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Boo Williams is widely considered the top Nike sponsored summer team. They are led by point guard Chris Wright, power forward Pat Patterson, and a slew of high major prospects. Yesterday, they beat their biggest competition, Houston Hoops. If this were the usual tournament, with the usual players, Boo Williams would be expected to walk through the rest of the tournament now that Houston Hoops is out of the way. But this week, Eric Gordon joined Derrick Rose to give Mean Streets Express the best backcourt in the country, and they quickly became the other team to beat.

To say Derrick Rose was “feeling it” in this game, would be an understatement. He nailed his first five shots, most of which were turnaround jumpers over Chris Wright. Boo Williams came out strong also, with Wright and Ed Davis knocking down some shots to keep it close. Midway through the first half, Rose threw Eric Gordon an underhand scoop-pass in transition for an alley-oop dunk that brought the whole place to their feet, and gave Mean Streets Express the 14-12 lead. Rose had 12 points on 6-8 shooting in the half and his team took a 35-30 advantage into the break.

Derrick Rose started the second half the way he did the first. With his team up 42-36, Rose got the ball on a fast break and had the dunk of the tournament. He dribbled out front in transition and jumped from the right side of the lane, brought the ball to his knees, and finished a reverse dunk before landing on the left side of the basket. The place went crazy. It looked as though Mean Streets Express was going to put them away at that point, but Boo Williams wouldn’t give up. Sparked by a Chris Wright three pointer, and Pat Patterson finishes, they mounted a comeback and tied the game 60-60. It didn’t take long for Rose to get his team back on top at 65-62, and force Boo Williams to take a time out with a little over a minute left in the game. Boo Williams got to within a point after the timeout when Chris Wright penetrated and threw an awesome pass to Ed Davis for a dunk to make the score 69-68 with 14.7 seconds left. Boo Williams fouled Kevin Johnson (MSE) immediately after the in bounds pass and Johnson hit both his free throws to extend his team’s lead to 71-68. Chris Wright had one last chance to keep Boo Williams alive, but instead of taking the shot himself, he passed it to Glen Andrews who missed a contested three to end the game. The final score was Mean Streets Express 71, Boo Williams 68.

Derrick Rose’s performance in this game was the best we’ve seen by any player all summer. He was unbelievable, and played to his potential when it mattered most. He finished with 24 points on 10-13 shooting, and seven assists. Eric Gordon had another great game tallying 17 points, and seven boards. Big body Tim Flowers (MSE) has been a force on the glass all week, and pulled down 15 boards in this game to go with 12 points. For Boo Williams, Ed Davis had 14 points, Chris Wright scored 12, and Pat Patterson had 13 points and four blocks.

-Nathan McCauley