The 2024 KA Nightmares went toe-to-toe with Team Work, played two overtimes, and ended up 16U Black Bracket Champions in dramatic fashion.

Nightmares F Tong Tong set the tone, early. He had a sequence where he blocked a floater, came down-court, and hit a drop-step into a reverse layup. The following possession? A nice hook shot after backing down the smaller defender in the paint. His teammate Aramys Rodriguez was right there with him, hitting the midrange floater, getting tough rebounds, and nabbing steals in-transition. He had 10 points at the break. Trenton Williams showed up with eight first half points of his own.

Team Work F Terrence Davis had something to say about that, though.

After sinking a three from the wing, he scored a quick layup to help keep them in it. Anthony Ferren was extremely aggressive, penetrating the defense to draw fouls at the rim & sank his free-throws. Enrique Dubois got involved late, earning five points and a wing-three with under a minute left. They trailed 32-26 at the half.

Dubois’ game didn’t dim in the last 16 minutes.

He came out the gate with high energy, scoring nine points and two threes in the first three minutes. Team Work G Bradley Saint-Preaux wanted to get more involved in the second half, so he started driving to the bucket a little more & earned 12 points in the half because of it. He finished with a team-high 16 points. The game was tied at 54 with 1:18 to go.

KA’s Rodriguez sank a pair of free-throws, but got called for goaltending on the next possession. Tied again at 56. KA had a shot to win it with a three from the corner, but it rimmed out to force overtime. One layup by each team DOUBLE OT with the score tied at 58. The score reset, and the first team to five points would win the Chip.

Tied at four & Nightmare’s possession, Rodriguez fed Oluwaji Eziemefe in the post and he went to work. Eziemefe bodied his defender, hit the layup off the glass, and the Nightmares walked away the victor.

Rodriguez led the Nightmares with 18 points, Trenton Williams finished with 13 points and two treys.