NTT teams. Bethlehem lost its first regular season conference game in 50 games (S43, Philadelphia) but still secured its 8th straight Conference Championship and a 7-seed. Brunswick lost two games late in the season, including a 4 OT thriller, and enters the tournament as a 9 seed.

One of those brackets is host to 3 PNTT teams. Brunswick draws a beatable 8-seed in Carmbridge and would then get a chance at tough, but not invincible 1-seed Baton Rouge. Branson and Bethlehem sit in the lower portion of the bracket with a potential meeting in the Sweet 16. Branson has a favorable first round draw in Lubbock but 6th seeded Durham could be upset minded. Bethlehem has a Tacoma team with two potent scorers that they should defeat before meeting 2nd seeded Shawnee in the second round. The No Limit would definitely be underdogs in that match up but do still have experienced players around from last season’s NTT Championship squad to rely on. Two seasons ago, Branson defeated Bethlehem with a Final Four berth on the line.

Helena’s path to the Final Four will be void of fellow PNTT participants. In the first round, Louisville is an experienced but overmatched team. Rochester is a familiar name and likely 2nd round match up which will be a great game but one the Pretzels will be favored in. Gulf Shores and Harrisburg are the top seeded teams in the Pretzels’ bracket. The Anastasi are a team that one never wants to see in their bracket and they enter the tournament undefeated and amongst the favorites to cut down the nets.

Will maybe do better in-depth recaps in the upcoming rounds when I’m not lazy. Good luck to all!

Award Winners Announced!

More than a few eyebrows around the nation were raised when the awards for the second Preseason NTT were announced on Thursday, the eve of the conference championships and the seedings for the postseason tournaments.  Whether PNTT officials were attempting to steal attention away from the postseason is an open question with no clear answer.  Regardless, let’s take a moment to observe the great players who shined brightest during what was another spectacular Preseason NTT this season.

The Most Outstanding Player Award goes to Emmett Lenz of Helena!  Pierre Malik has been a stud for the Pretzels this season, but it was Lenz who got it done for them in the PNTT.

Pierre Malik didn’t get stiffed completely.  Malik was the class of a stellar freshman, um, class in the tournament and was a unanimous selection as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Freshman.

The Joey Rinehart Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellent Defense Presented by Kleenex brings us our first multiple award winner.  John Mellon of the two-time champion Branson Luchadores is now the two-time winner of the award for best defensive performance in the tournament.  Mellon will be a senior next season looking for the three-peat.

Braxton Lindsey of Brunswick is a big man, but unfortunately not as big as Leslie Kovar or Kevin Jesus.  Instead, he comes off the bench and lights up the scoreboard in his limited minutes while also sucking up rebounds.  He does his job well, and his performance in the PNTT this season earned him the Sixth Man Award.

The awards process wraps up with the naming of the All-Tournament Team.  Here are the members:

PG: John Mellon, Branson

SG: Emmett Lenz, Helena

SF: Steven Vickers, Helena

PF: Leslie Kovar, Brunswick

C: Pierre Malik, Helena

Helena didn’t win the Preseason NTT, but they have compiled the most impressive season of all the participants.  The All-Tournament Team certainly gives us an indication of the talent on that team which has made it possible.

Congratulations to all the winners and stay tuned because they”ll be doing it all over again soon!

Award Nominations for Second Preseason NTT

The nominations for individual awards for performances in the second Preseason NTT are in!

Most Outstanding Player

Pookie Lathem (Brunswick), Emmett Lenz (Helena), Randy Lin (Bethlehem), Gary Suttle (Branson)

Most Outstanding Freshman

Laurence Espinoza (Brunswick), Pierre Malik (Helena), Mark Ng (Bethlehem), Jesus Watts (Branson)

The Joey Rinehart Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellent Defense Presented by Kleenex

Kevin Jesus (Brunswick), John Mellon (Branson), Jesper Rohmann (Bethlehem), Nathaniel Utley (Helena)

Sixth Man Award

Dale Hunter (Helena), Braxton Lindsey (Brunswick), Mark Ng (Bethlehem), Alvin Paul (Branson)

All-Tournament Team

PG: Laurence Espinoza (Brunswick), Randy Lin (Bethlehem), John Mellon (Branson), Jeff Turnbull (Helena)

SG: Cordell Dixon (Branson), Pookie Lathem (Brunswick), Emmett Lenz (Helena), Noah Sanders (Bethlehem)

SF: Keith Priest (Bethlehem), Glen Przybylski (Branson), Charles Riordan (Brunswick), Steven Vickers (Helena)

PF: Stewart Alford (Bethlehem), Leslie Kovar (Brunswick), Gary Suttle (Branson), Nathaniel Utley (Helena)

C: Kevin Jesus (Brunswick), Pierre Malik (Helena), Jesper Rohmann (Bethlehem), Jesus Watts (Branson)

Congratulations to all of the great players competing for these prestigious awards and All-Tournament Team elections!

Results will be announced soon!

Two Dramatic Games Are Better Than One In Preseason NTT Finale

In last season’s inaugural Preseason NTT, the final night produced a matchup between Bethlehem and Branson for all the marbles.  That was a great way to go out, and the game was an all-timer, but this year’s incarnation featuring four 1-1 teams jostling for that title brought out all the prognosticators with their claims on who would win each game and by how much.  Without Freddy Adu, let’s see how it went down.

Brunswick and Helena started off the festivities.  Keeping in mind that the goal on this night was not just to win, but to win big, Helena jumped out to an 8-0 lead on the back of Nathaniel Utley and his 4 points.  The Pretzels nursed that lead for only a short time, however, as Brunswick used a quick burst from Lester Paniagua to help jump start a 15-2 run that saw Brunswick take a 26-20 lead.  That was also short lived, as Helena would come right back 8 straight.  All those runs added up to a slim 36-34 edge for the Harvest at the half.

The second half was tight throughout.  Helena held the biggest advantage of the entire stanza when it led by five with 13:29 to go.  That gap closed quickly and this game was truly a tossup where the winner would be the team with the lead when time expired.  Brunswick managed to be up by 4 with less than two minutes left after a pair of Leslie Kovar free throws, but Emmett Lenz hit a three pointer to make the lead a single point.  On the ensuing Brunswick possession, the much-maligned-in-big-games Pookie Lathem was whistled for a travel to give Helena the ball with 1:20 left.  Helena nursed the entire shot clock, but still Lenz was able to shake free to take a pass from Jeff Turnbull and knock down a fadeaway jumper to give the Pretzels the advantage.

As if Lenz hadn’t done enough, he then stripped Laurence Espinoza clean with 0:33 left.  After failing to steal the ball back, Brunswick fouled Turnbull with 0:13 to go.  Luckily, Turnbull is the Pretzel a team wants to put on the line at the end of the game, and he missed the front end to give the Harvest a chance at victory.  Espinoza missed a three pointer as time ran out and Helena had itself the 64-63 win.

This was not a game of individual performances to be sure, but Pierre Malik got ‘er dun with 16 points to lead all players.  Brunswick only had 6 assists as a team and averaged 9.7 for the tournament.  The lack of a distributor to its scorers may be a weakness for them this season.  Steven Vickers never lit it up at SF for Helena, and had his worst game on Friday with only 8 points on dreadful 3/14 shooting.

This was a great game between two great teams, but the slim margin for Helena did mean that margin of victory would not matter in the finale between Bethlehem and Branson.  Helena’s point differential still stood at -15 after the win over Brunswick and neither the No Limit or the Luchadores could avoid being positive after a win.

But nobody passed along that memo to Branson.  Their game with Bethlehem was knotted at 17 ten minutes in, but the Luchadores outscored the No Limit 29-9 the rest of the half to go into the break with a 46-26 edge.  Bethlehem was never able to mount any sort of second half charge and Branson cruised to an 85-59 win and its second Preseason NTT chapionship in as many seasons.

Gary Suttle led Branson with 19 points, but the Luchadores can chalk up their large margin to the fact that Cordell Dixon finally woke up and played like a senior.  Dixon chippd in 18 points.  Randy Lin racked up 19 of his own for Bethlehem, but his team was simply not hitting the botton of the net on this night.  They shot a combined 22/58 from the field compared to 31/63 for Branson.  Their coach will also be unhappy with the 23 turnovers off of 16 Branson steals.

In any event, congratulations are in order to Branson for their hard fought title, and to all of the competitors for providing another exciting tournament between some of the nation’s elite programs.

Awards for the second Preseason NTT will be announced hopefully within a week.  There are some very tough calls to make.  Nominations for Most Outstanding Player, Most Outstanding Freshman, the Joey Rinehart Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellent Defense Presented by Kleenex, and the Sixth Man Award should be posted by the respective coaches in the comments section of this post.

Thank you to all!

The Empires Of Brunswick and Helena Strike Back

The Branson Luchadores and Bethlehem No Limit had enjoyed the most success thus far in the short history of the Preseason NTT, with a combined 6-0 record against the Brunswick Harvest and the Helena Pretzels.  On the second night of the second Preseason NTT, Brunswick took their shot against Branson while Helena sought a measure of revenge for their defeat at the hands of Bethlehem in the NTT Final last season.

While Branson defeated Brunswick in last season’s tournament, Brunswick has had the better of the Luchadores in the all-time series between the teams.  They reminded Branson of that in the first game of the night.  Coach Fallooooon tried tinkering with what worked on Monday against Helena, and paid for it.  With two freshman in the frontcourt against the imposing duo of Kevin Jesus and Leslie Kovar, Brunwsick enjoyed a 39-20 advantage on the boards and walked all over Branson.  Star freshman center Jesus Watts collected zero boards.

The Harvest built a large lead early and never let Branson sniff hope on the way to an 85-69 decision. Braxton Lindsey led all scorers with 20 points on 7/8 shooting…in 16 minutes.  Pookie Lathem (19) and Kovar (16) also scored more than Branson’s leading scorer, Watts, with 13 points.

In the main event, the finalists of last season’s NTT met with considerably less on the line, but don’t tell the players that.  The teams felt each out for a bit before Helena began to incrementally build a lead that would grow to 29-15 at one point in the first half.  But Bethlehem turned the tide at that point and scored 17 of the next 22 points in the game, capped by a three from freshman sensation Mark Ng to make the score 34-32 for Helena.  The teams traded blows until the half, where Helena held a 43-40 edge.

The Pretzels would again go on the attack at the outset of the second half as the Pierre Malik Show began.  Malik scored 14 points in the first nine minutes of the second half to stake Helena to a 68-52 lead.  Bethlehem made slight dents in the armor of Helena but still trailed by 9 with less than a minute to play.  Jesper Rohmann hit a three with 0:49 to go.  Then Randy Lin fouled out when he hacked Jeff Turnbull, but Turnbull missed both free throws and Emmett Schuelke hit a quick jumper at the other end.  Turnbull, a career 57% free throw shooter, was immediately fouled again and only made one of two.  Senior Noah Sanders followed with a tough three with 0:17 left to make the deficit only two points.  Turnbull was fouled again and made the first throw and missed the second to give Bethlehem a chance at the tying three as regulation wound down.  Except that Nathaniel Utley secured the huge offensive rebound and made both of his free throws after being fouled by Stewart Alford.  A Keith Priest three at the buzzer made the final margin 88-86 and sent hordes of gamblers who had taken Helena (-3) diving off bridges and buildings.

Pierre Malik was huge to begin the second half, but never scored after that burst.  He still ended up with 20 points on the night.  That didn’t top things for Helena, however.  That honor went to Emmett Lenz, who scored 26.  He shot 8/14 including 2/3 from downtown and went 8/8 from the charity stripe.  Steven Vickers contributed 14 as well.  For Bethlehem, Randy Lin scored 19 points before fouling out.  Mark Ng was a force off the bench with 16.  Helena had a 21 assists on 32 field goals, while Bethlehem only achieved 9 on 36.  There was a disparity in free throws and fouls, but that was largely because of the fouling at the end of the game by Bethlehem.

As we head into the final two games on Friday night, it is a much different situation than last season.  There is no clear crowning game as there was with Branson and Bethlehem the first time around.  There are four 1-1 teams, and the winner on Friday night with the best point differential will take the crown.  So far, Bethlehem is +12, Branson and Brunswick are each +2, and Helena has its work cut out standing at – 16 thus far.

The final games are Branson versus Bethlehem and Brunswick versus Helena.

All Eyes On Preseason NTT Openers; Bethlehem And Branson Keep It Going

The inaugural Preseason NTT was an exhibition of superior basketball and received rave reviews upon its completion.  Still, the prestige of the event has grown by leaps and bounds since.  After the tournament concluded, all four participants were unbeated until the NTT.  Brunswick fell to eventual national champion Bethlehem in the second round of the NTT, and the other three teams made it to at least the Elite 8.  Branson fell out at that point, but Helena took on Bethlehem in the NTT Championship game which the No Limit secured for the first ever title.  Everyone with an affinity for college basketball is now well aware of the Preseason NTT and ready for the second go round.

The festivities kicked off on Monday night with an opening game between Branson and Helena.  That was followed by the season debut of the defending national champs from Bethlehem who took on Brunswick.

Branson has undergone major changes since last season, no longer able to rely on the services of longtime starters Eugene Eller and Jared Johns.  But a strong recruiting class led by the most heavily recruited player in the nation last season, Jesus Watts, means the Luchadores will still be a force on the national scene.

Helena, for its part, brought in a beast of their own with Pierre Malik, a huge post presence who averaged 25.9 PPG in his senior season of high school.  The one-on-one battle between he and Watts was the one to watch in this opening contest.  Helena is also shaking up what worked for it last season, moving the sensational Steven Vickers from PG to SF.

Due to these new faces and marquee matchups, the game was still an entertaining affair, but Branson controlled the action throughout.  Helena’s only lead of the game was 4-3.  The Pretzels hung tough for a while, but a 16-4 run late in the first half made the score 37-25 and the Luchadores led by 11 at the half.  Helena stayed a good run away from getting back into things for most of the second half, but the run never came and Branson ended up with a decisive 78-60 win.

Pierre Malik outscored Jesus Watts 18-10, but was 8/16 fro the field compared to 4/7 for Watts.  Watts also contributed 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block without committing a turnover.  Malik was limited to just three boards and a block while giving the ball to Branson three times.  Gary Suttle made his case for starting ahead of senior Scott Price by leading all scorers with 19 points to offset the pain of his 5 turnovers.  Emmett Lenz poured in 16 of his own for Helena, but Vickers was held in check with only 11.

The real difference in the game was the depth of Branson compared to Helena.  The Pretzels have recruited very well the last couple of seasons, but are dealing with less talented upperclassmen.  Comparing the benches last night, Branson’s shot 14/20 from the field for 29 points compared with 3/14 and 10 points for Helena.  That’s the ballgame in a nutshell.

In the finale, Bethlehem met up with Brunswick.  Each of these teams brought in some fresh talented faces as well.  Bethlehem is featuring Mark Ng, a pure scorer who is beginning his career as the apprentice to senior SG Noah Sanders.  Brunswick has installed stud PG prospect Laurence Espinoza into its starting lineup with hopes that he can relieve some coring pressure from Pookie Lathem and Leslie Kovar while also making them better players with his passing skills.

Bethlehem was energized by the crowd, which seemed to be backing the champs even though many expected them to pull for the underdog.  The No Limit used that energy to open the game with a 9-0 run.  But Brunswick had some fight in them and the game was tied at 17 with 11:08 left in the half when Lester Paniagua hit a jumper from just inside the three point line.  Bethlehem is defending a title for a reason though and rattled off a 15-3 run soon after and carried a 43-35 advantage at the break backed by Randy Lin’s 14 points.

Brunswick held close for much of the second half, only trailing by 4 with 8:40 to play.  It was at that point that Bethlehem mustered the energy for one more 12-2 run and clock would run out with them enjoying an 81-67 margin over Brunswick.

Bethlehem’s backcourt of Lin and Sanders contributed 20 and 18 points respectively, and they were the only two players on the team to crack double figures.  But the rest of the team contributed evenly to pump their score up to 81 points.  Mark Ng played 15 minutes in relief of Sanders and scored 6 points on 3/8 shooting.

Brunswick got solid contributions from its three best players, but not much else from the supporting cast.  Lathem led the team with 22 points and Kovar followed him with 18, but that was tempered by a poor 8/21 mark from the field.  Espinoza began his career with 11 points.

This game featured a fast pace with little success on all those field goals.  The teams combined to shoot 62/151 and there were a combined 84 rebounds.  As far as the subpar shooting went, Bethlehem’s Keith Priest and Jesper Rohmann were the biggest offenders, going 4/13 each.  Kovar was bad in volume for Brunswick, but their bench combined also for a measly 6/19.

Bethlehem and Branson are still undefeated in Preseason NTT action, and Brunswick and Helena will take their shots again on Wednesday night as the Harvest make a run at Branson while Helena seeks out revenge for the NTT title game against Bethlehem.  It looks to be another star studded night.