Westchester Wildfire Go 3-1 In The BF Copenhagen International Tournament
October 7, 2003 - United States Basketball League (USBL)
Westchester Wildfire News Release
The Westchester Wildfire were tapped as hoop ambassadors by the USBL to play in a tournament against a unique and diversified field of top European professionals. The Wildfire had to assemble, practice and compete all in a short period of time. Not the easiest task considering how strong international play has become.
Countries represented were Germany, Israel, Turkey, Holland, Slovenia and the host country Denmark. The TV audience and Copenhagen crowd watching this tournament surely appreciated the caliber of hoops being demonstrated. The global appeal basketball has captured was evident.
Wildfire owner Gary Lieberman, Coach John Starks and assistant Dave Adelman developed a quality team and got them acclimated in a short period of time. The newest Wildfire team consisted of, among others: USBL Rookie-of-the-Year Lenny Cooke, St. Johns's standout Chudney Gray, Courtney James from Minnesota, Quincy Wadley from Temple, Raphael Edwards from E. Carolina and the Wildfire's own Greg Stevenson.
Wildfire put a lot of talent on the floor and did not disappoint when it came time to execute. Coach Starks did a remarkable job managing playing time as well as egos. The results were pretty impressive as the Wildfire finished 3 -1.
First up was a 94-93 win over Turkey. Not a bad way to begin considering the Turkey team competes together on a regular basis and the point guard running the show is Khalid El-Amin, the one-time Chicago Bull and member of U Conn's national championship team. However, Chudney Gray answered the El-Amin challenge and locked horns with some impressive defense and 16 points of his own.
The Wildfire Achilles Heel reared its ugly head in the form of a very slow start against the Bonn Telekom team. Wildfire came out sluggish and it hurt them. Foreign teams are allowed to carry two Americans on the roster. Unfortunately for the Wildfire, Bonn's American player was South Florida star and former Conference USA player-of-the-year, Altron Jackson. Jackson torched the team for 24 points and the Wildfire lost the game by 23 points.
Losing to Germany by that large margin proved very costly to the Wildfire. Later when Wildfire, Copenhagen and Germany all had 2-1 records it was Germany who moved on as the bracket winner due to point differential tie-breaking criteria (Turkey was winless in the bracket).
Wildfire regained their mojo and defeated our hosts BF Copenhagen as Rafael Edwards had 22 points and Quincy Wadley added 21 points. In the consolation game vs. Krka Nova Mesto, Chudney Gray dropped in 19 points and Lenny Cooke had 18 as the Wildfire overcame a seven-point fourth quarter deficit to win 89-84.
Certainly impressive was the Wildfire's desire to compete and improve. It's clear from opposing players and management that the Wildfire are quickly establishing themselves as an operation willing to go beyond typical boundaries to establish and excel in the USBL and the professional basketball community. In a related fact, the Wildfire unleashed for the first time Chad Mekles, a weapon know as the "13th Man." This is something that is sure to wreak havoc on opposing teams in the near future. The upcoming 2004 can't begin soon enough.
United States Basketball League Stories from October 7, 2003
- Westchester Wildfire Go 3-1 In The BF Copenhagen International Tournament - Westchester Wildfire
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
