Published: July 23, 2008 07:40 am         

D&D spoils Smalls return

East Central All Stars reach semifinals

DANVILLE — Seeing Bobo Smalls at an area sporting event or hearing his name mentioned, the first thing that might come to mind is baseball.

But sports fans more familiar with the history of the Dustbowl know him in a different way.

Smalls remembers being a part of the Danville area summer basketball tournament since it was first played at Carver Park.

The first team he coached was called the Magnificent 7, and later he coached a team called the Danville Jets before taking a break.

Now, after a nearly five-year absence from coaching in the tournament, Smalls is back on the

sidelines.

And while he admits to having a few more gray hairs now, he made sure to keep one thing the same — the name of his team, the Danville Jets.

“Coming back, it was something that I saw a lot of kids that weren’t getting a chance to play,” said Smalls. “I saw them coming down to the Dustbowl every year and they weren’t getting a chance to play so I wanted to give at least 11 of them a chance to play in this big thing.”

Smalls said he returned to the sideline not only because he got the “itch” to once again coach basketball, but saw it as an opportunity to make a positive impact in the lives of area youth.

“Most of the time when kids play in a big tournament like this, it does something to them,” said Smalls. “It’s something for them to do. A lot of these kids ain’t got nothing to do. That’s why a lot of them are getting in so much trouble. We’ve got a lot of kids in here from Chicago and East St. Louis that are coming in but have nothing to do so I got some kids together. I thought that maybe by them playing in the Dustbowl, it boosts their morale.”

Unfortunately for Smalls and the Danville Jets, his return to the hardwood wasn’t a winning one.

Despite the Danville Jets making a second-half comeback after being down 36-15 at the break, D & D Construction held the lead for a 58-47 win.

Omar Kelly led the Danville Jets with 14 points while Mikel Brigham led all scorers with 15 with 11 of those coming in the first half.

D & D Construction will take on the East Central All Stars tonight at 9:30 p.m. in one of the two

semifinals.

The East Central All Stars defeated The Untouchables (56-54) Tuesday in what was the closest game of the evening.

Down 30-25 at the half, The Untouchables battled back to take a 54-53 lead with 49 seconds to go. And with 23 seconds remaining, Jordan Kindred drained both shots of a one-and-one opportunity to give East Central its final lead of the game.

The Untouchables had one last chance with seven seconds on the clock. But after The Untouchables called consecutive timeouts, Kindred picked off a pass and the clock expired.

“I heard the coach saying, ‘Pass it back to him’ and I knew that he was going to pass it back so I just took off when I heard him saying it,” said Kindred. “It was too far out of his hands for him to stop it. I got lucky. If he would have burned me, they might have won.”

Kindred scored a game-high 16 points (13 in the first half) as did The Untouchables’ Akeneen Hunt. Nathan Swarts followed with 13 points for East Central, and Dennis Hightower added 14 for The

Untouchables.

The East Central All Stars, largely composed of Vermilion Valley Conference athletes have the help of Fisher standout Mitch Elkin.

“I’ve played with them before,” said Elkins. “I know kind of who they are. I’ve played with them in summer ball and things like that. It’s nice to be able to play with them. I’ve played with all of the guys in the western part of the state, so it’s good to play with the guys over here.”

In the first game of the evening, Hard Head Entertainment advanced to the semifinals by defeating Team Indiana 89-61 despite Seeger standout Alexander Hutson scoring a game-high 22 points, including five three-pointers.

Team Indiana led 38-36 until Hard Head Entertainment went on a 10-0 run to end the first half. Jerry Exum led Hard Head Entertainment with 21 points and Jordan Walker added 18.

Hard Head Entertainment will take on Leisure Travel, a 64-56 over Boys & Girls Club, today at 8:30 p.m.

Boys & Girls Club led 28-27 at halftime but Leisure Travel used an 18-0 run to help secure the lead behind Ed Clark’s 20 points. Jeff Harris scored a team high 13 for Boys & Girls Club which plays today’s first game against Team Indiana at 6:30 p.m.

Immediately following at 7:30 p.m. will be The Untouchables taking on Danville Jets.