The Newport Lightning Basketball Club’s 14u 8th grade team continued its strong fall season finishing runner-up in the Swoosh Aloha Challenge at Long Beach Poly High School last weekend.
The Lightning beat South Bay Dream Team 39-26 and OCBC 47-35 in pool play to advance to the semi-finals where they faced Laguna Hills Hardwood and won 39-24.
In the finals they faced an FBC Elite team who had not allowed more than 19 points in the tournament. The Lightning played strong throughout and made it a tough game for FBC before eventually losing to the much taller squad.
During the tournament finals, the Lightning were led by the stellar play of Ryan Kleinman (18 points / 6 rebounds) and Keisean South (12 points / 12 rebounds) who banged with the much bigger FBC Elite team throughout the finals. Max Kline (9.5 ppg / 2.5 spg), Logan Miller (4.5ppg / 4.7 apg), Augie Miller (6.0 ppg / 8.9 rpg), and Jason Askins (9.5ppg / 5.2 rpg) all played great throughout the tournament, while Ben Bockrath, Austin Ridge, Caleb O’Neil and Kevin Fults played tremendous defense and keyed big plays for the team.
The Lightning are coached by Scott Stucki.
