By Kim J. Harmon

The popular Rising Stars Summer Basketball League opened its 2000 season on Monday night at Treadwell Park and although it was clear there was some hesitant play and some tightness in the early going, it turned into a fantastic night of basketball.

The league opened the campaign with six teams – Boston College, UConn, Rhode Island, St. John’s, UMass and Providence – and put four of them on the court on Monday. In the official season opener, UConn battled UMass in the 5:30 pm game and in the second opener at 6:45 pm Rhode Island tussled with St. John’s.

UConn and Rhode Island were the first winners of the 2000 season.

The league will run from July 17 through August 21, playing on Mondays and Wednesdays at Treadwell Park. Every week, Friday has been set aside for games that have been postponed due to weather.

With a 10-game schedule for each team, two games will be played on Monday nights (with two teams having a bye) while Wednesday night will feature three games, with the entire league in action.

The playoffs are scheduled to begin Tuesday, August 22 and commence Wednesday, August 24. The league finals are presently slated for Thursday, August 25.

The league plays four-quarter games, each 12 minutes long with the clock running continuously (except for timeouts). Only in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter does the clock stop for fouls and other normal interruptions of play.

The rules and schedule were far from the minds of the four teams that took to the court on Monday night to officially open the 2000 season. What was on the minds of the players for UConn, perhaps, was how a 16-11 lead midway through the second quarter suddenly turned into a 32-20 halftime deficit or how a spirited fourth-quarter comeback fell short at the end.

The first game got off to a sluggish start as both UConn and UMass sought to work out a rhythm on the court. There was not a lot of running, and little defense, as UConn built up a 5-2 lead at the substitution break midway through the first quarter.

With Troy Simek, Doug Bonjour and Scott Kohn providing a strong presence under the hoop, UConn was able to craft a 10-5 lead at the end of the first and 16-11 lead midway through the second quarter.

UMass, even with a strong rebounder in Stephan Lamb and dynamic players in Marcus Tracy and Mike LaPerch, had a hard time finding the hoop at first – but once Tracy started flying down the court the UMass offense began flying as well. With a stunning 21-4 run, UMass took a 32-20 lead into the halftime break. From then on, it was all about maintaining the lead and UMass did well at that. At the end of the third quarter it had extended its lead by one, 46-33.

But UConn was hardly out of it at that point. Simek and Pat Keating began throwing on some defensive pressure and enabled UConn to crawl back into the game. In one sequence, Simek made a pair of steals and Keating added one and with the six points derived from that, UConn had trimmed the UMass lead all the way down to 48-45.

Tracy and Simek traded baskets to give UMass a 50-47 lead, but Bonjour tossed in a baseline hoop to cut the UMass lead to one, 50-49. But Lamb and Tracy put the game away for UMass with back-to-back baskets.

LaPerch led UMass with 18 points while Tracy added 15 and Lamb chipped in with 14. LaPerch and Brett Eastman anchored the defense and Lamb controlled the boards. It was Tracy’s ball-handling and passing skills which kept the UMass offense on top.

For UConn, Simek scored 23 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Wes Steinfeld canned 10 points while Kohn, Keating and Bonjour all played well.

With UMass starting off at 1-0 and UConn starting off at 0-1, the court was made available for Game #2 – Rhode Island versus St. John’s. And it was the Rams coming away with the opening night win, 45-43, as St. John’s missed the front end of a one-and-one foul situation with just three seconds left on the clock.

For Rhode Island, it was a balanced scoring attack that spelled the difference. John Oliver led the way with 12 points and eight rebounds while Ryan Davies chipped in with nine points. Matt DeLuca, Adam Miller and Pat Armstrong combined for 18 points. Jeff Bell and Mike Nastri contributed solid defense.

For St. John’s, Austin Samsell had a 16-point performance. Tim Kerr chipped in with 10 points while John Kostecki added eight points and some great defense. Chris Giorno, Tom Santella and Adam Pennarola also played well.

On Wednesday (after presstime), the schedule called for St. John’s versus Providence, Boston College versus UMass, and UConn versus Rhode Island.

SCHEDULE

Monday, July 24 – Rhode Island versus UMass, Boston College versus Providence.

Wednesday, July 26 – Boston College versus UConn, Providence versus Rhode Island, St. John’s versus UMass.

Monday, July 31 - Boston College versus St. John’s, UConn versus Providence.

Wednesday, August 2 - UMass versus Providence, Boston College versus Rhode Island, UConn versus St. John’s.

Monday, August 7 - Boston College versus Rhode Island, UConn versus_UMass.

Wednesday, August 9 - UConn versus Rhode Island, St. John’s versus Providence, Boston College versus UMass.

Monday, August 14 - Boston College versus Providence, Rhode Island versus UMass.

Wednesday, August 16 - St. John’s versus UMass, Providence versus Rhode Island, Boston College versus UConn.

Thursday, August 17 - UConn versus Providence, Boston College versus St. John’s.

Monday, August 21 - Boston College versus Rhode Island, UConn versus St. John’s, UMass versus Providence.