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Pounders take on the Big Boys On January 27th, the Portland Pounders traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to compete in the Demolition Derby hosted on the beautiful grounds of the Lakeshore Foundation. This would be one of the most competitive tournaments the team has attended and would be a great opportunity to gauge how far the team has come in the last few years. Two foreign National teams and five of the top U.S. teams joined the Pounders in the talented field. On Friday, the Pounders opened play against the Canadian National Team, the silver medalists from the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. Portland came out with a solid effort and ran even with the Canadians for the first six minutes. A Canadian substitution late in the first quarter gave them more speed on the court and the Pounders were unable to match the change in gears and finished the quarter down 9-7. The Canadians continued to use their depth as they wore down the Pounders en route to a 52-36 victory. Next up for the Portlanders was the Texas Stampede, the defending U.S. champions. Again, the Pounders came out with a strong effort but the defending champions were able to use their balanced attack and wealth of experience to slowly pull away and grind out a 47-36 win. While the day resulted in two losses, the Pounders kept their heads high knowing they had played competitively against two of the top teams in the world. Saturday the Pounders met the Kentucky TNT in the final round of pool play. The TNT finished fourth at last year’s Nationals and started one of the most experienced lineups in the States. Portland didn’t show the veteran TNT much respect as they pushed them hard from the opening whistle behind the speed of high pointers Lynn Nelson and Will Groulx and the picking of Max Woodbury and Dave Kammeyer. The Pounders were able to use their depth to wear down the Kentucky team and capitalized any time the TNT went to their bench. Seth McBride came in to give Portland a third ball handler and some more speed and Tony Williams displayed his usual tenaciousness and solid picking ability when he subbed in. Despite several TNT rallies, Portland closed out the game with a satisfying 37-34 victory. Next up for the Pounders was the Swedish National team. The Swedes were looking for their first victory of the tournament but a thunderous hit by Lynn Nelson early in the first quarter set the tone for this game. Portland went on to use a workmanlike performance from their entire team, including veteran Ed Suhr and young Kip Johnson, to turn in a 42-33 win. Sunday Portland played the San Diego Bushwackers for fifth place at the tournament. These two teams hooked up in an exciting game at the Best of the West tournament in November. San Diego came away with a four-point victory in that first meeting and the Pounders were seeking some redemption this time. The Pounders came out looking a little tentative and fell behind 5-2 early in the first quarter. Seth McBride came on to give the Portlanders some more speed and key a rally that brought Portland within one at the quarter. Tony Williams and Max Woodbury joined Will Groulx and Lynn Nelson to close the half in fine fashion as the Pounders opened an 18-16 lead. The third quarter wasn’t as kind to the Pounders as they hit their ugliest stretch of the weekend. The Bushwackers rallied back to two-goal lead at the end of the third quarter and then stretched it to four points early in the fourth quarter. The Pounders regained their composure and tried to battle back throughout the rest of the game but the Bushwackers showed their years of experience as they held on to 35-32 win. The defeat was a disappointing way to end the weekend but the overall experience will help the Pounders continue to grow as a team and be better prepared for their next tournament, the Pacific Sectional tournament which will be held in Portland on March 11th, 12th and 13th. Canada 52-36 |
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