July 20, 2000

The adidas Big Time Tournament came to a close yesterday with four teams celebrating their good fortunes and some 300-plus teams heading for home like most people following a stint in Las Vegas - down on their luck.

The four-day pool play portion of the tournament, which featured some of the best high school boys' basketball players in the nation, came to a close yesterday with four championship games. The Atlanta Celtics, ranked No. 3 in the SchoolSports.com Top 25 AAU Poll, captured the Open Division (the best of the best) title with a 77-76 win over the New York Ravens.

Other championship results are as follows:

A Division
FOH Black (Wash.) beat Gateway BBC II (Mo.), 61-40.

B Division
Derek Smith All-Stars - Black (Ky.) beat Arizona Heat (Ariz.), 73-61.

C Division
Tim Thomas Tru Playaz (Colo.) beat Belmont Shores West (Calif.), 73-61.

While excitement abounded throughout the tournament - with college coaches, recruiting analysts and general hoop junkies watching players' every move - the main spotlight fell upon competition in the Open Division. The Atlanta Celtics, who won the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tournament of Champions for the third year in a row last month, blew away the New Orleans Jazz - last year's Big Time Open champs - Tuesday night, 80-65, to get to the finals. The New York Ravens eked past Athletes First (Okla.) in double overtime, 86-85, of their semifinals game.

Senior-to-be Jonathan Hargett, a guard out of Emmanuel Academy (N.C.), earned championship game MVP honors after scoring a team-high 21 points for the Celtics. Junior-to-be Michael Ford chipped in with 16 points for the victors.

Julius Hodge, who has greatly improved his stock since the beginning of the elite summer camp circuit in late June, was the top scorer in the game with 29 points. But the 6-foot-4 senior-to-be was unable to duplicate his heroic efforts of Tuesday night, when he hit the game-winning shot against Athletes First. Hodge, from St. Raymond High (N.Y.), canned a 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds to play to get his Ravens squad within two points of the Celtics' lead, but New York could not get over the hump.

The Michigan Mustangs, who are ranked No. 1 in the SchoolSports.com AAU Poll (that will change), got knocked out of title contention by the Ravens in the quarterfinals, 70-65.

Other SchoolSports.com Top 10 teams that advanced to the quarterfinals were: