Liberty Ballers advance in $1 million tournament

AFTER AN 85-73 win over DMV's Finest in The Basketball Tournament, the Liberty Ballers made their way to the makeshift media room at Philadelphia University's Gallagher Center yesterday. They knew they were advancing to Chicago for the Super 17, just four wins away from the $1 million payday.

As expected, they were ecstatic to be getting a free trip to the Midwest next weekend. There was another thing on their minds, too.

"We've got to get 20th and Olney to win too, though," James Bell, a Villanova grad, said of La Salle's alumni team.

Unfortunately for the Philly crowd, La Salle's 20th and Olney team dropped a 92-91 overtime thriller to Syracuse's Boeheim's Army in the last game of the Northeast Regional. Only one Philadelphia team will represent the city.

Liberty Ballers is riddled with Philadelphia players. Any Villanova fan will recognize the names. Bell. Antonio Pena. Reggie Redding. They have had their heyday at the Pavilion. They added Jake Cohen, who grew up in Wayne and went to Davidson.

They had one goal before the tournament started. They wanted to defend home turf.

"We didn't want nobody coming to Philly and beating Philly guys, you know what I mean?" Redding said. "From over the years we started to lose that pride and Philly toughness. We had to find a way to get it back. If a team isn't from Philly, we weren't going to let them come in here and win. That's the way we played."

They got it back, knocking off a team composed mainly of Georgetown players to punch their ticket to Chi-Town. Now, they take on Boeheim's Army, who knocked off a tough 20th and Olney team in overtime.

"We played against a lot of those guys and we are familiar with a lot of those guys," Bell said. "It will be crazy to play the Syracuse team because we have such a history with them."

Liberty Ballers will be looking to avenge the loss of the fellow Philadelphia team when they play at DePaul this weekend. La Salle and Syracuse's programs did not have much of a history coming into yesterday's matchup, but that did not stop tempers from flaring.

La Salle alum Stephen Smith and Syracuse alum Eric Devendorf got tangled up twice, and tensions ran high. Words (none that can run in print) were exchanged even moments after they were separated. They did meet after, as a formality.

"It was 'alright, my bad,' a limp handshake and keep it moving," Smith said of the meeting.

That competitive fire would lead you to believe it was mid-March rather than July.

"That's one thing about Philadelphia basketball, or anyone who plays basketball in this area, it doesn't take much to turn up the competitive nature of it," Smith said.

"When you come and play basketball in Philadelphia, people will be more surprised if you don't have an incident like that," Smith added. "This is East Coast basketball. It's pretty hard-nosed, we don't like the soft stuff."

The toughness of Philadelphia basketball and the gritty stereotype that surrounds the game in the city is something that attracted Jon Mugar, the tournament's founder and CEO, to have games here.

The crowds were big, loud and very into the action when local teams were playing. Mugar was impressed by La Salle's fan turnout, which was the loudest of the weekend. Smith went so far to give them a new nickname: "Gola on the go."

"It reminded me of the days going back to the Palestra when you had the Big 5 teams playing," Smith said.

If Smith wants to play on the La Salle team next year, he may get a chance to relive those battles at the Palestra.

"One thing I always thought of was a venue like the Palestra for the final," Mugar said. "Hopefully, we grow to a point where we can fill that place out. Hopefully we're not too far from there. It really speaks to Philly basketball."