The Newport Lightning Basketball Club’s 5th grade and 6th grade boys teams both placed second in their divisions in the Big City Sports Great American Bash.
In pool play Saturday, the Lightning 5th graders beat Rock Solid from Anaheim and NSAA from Los Angeles to advance to the semi-finals where they faced All-Time Ballers from the opposing bracket. The game was tough throughout, but the Lightning prevailed, led by the stellar play of Ben Coffman, Preston Hartsell, JT Murphy and Cole Whitelaw.
In the championship game, the Lightning held tough against a much bigger and faster West Coast Results team with the game going back and forth until the final few minutes, but the Lightning came up short in the finale. Jason Yasukochi, Morgan Cortens, Jake Griffin, Eann McKasson, Jake Bashore, AJ Stefano, Jack Fairon and Will Black played extremely well in the tournament helping the team to a stellar finish.
The Newport Lightning Basketball Club’s 6th grade team also finished runner-up in the tournament facing some great competition from all over California. In pool play on Saturday, the Lightning beat West Coast Results and the Corona Lakers to advance into the semi-finals where they beat HCE in a very close game. Chase Furey, Connor Kincaid, Colin Pipkin and Tyler Flood had tremendous games to get into the finals.
In the finals, they faced NSAA where they eventually lost in a very close game. Max Nanula, Will Rodosky, Zach Blaine and Chase Garbers played key minutes throughout the weekend. The Lightning teams were coached by Nick Flamson.
