Day 1 (Tuesday, March 15th)

Period 3

Thriller Ends in Ballers Defeat

In the first game, the Ballers (2-1) squared off against the Wizards (1-0) DJ Langston scored the majority of the Ballers points, but as a whole everyone was engaged and completely into the game. At first, the Ballers held a slim lead until Steven Dean and the Wizards realized that they needed to start playing and stopped messing around. Regulation ended in a 3-3 tie, but the Ballers were ultimately defeated 4 to 3 in sudden-death overtime. What a way to start the 2011 KPL season!

April Miles (Ballers Beat Reporter)

Dean With the Game Winner!

Team Wizards (2-1) consists of Amber Luckes, Chole Watts, Jacarie Martin, Kierra Seay, Steven Dean, Davia Montgomery, Josh Larry, and Raymond.

The team started off fresh going against The Ballers against stars player DJ Langston and Gary Barker (We see ya out there). With the Ballers gaining on the Wizards in the first half of the game, DJ hit a shot from the free throw line and then his trusty side kick, Gary, hit another shot to slow the Wizards down!!!!!!!

Coming back in the last half of the game the Wizards’ Steven Dean shot a game winner that made “Captain Tom” extremely disappointed when it swished through the net to give the Wizards a 4 to 3 victory.

Shawanda Washington (Wizards Beat Reporter)

The Love-Els Nearly Pull Historic Upset

The Love- Els were (0-3) were far more active than the Steven Dean-less Wizards team that I watched and wrote about on Monday. In their one and only completed (second game will resume tomorrow) game of the day, they almost beat the Thunder, led by Quentis Owney and Latrell Atwood. The Thunder (name for a team of nearly all boy’s team) escaped in overtime.

The female laden Love-Els received a huge basket from Briana Eubanks to cut into the lead, while lone boy Michael Flowers tied it to force overtime. Though they were very close to winning, thanks to a combination of hard work and Captain Love-Els intense woman-to-man defense, they could not pull it off and ended up falling a little bit short. For the most part though, they were surprisingly un-intimidated, going against a male-dominant team. Kudos to the Love-Els for their remarkable effort.

by Rashaernae Brocks (Love-El Beat Reporter)

Period 4

St. Paddy's Day Comes Early for the Celtics

First Game of the Season! Celtics versus Team Taylor (0-2)!

The unique thing about this match-up was the much anticipated battle between Chris Butler and Raphael Hinjosa. Hinjosa and Butler had the ultimate showdown today. During the middle of the game, Hinjosa crossed Butler in an unbelievable way, leaving Butler with a PRICELSS expression on his face. Too bad Rafael missed the lay-up because the crowd would have gone nuts!

On the offensive side, Butler seemed un-guardable, even by Hinjosa! Speaking of un-guardable Taylor Fowlers' half court shot over all the boys was simply unstoppable. And they thought females were weak at basketball?

At the half-way point, the Celtics held a one point lead. Through solid half-court offense, they closed the game on a four-one run, winning the game by a final score 12-8, bringing the Celtics (1-1) their first victory of the season! CONGRATS CELTICS!

The Ultimate Warriors

In their second game of the day, The Warriors (1-1) matched up against the Celtics (1-1). They won the game by two points, ending in a score of 5 to 3. This game was absolutely marvelous. In the opening minutes of the game, Bahati Kimondo made a great hustle play and then connected on a ten-footer to put the Warriors up two. Seconds later Ronald Confer scored a point for the Warriors, which extended the lead further. With a minute remaining, Confer passed the ball to Elijah Stallings who finished the play and for all intensive purposes, ended the Celtics chances for victory.

by Agnes Aniwaah (Warriors Beat Reporter)

Period 7

Brittney Spearheads Her Way to a Win

Team All-Star (1-0) played Team Shut it Down (0-1) in their first game of the season on Tuesday. Both teams showed great sportsmanship and effort during the contest. Team captain Brittney French demonstrated very good leadership skills on and off the court. She was able to have her team work very well together. Though Team Shut It Down put up a good fight against them, in the end, Team All-Star ran away with a 10 to 4 victory.

by Mali Motton (Team All-Star Beat Reporter)

5-Star Kings Take A Stepney in the Right Direction

The "5 Star Kings" (0-1) are a powerful team who proved Tuesday that they know their way around the court. They shot three-pointer after three-pointer, connecting on 38.5 percent of their attempts. Willie Jiles, who is the most athletic player on their team, led all scorers with five points. Greg Stepney showed superior defense and a tremendous screening ability which allowed his teammates to get to the basket easily. This was a very hard-fought game but the "5 Star Kings" couldn't pull it out in overtime, falling to Team Unnamed (1-0) by one.

Tiambriss Johnson (5-Star King's Beat Reporter)

Yasmine Breaks it Down

An exciting and very intense game between the Un-Named (1-0) and the 5 Star Kings (0-1) had the crowd going crazy. The 5 Star Kings starting off the game with a gorgeuos 3 pointer (2 pointer) shot by Willie Jiles which started the pandemonium in the gym. The 5 Star Kings had a huge lead on the Un-Named for the first half of the game. With 4 minutes left on the clock Team Un-Named wasted no time playing around. They came back very quick, making threes out of nowhere.

At the buzzer, the game ended with a tied game score at 7-all. Going into over-time not knowing what was going to happen or what to expect, the wonderful Ben Moore made a 2 pointer leaving, the crowd lost for words in excitement.

In the end, the final score was 9 to 7 with Un-Named winning. Tomorrow’s game is going to be crazy. The 5 Star Kings vs. All-stars. No one knows what to expect. I guess you’re just going to have to wait on me to tell you. Lol!-

Yasmine Treaseh (5-Star Kings Beat Reporter)