Poolesville captures Risings Stars title

Gallery The Poolseville Falcons captured the MC Rising Stars title beating in overtime the 96/Flames National team 23-19 at Germantown Community Center on Wednesday at full capacity. The Falcons, a team of 6th graders lead by Kelsey Carnahan's three three-pointers (one in OT) and Kelly Hughes three decisive free throws in the last minute, gave Coach Cathy Carnahan her first title with the girls. Coach Carnahan was very happy at the end of the game "The girls never gave up. They wanted it bad" said Cathy to RocketFlames.com. On the other side of the court, Flames' coach Mike Baker said "We were facing an older, bigger and stronger opponent, and we played hard. The girls just have to learn to win games". With a record of 15 victories and 3 losses (one to the Germantown Panthers in the final of the MAGNBL league and two losses against the Falcons, including this final) the Flames have certainly learned how to win some games but lost both tournament finals. But the Flames should be proud. They played up most of the season and thrived succesfully in a division with older and stronger teams. For the Falcons, Kelsey scored 9 points (from 3 three-pointers), Jamie (5), Kelly (3 from three free throws), Haley (1 point) and Jocelyn with 5 points. For the Flames, Kristen Carter lead the scorers with 11 points (3 baskets and 5 free throws) , Ana with 3, Montana with 1 and Janel with a three pointer. The Falcons finished first in the regular season with just one loss against Baker's, also in Overtime as the Falcons let a huge lead slip away in their first match-up. They also had a big game in their last regular season vs the Flames/Williams, in a game where the Falcons were down by 12 points but reacted to take the win with a score of 34-29. In the playoffs (Sweet sixteen), the Falcons demolished the Maryland Sparks 33-13 and the Olney Warriors 31-24 before crushing the Bethesda-based Crush 34-17 in the Semifinals. Meanwhile, the Flames/Baker team was not as consistent during the regular season as the Falcons were. With a lot of players engaged in CYO teams, the National Flames team struggled some weekends to field enough numbers to avoid a forfeit. In the Sweet 16, the Flames dispatched another Flames team (95/Roberson) and then faced two more Flames teams (Simpon and Williams), also 6th grade teams before reaching the final with the Falcons. The Rising Stars tournament was very well organized and planned by Montgomery County's Brad Roos and officiated by IAABO Board 12 referees. The Rising Stars had 21 teams in three divisions (Potomac, Chesapeake and Patriot) playing a round-robin in January/February and the playoffs in March. The playoffs brought all teams together, mixing teams from all three divisions, creating some inevitable mismatches, like the Sting vs the Van Yuetter's Bethesda Crush (won by the Crush 45-2). But in overall, it is a great experience for girls with hopes to play AAU ball and someday play High School hoops. As expected, the best four teams in the most competitive division (Potomac) ended up as the playoff semifinalists. The tournament featured 8 Flames teams (fifth graders Jankowski, White, Morley, Baker and Johnson and three sixth graders, Robinson, Williams and Simpson), three teams from Damascus, one from Bethesda, one from Olney, one from Carrol County (Sikesville Freedom), six from other neighborhoods and the champions from Poolesville.

Other Galleries from the Rising Stars:

Rocket Flames vs Freedom (11 March 07)
Rocket Flames vs St Jude (10 March 07)
Rocket Flames vs Poolesville (January 07)
Rocket Flames vs Morley (January 07)