Sunday, July 11, 1999
Summer League playoffs serious fun
Stars out to win, prove worth
BY SAM MELLINGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's little more than pick-up basketball, but don't tell the players that.
Just because there's no national TV audience watching the AutoNation USA Summer Basketball tournament didn't make James Posey's tip-dunk less exciting.
Just because Xavier coach Skip Prosser wasn't stalking the sidelines at Purcell Marian didn't make sophomore-to-be Lloyd Price any less focused.
And just because his performance Saturday wasn't being watched by pro scouts didn't make former UC star Eric Martin take his game lightly.
“Every game I play in I want to win. I don't care if it's a pro game, a game at UC, a game here or if it's PlayStation,” said Martin, who spent last season playing for teams in Argentina and Taiwan. “Being a professional, you have to play hard all the time. If you don't do it now, you might not do it during the season and you don't want to start any bad habits.”
Martin's ReMax team blew out Murphy's, 93-69, in a game stopped early. Martin led the winners with 15 points. Sullivan's Robert Edwards and former UC guard A.D. Jackson added 14 each and Donald Little chipped in eight.
Ohio University signee Steve Esterkamp led Murphy's with 20 points. Mike Monserez, who led Moeller High to a state title this year and has signed with Notre Dame, added eight.
“Games like this are great to get better, because these are the kinds of players I'll see next year,” Monserez said. “You can't relax on offense or de fense, not even for a second. Every guy out here can play.”
The second game was a Xavier reunion, with a total of eight Musketeers from both teams. Cintas, with Gary Lumpkin scoring 23 points, beat Mike Albert Leasing 95-80. Albert included former Xavier star and Denver draftee Posey.
In today's semifinals, Kenwood Old-Timers meets Cintas and ReMax faces Slats. The final is Tuesday.
Lumpkin is playing as much basketball as he can this summer in an effort to land a professional contract. He has been invited to the Cincinnati Stuff's camp next week, but could also land in the CBA or oversees.
“Right now I don't have a clue. I can't really control that, I just have to keep getting better,” he said. “Playing against all those (Xavier) guys was fun, but believe it or not, there wasn't any trash talking.”
Maybe Lumpkin just wasn't listening. But those watching the game likely would believe Price's assessment.
“Oh yeah, there was a lot of trash talking out there,” he said. “It was the young Xavier vs. the old Xavier.
On one exchange, Price lost the ball on a drive against XU product Steve Gentry. The turnover resulted in an easy basket for Cintas, and Gentry turned to Price and yelled, “Don't play with me.”
The two exchanged more good-natured words, but Price took no offense.
“We were just talking, no big deal,” he said. “I heard all about it then, and then after the game. All those guys, they let me know we lost, no doubt. But that's fine, if we'd beaten them, I would've done the same thing.”
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