Goyne, McIntosh Lead Portland Trail Blazers to 2019 NBA Jam Title
Intrepid video gamers claim their first ECAC-SIDA title
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Geoff Goyne (Hood) and Tyler McIntosh (Slippery Rock) propelled the Portland Trail Blazers to the 2019 NBA Jam Championship at ECAC-SIDA, using physical defense and timely fire-shots to go 4-0 in the tournament held inside the Ashland Room on the lower level of the Sheraton Framingham.
The Trail Blazers pummeled their opponents with steals, timely rebounds, and some hot shooting in key moments. After routing the Los Angeles Lakers by 14 in their opening game (holding the Lakers to a tournament-low 28 points), the Goyne/McIntosh duo rocked the Knicks 50-40, felled Orlando 58-53, and then held off a furious rally by Houston in the championship game, 57-53.
In the final, Portland held a 19-7 lead after the first quarter thanks to a fire-run by Clyde Drexler and later took a 34-15 advantage into halftime. Quizzed at the intermission about their play, Goyne confidently responded, “I’m just that $#%^@#$ good.”
The Trail Blazers led by as many as 22 points in the third quarter before the Alex Falk/Jamie Chagnon-propelled Rockets stormed back into the game after Otis Thorpe’s outside shooting reached a fever pitch. Houston got within two possessions late before Portland pulled away.
Houston’s tournament run started off with an upset of the defending champions, as a pair of late steals and back-to-back offensive rebounds in the final 30 seconds helped the Rockets defeat Perry Laskaris and Jon Holtz’s Charlotte squad, 51-48.
The best game of the tournament was the second match of the opening round, as the Myles Rudnick/Sean King-led San Antonio Spurs traded buckets down to the final whistle with the Rob Cunningham/Joe Wydner-led Atlanta Hawks.
A buzzer-beater by Sean Elliott gave San Antonio a 63-61 win (Elliott finished with 51 points), but the momentum did not carry over into the quarterfinals as the spirited Indiana Pacers of Josh Kessler and Nate Smith trounced the Spurs by 10.
Rudnick was not shy after San Antonio’s elimination, sharing several thoughts to a pool reporter in a post-game junket.
“Indiana is a well-coached team,” Rudnick said. “We’ll be ready again when we get to Ellicott City. Watch out, we’re a young team.”
Rudnick also added: “We really had a good time here at the castle in Framingham; they couldn’t have been a better host.”
Indiana was indeed a consistent producer in the tournament, nearly completing an epic comeback in the semifinals before falling by a point to Houston. The Pacers fell behind 21-5 in the first quarter after the Rockets made three three-pointers while on fire, but chipped away at their deficit. A 16-point shortfall had become just seven by halftime, and the run was capped off with the score becoming knotted 41-41 with 1:34 to go.
Orlando’s pairing of Ben Stockwell and Derek Dunning had its own magic along the way, with Nick Anderson and Penny Hardaway making multiple three-quarter court shots during the tournament. The Magic bested Golden State in their opening match despite pausing the game more than eight times, and then defeated Chicago by five to reach the semifinals. The Bulls were mentally defeated in the third quarter after the Magic drained two nearly full-court length shots late in the first half.
Portland’s Drexler, who scored 48 points in the championship game (including 30 in the first half), was not selected as the Tournament MVP. That honor went to Big Head, who made his ECAC-SIDA playing debut as a fill-in for the New York Knicks after Tim Leister went to bed.
Contact: Bill Morgal, sports information director (morgal.william@gmail.com)
2019 NBA Jam Teams:
Atlanta (Rob Cunningham [Jefferson] and Joe Wydner [Muhlenberg])
Boston (Matt Keenan [Pitt] and Ben Matos [Slippery Rock])
Charlotte (Perry Laskaris [RPI] and Jon Holtz [Slippery Rock])
Chicago (Matt Fenton [Messiah] and John Gatto [Scranton])
Golden State (Bill Morgal [Shippensburg] and Mark Fisher [Carnegie Mellon])
Houston (Alex Falk [Manhattanville] and Jamie Chagnon [King’s])
Indiana (Josh Kessler [Saint Michael’s] and Nate Smith [Skidmore])
LA Lakers (Craig Kaufman [Amherst] and Cyrill Parham [Wesley])
NY Knicks (Joe DeBenedictis [Sidearm Sports] and Big Head (Shippensburg))
Orlando (Ben Stockwell [NE-10] and Derek Dunning [Norwich])
Portland (Geoff Goyne [Hood] and Tyler McIntosh [Slippery Rock])
San Antonio (Myles Rudnick [NYU] and Sean King [Allegheny])
Utah (Tanner Acebo [Norwich] and Tyler Neville [Norwich])
2019 NBA Jam Opening Round:
Indiana 41, Utah 38
San Antonio 63, Atlanta 61
Orlando 51, Golden State 49
Portland 42, Los Angeles 28
NY Knicks 42, Boston 40
Bye: Houston, Charlotte, Chicago
[three teams dropped out after sign-up]
2019 NBA Jam Quarterfinals:
Indiana 56, San Antonio 46
Houston 51, Charlotte 48
Orlando 54, Chicago 49
Portland 50, New York 40
2019 NBA Jam Semifinals:
Houston 47, Indiana 46
Portland 58, Orlando 53
2019 NBA Jam Final:
Portland 57, Houston 53