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John Zant: Longest Game Caps the Longest Day |
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By John Zant
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Monday, June 25 2007 |
The Santa Barbara Breakers may have brought a fast-paced brand of basketball to town, but their game management could use some speeding up. The last home game of the International Basketball League team’s inaugural season Saturday night seemed to be an extension of the Summer Solstice celebration: To conclude the longest day of the year, they played the longest game.
 John Zant
The departed fans might have been surprised to hear that the Breakers, who led 100-79 going into the final quarter, had to hang on for a 129-123 victory. It was almost 11 p.m. when the final horn sounded. Among the fans who stayed to the end was supermodel Kathy Ireland. NBA teams may have flashy tabloid celebrities in their crowds, but none of them has more class than Ireland, a mother of three. Her 4-year-old daughter Chloe watched the game with her.
The game was taped for a telecast on Cox 8 (replays are scheduled at 9 a.m. today, Tuesday and Wednesday). The TV crew seemed responsible for some of the delays, besides the usual commercial breaks. Cox 8 can do better. It has televised UCSB’s basketball games without holding up the action.
The Breakers did what was necessary to get their shot on television. No sport or team trying to make a name for itself is going to turn down that chance.
Winners of 11 of their last 12 games, the Breakers finished the regular season with a 15-5 record. The individual highlight was Fred Vinson’s torrid shooting in a 133-117 victory over Vancouver on Friday night. Vinson, a guard out of Georgia Tech who played some games for the Seattle Sonics, broke his own IBL record by sinking 15 of 26 three-point shots, scoring all but one of his 46 points.
The Breakers will travel to Portland, Ore., on June 29-30 and July 1 for the IBL West playoffs at Warner Pacific College. The IBL East playoffs are in Elkhart, Ind. The winners of the West and the East will play for the league title at a time and place to be determined later.
NEXT TEAM, MAYBE? June has been a great month for the blooming jacaranda trees throughout Santa Barbara. Some time ago I proposed that the Santa Barbara Jacarandas would be a fitting name for a local basketball team. The uniforms could be lavender, the mascot could be a tree (like Stanford’s), and they could be called the Jumpin’ Jacks.
FORESTER FIRE: The Santa Barbara Foresters continue to win semi-pro baseball games at an astonishing rate. In Sunday's wrapup of the Maxim Best of the West Tournament at Stanford, the 'Sters came from behind to beat the San Diego Stars 9-8 in the semifinals, and they polished off the Maxim Yankees 5-1 for the championship. The Foresters are 20-1 after the first three weeks of the season.
OLYMPIC PURSUITS: Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser of Santa Barbara have started their campaign for a berth in the 2008 Olympic beach volleyball tournament. They are one of three teams who are strong contenders for the two men’s spots accorded to the United States. The controversial qualification process is controlled by the FIVB, the international volleyball federation. It has dictated that teams will qualify for the Beijing Games through points accumulated on the FIVB World Tour in 2007 and 2008.
The first major World Tour event of the year took place in Paris last week. Rogers and Dalhausser finished in fifth place along with another U.S. pair, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal. Jumping ahead of them were Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger, who finished third.
There is a long way to go. Each team’s top eight finishes between now and August of 2008 will determine the final standings. The next FIVB event is this week in Stavanger, Norway. The most important tournament is the Swatch FIVB World Championships in Gstaad, Switzerland, July 24-28. It awards triple points.
Defending Olympic champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won the women’s title at Paris. Another U.S. team, Rachel Wacholder and Tyra Turner pulled the biggest surprise. They took the bronze medal, knocking No. 1 seed Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil.
A BRYANT (NOT KOBE) IN THE NEWS: Carpinteria’s Noah Bryant put himself in the top echelon of U.S. shot putters with a fourth-place showing at the USA Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis. Bryant’s next-to-last toss of 66 feet, 1 inch, edged out former world indoor champion Christian Cantwell (65-11 ½). . . Lompoc’s Duane Solomon finished third in the 800-meter run in a personal best 1:45.69 … Jordan Hasay, the 15-year-old phenom from Arroyo Grande, broke a 31-year record in the girls 1,500 meters at the USA Junior Nationals. Her time of 4:16.98 is the fourth fastest in high school history. She just completed her sophomore year at San Luis Obispo Mission Prep. |
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