Monday Extra
Taking the courts by storm at the Gus Macker
A rainy day created sloppy conditions but could not spoil the Gus Macker
Umbrellas were the accessories of choice Sunday for fans at the final day of the 19th annual Gus Macker three-on-three basketball tournament held downtown.
Players, however, had no such luck finding cover from the constant rain, which made for sloppy conditions on the courts lining Niagara Square, Delaware Avenue and the surrounding streets.
"You'd love to have perfect weather, but we made the best of it. We played until the end, and that's what's important," said Sue Gonzalez, executive director of the Buffalo Police Athletic League.
In an effort to get a winner in every bracket (there were 962 teams — comprised of 3,848 players — making up more than 50 divisions), organizers shortened the time limit of games from 25 to 15 minutes and the required amount of winning points from 15 to 10.
That meant getting out to an early lead was particularly important, because offense was at a premium.
"You could hardly move," said former Niagara star Eva Cunningham, whose Rovers team lost in the finals of the top women's division. "It became really slippery."
Cunningham's team was defeated by UB Retired, a squad made up of — you guessed it — four former Buffalo Bulls players: Heather Turner, Brooke Meunier, and Allison and Stephanie Bennett.
In the championship game, UB held on for a 9-8 win in a game that reached the time limit, its second one-point victory over the Rovers on the day.
"Both games were really competitive," said Meunier, who recently finished graduate school at Canisius after completing her Bulls career in 2006 with 1,101 career points. "This weekend is always pretty fun."
The fun was dampened, however, during the women's final. Play was halted for nearly 15 minutes after the Rovers' Nikki Hendrix took a scary fall after tripping over another player near the basket. Hendrix was transported to the hospital with a suspected concussion.
"It was tough seeing that," said Cunningham. "It wasn't easy to go back and play."
On the men's side, there were two winners in the top men's division. The teams — Darling Paint and Gerald's Barber Shop — did not go head-to-head for unofficial bragging rights, as the top men's winners did a year ago.
The Darling Paint team was a reunion of sorts for Bishop Timon-St. Jude graduates Charlie Comerford, Fran Snyder and Nick Parisi. They teamed with Riverside graduate and former Buffalo Stampede guard Karl Rainey to win their bracket for the second straight year.
Rainey, who replaced good friend Jason Rowe on this year's team, hit a pair of two-pointers (three-point baskets are worth two points in Macker play) early in the deciding game to lead Darling, which cruised to an 8-1 time-limit win over the Bayou team of Andy Bush, Danny Gilbert, Aaron Turner and Rob Fitchlee. Bayou had earned an overtime victory in the first meeting of the two teams Sunday, but Darling rebounded to win two straight in the championship round.
"We had four guys playing team defense, so I think that's why we won," said Comerford, before pausing and adding, "and no one can stop Fran and Karl. Rain or no rain, they're going to score."
Like in years past, the top men's bracket read like a who's-who list of Buffalo's best players.
"We just beat a team with two Division I players [Bush went to Canisius, Gilbert played at UB], so that's pretty impressive," said Parisi.
The level of play in the other top men's bracket was equally as impressive. Just weeks after winning the Jamestown Macker, the Gerald's Barber Shop team came back from a 7-5 deficit to earn an 8-7 time-limit win over Carrol Stable in the final. The Jamestown-area group of Justin Miller, Maceo Wofford, Dusty Carlson and Josh Schauman went undefeated in Buffalo.
While other players were slip-sliding around the court, Wofford, a Jamestown graduate who ranks fifth on the all-time Western New York scoring list, continued to make plays off the dribble. The 5-foot-10 former Iona guard's penetration led to baskets for himself or easy layups for his teammates.
"It's tough anytime you get rain out here, especially on the Sport Court. It made it more like an ice skating rink," said Miller, who starred at Southwestern before playing collegiately at Siena. "We just had to find ways to play smart, and play safe."
For the fifth straight year, tournament proceeds benefited Kids Escaping Drugs and the Buffalo PAL.
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