In its eighth year of existence, the RCSSports.com Spring Ice Breaker was back in Houston for the annual basketball tournament. More than 100 teams from all across the city gathered at local high schools gyms to compete.

Ice Breaker organizer and basketball analyst Jim Hicks was excited to see how big this event has become over the last couple of years and its overall propose.

“This the eighth year of the Spring Ice Breaker and it’s the coldest thing on earth,” Hicks said. “But it serves 2-3 different purposes. For one we have a high school division, which gives (high school) coaches a chance to get a peek at their teams heading into next season and allow them to make early cuts.

“And we have an unsigned senior division which is very important because it is a flock of non-Division I college coaches come down in to check out prospects and offer scholarships. In that division we have over 150 unsigned seniors playing this weekend.”

The other division, which is typically the largest, is the summer-league teams that participate. These are usually teams that compete in national AAU tournaments. Saturday’s action took place at St. Pius, Booker T. Washington, Reagan, and Waltrip high schools.

Here is a brief outlook on some of Saturday’s action.


Houston Rap-A-Lot vs. Houston Swoosh St. Pius – 10 a.m. Gym 1
This game was one that the Rap-A-Lot team had control of. Thus, Rap-A-Lot walked away with a 42-34 victory over Swoosh. The Swoosh team kept the game close through one half, but Rap-A-Lot turned it up in the second half.

Andre Potts led the Rap-A-Lot team with 13 points while Robert Stokes scored nine. For Swoosh, Amos Olatyla had 14 points and Montre Scott scored 12 points.


Up and Coming vs. Indians Waltrip – 11 a.m. Gym 2
Up and Coming’s Clyde Green and Elanton Jackson each had 12 points en route to a 51-39 victory over the Indians. This game started off fast-paced and at half, it was tied up at 20.

Green and Jackson led the way for Up and Coming, but Edward Dard and Ryan Richard both contributed eight points as well. For the Indians, Bruce Jacobs had 12 points while Chris Richardson and Brandon Sanders contributed six and five points respectively.


Texas D1 Ambassadors vs. Texas Superstars St. Pius – 12 p.m. Gym 1
In a game that had to go into overtime, it was the Superstars’ patience in the end that brought about a 45-43 win over the Ambassadors. Late in regulation, the Ambassador team seemed to have the edge, but the Superstars kept chipping away at the lead.

At the end of regulation with the game tied at 43 apiece, the Superstar team decided to hold the entire one-minute overtime period. They scored with 4.37 seconds remaining to seals the victory.

Leading the way was Superstars' Daryl Toney with 11 points. Kendrick Robinson had 10 points. For the Ambassadors, Garrett Brown scored 10 points while Jacob Horton and Corey Jefferson each had eight points.

For the full brackets for Saturday and Sunday’s play, log on to rcssposrts.com to see when select squads are playing. Also, to hear the full audio from the Jim Hicks interview, watch the AC REEL ACTION from this event.
 

Subscribe to this comment's feed