Atlanta team wins crown

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, July 20, 2000 | 10:27 a.m.

Since the creation of the adidas Big Time Tournament six years ago, the Atlanta Celtics have been one of the event's mainstays, coming to Las Vegas every summer.

Always a fan favorite, the Atlanta club has earned a reputation as one of the Big Time's most athletic, high-flying squads, consistently bringing top prospects such as recent NBA draft pick Donnell Harvey, current NBA player Jumaine Jones and Georgia Tech guard Dion Glover to town.

Despite their perennially talent-rich roster, however, the Celtics had come up short of expectations, failing to reach the title game every year. That is, until Wednesday night.

That's when the Celtics finally put their demons of Big Time past to rest, defeating the New York Ravens 77-76 in front of a standing-room only crowd at Green Valley High School.

"We've had some great players in the past, but we knew this group was special," Atlanta coach Karl McCray said. "They sacked it up and played hard."

The Celtics had their work cut out for them on Tuesday, with games against three of the event's toughest clubs -- Pump & Run (Calif.), the defending champion New Orleans Jazz and the Ravens -- standing between them and the trophy.

Atlanta made surprisingly short work of the first two, posting a 91-74 victory over Pump & Run in the morning and then blasting the Jazz 80-65 in the afternoon.

But the Ravens, a squad from the Bronx, proved throughout the tournament that they could keep games close. The New Yorkers claimed their eight Big Time wins by an average of 2.5 points, needing overtime for three of those wins.

The last of those nail-biters, an 86-85 double-overtime victory over Athletes First (Okla.) in the semifinal round, may have proved the most costly for the undersized Ravens, who looked listless in the opening moments of the championship.

"Playing three games in a day and playing against bigger guys than us every night isn't easy," Ravens coach Gary Decesare said. "We won games we probably should have lost. We played hard, and that's all you can ask for."

Despite both teams' fatigue, the finale was exciting right up until the final buzzer, with the Ravens fighting back several times when it appeared the Celtics might roll to the win.

The New York duo of Chris McRae and Julius Hodge did all they could to keep their club in the game, scoring 29 and 27 points, respectively.

But Atlanta point guard Jonathan Hargett had all the answers down the stretch, finding teammates Todd Moret (16 points) and Greg Tinch (15) and calling his own number to the tune of 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting.

"We went out and practiced hard all week, and it paid off," said Hargett, who was named the open division's Most Outstanding Player.

Offered McCray: "Jonathan is a player. There's no doubt he's the best point guard in his class. He's very coachable, he follows instructions and he's a tremendous talent."

Valley's Sam Jackson was the only local player named to the all-tournament team. The Viking standout finished with an average of 28.8 points, fourth-best overall. ...

Four members of the victorious Celtics -- Hargett, Tinch, Barry Elder and Sani Ibrahim -- received all-tournament honors. Hodge and McRae made the cut from the runner-up Ravens. ...

Friends of Hoop Black (Wash.) captured the "A" division title with a 61-40 win over Gateway BBC II (Mo.). Derek Smith All Stars Black (Ky.) downed the Arizona Heat 73-61 for the "B" bracket trophy, and Tru-Playaz (Colo.) picked up the "C" division crown with a 73-61 victory over Belmont Shore West (Calif.).