PINE RIDGE – Sunday in Pine Ridge, in a battle of unbeatens, the Plainzmen were up by 10 points, Smooth Operaters came within one point 54-53 but the Plainzmen cranked it up and closed out the semifinal game winning it 72-55; in the championship game the Plainzmen were up on the Smooth Operaters 36-33 at the half and finished out the championship 78-68 to win the first Orie Brown Memorial Basketball tournament.
A total of 16 teams participated in the first Orie Brown Memorial basketball tournament, the Trail Blazers took third and the OB Bulls were fourth. Orie Brown played his high school ball at Pine Ridge and played college ball at Minnesota West before he died in a car accident in eastern South Dakota.
Award winners included Mr. Defense- Sparky Pease/ Plainzmen, Play Maker- Mackenzie Casey/ Smooth Operaters, Top Gun-Melvin Gunn/Trail Blazers, Most 3’s-Dorian Red Fish/OB Bulls, Sportsmanship- Dom Saucedo/Trail Blazers, Mr. Hustle-Nahjuwan Potts/OB Bulls and MVP-Alfonzo Hubbard/ Plainzmen. All Stars included: Plainzmen- Luke Martinez, Cody Harris, Cooper Kirkie; Smooth Operaters- Debo, Shawn Clemens, Celio Montgomery; Trail Blazers-Grant Kohlus; OB Bulls-Weston Wood; Tune Squad- Brandon Bissonette and Regulaters-Jess Heart.
The champion Plainzmen included Alfonzo Hubbard/Dine- Gallup, NM, Austin Kirkie/Crow Creek, Sparky Pease/Crow, Jake Brown/Oglala-Pine Ridge, Cody Harris/Hot Springs, Luke Martinez/ Turtle Mountain- Bismarck, ND, Sergio Trocha/Columbia and Jim Archambault/ Standing Rock-Ft. Yates,ND. Winning the championship earned the Plainzmen $3,000 and jackets.
“The Plainzmen play and compete in high level basketball competition all over Indian Country,” said Jim Archambault/team sponsor-player, “this year we took second at Wisconsin Dells March Madness, won the Tanner Albers annual basketball tournament in Bismarck, ND, won the Native Hoop Kings tournament in Mojave, AZ two weeks ago and have won the past two Yakima Big Men’s Invitational tournaments and next month we will be at the Dalton Young Bear Memorial In Denver.”
The runner up Smooth Operaters earned $2,000 and long sleeve shirts and included: Mackenzie Casey/ Oglala- Rapid City, Damien Rogers/ Sacramento, CA, Albert Broken Rope/ Oglala-Allen, SD, Cecelio Montgomery/ Rapid City, SD, Shawn Clemmons/Rapid City, SD, Clint Lupi/Sisseton Wahpeton-Rapid City, Devero Yellow Earring/ Rapid City, SD and Paul Morrison/Oglala-Pine Ridge.
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