KFDM COOP Posted April 8, 2006 Report Posted April 8, 2006 www.panews.com Gamble Stars shine bright Late in the first half of Friday night's Port Arthur News Gamble Awards Game, Houston Kashmere's 6-foot-1Josh Rachal made one of those ‘I don't believe what I just saw' plays. Rachal left the ground and flew to the basket, then jacknifed for an alley-oop pass that teammate Chancious Rose threw behind his head. Not only did he catch it, Rachal tomahawked the ball through the basket and had the 750 or so fans at the Parker Center crowd revving up like they were preparing for takeoff. But it was the Gamble Stars who flew in the second half, throwing down plenty of fireworks along the way as they whipped the Houston Slam All-Stars 80-59. Memorial big man Dominique Keller was the game's high scorer with 15 points and Kris Richard of Ozen and West Orange-Stark's Richard Netherly added a dozen points apiece. Keller and Hardin-Jefferson point guard Ryan Donahoe collaborated on a monster alley-oop late in the third quarter and then Richard and Netherly teamed for two remarkable plays in a 15-second span of the final period. On the first, Richard missed a 3-point attempt from the top of the free throw circle. Netherly, a 6-7 junior who led WO-S to its first state tournament appearance, reached high, one-handed the rebound and in one motion jammed it through the goal. The place went nuts and had barely calmed when Donahoe rebounded a miss by Rose and hit a streaking Richard for a sure dunk by the 6-3 Ozen junior. Instead, Richard bounced the ball off the backboard to Netherly, who was trailing, and two-hand slammed it. “This was the most talented team we've had overall,†James Gamble, the award's namesake and the coach of the Gamble Stars, said of the players selected for the third annual all-star game. “They came to play. We stumbled and fumbled a little bit, but we just got after it.†Eight of the 11 players on the Gamble Stars scored at least a half dozen points. Ozen's Mack Randall had 13 rebounds to go with his eight points and Kelly's Johnathan Brown, who scored eight points and picked off four rebounds, created a roar every time he touched the ball as he brought along a large family cheering section. Of course, the Gamble Game is just a warmup for tonight's James Gamble Awards ceremony, which will honor the top two high school basketball players in Southeast Texas, Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside. A banquet will begin at 6:30 p.m., also at the downtown Parker Center on the campus of Lamar State College-Port Arthur. Nominees for Mr. Inside include Keller, the only repeat finalist, Brown, Netherly, Randall and Silsbee's Bryan Harris. Nominees for Mr. Outside include Richard, Donahoe, Central's duo of Keith Fisher and Brandon Moton, West Brook's Nicholas Pearson and Noah Cole of Vidor. The Houston Slam All-Stars are an Adidas-sponsored traveling team of high school seniors put together by Terrul Henderson, a former coach at Lincoln High, where Gamble won four state championships in an eight-year span. Rachal, who played at the Parker Center last December when his Kashmere team participated in the James Gamble Classic, led the Slam Stars with 11 points. Rose, from Gulf Shores Academy, scored nine points. Dustin Hawkins, a 6-5 forward from Aldine High, had a team-high nine rebounds. The Gamble Stars outshot their opponents, hitting 45 percent (31 of 69) from the floor and 62 percent (16 of 26) from the line, compared to 29 percent (22 of 75) from the field and 39 percent (11 of 28) from the free throw stripe. The Slam Stars were just 4 for 28 from 3-point range. The Gamble Stars also outrebounded the Houstonians 57-43 with Harris grabbing six rebounds, same as Cole and fellow guards Donahoe and Richard had five caroms each. A 27-19 lead in turnovers was the main thing that kept this one close for two and a half quarters. The Gamble Stars built a quick 13-6 lead in the first five minutes of the game with the starting lineup of Richard, Donahoe, Pearson, Keller and Randall. Keller had seven of those points. “It was kind of good having Mack Randall by my side,†said Keller, who lacked another big threat to take the pressure off him in Memorial's lineup. The Slam Stars took an 18-17 lead at the end of the first 10-minute quarter as Brown, Fisher, Cole, Moton and Netherly played for the Gamble Stars. The first unit returned to open the second quarter and put together a 14-0 run for a 31-18 lead with Randall scoring six points and Richard five. The Slam Stars closed to 37-33 at halftime. The Houstonians got as close as one-point, 39-38, when Hawkins hit a 15-foot jumper with 6:28 left in the third period. It was 43-40 with 4:29 left in the third when the Gamble Stars went on a 14-2 tear. Fisher swished a 3-pointer, Brown scored six straight points, Keller got his alley-oop and it was all capped by Donahoe's mad dash downcourt to score at the third-quarter buzzer on a runner that hung on the rim and dropped through after the buzzer. “In the second half, we came back and stopped subbing in teams and started subbing in individuals,†Gamble said. “We got more out of them like that.†There was no fourth-quarter comeback in the Houstonians, only a chance for both sides to work on their style points. Netherly, who scored nine points in the final period, showed off some slick moves and a surprising jump shot. Richard had a one-handed dunk before collaborating with Netherly on a spectacular closing. “It was all up and down,†Randall said. “We played various different type of offense, but mostly it was go for what you know.†The Gamble Awards honor the area's basketball winners. For the third year in a row, Gamble's Stars were winners in the Gamble Game.
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