The Quantico Men’s varsity basketball team continued their successful season by winning the 2010 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tournament held Jan 16-18, at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. The tournament pitted five of the eight teams from the Washington Area Military Athletic Conference. This is Quantico’s second consecutive tournament championship following their impressive win at the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Operation Santa tournament. The MLK victories improved their overall 2010 record to an impressive 14-0.
On Jan. 16, Quantico began the tournament by overwhelming Fort Belvoir 90-78. Willie Nathan (26 points) and Ryan McLellan (23 points) led the victory. Belvoir put up a fight but they were no match for Quantico’s speed and depth. Their next opponent was Fort Meade, the defending MLK tournament champion. The two teams had last met in the championship game of the Operation Santa tournament. That game went into overtime before Quantico prevailed in a tight battle.
But this game would prove to be no contest with Quantico clicking on all cylinders for a convincing 93-73 win. Aaron Dixon led the barrage with a team high 21 points and lock down defense on Fort Meade’s star player, the former WAMAC, and MLK tournament MVP. Dixon was joined in double figure scoring by Nathan (20) and Cedric Jordan (15 points). With the victory Quantico moved into the single elimination round.
Quantico began single elimination round play on Jan. 18. Their first opponent would be a very familiar one, their archrival Fort Meade. The start of the game saw Fort Meade ride inspired play to an early 20 point lead. Quantico seemed out of synch and headed for their first defeat of the season. In the second half Quantico come out with a renewed sense of urgency. The game plan was simple; pound the ball inside to Quantico’s dominant big men, Nathan Sales and Tim Payne.
The fouls started to mount and Quantico slowly whittled away at the lead until Nathan hit two free throws to put Quantico up by a single point. The clock showed nine seconds when Nathan collected a defensive rebound. His effort led to a chance to ice the game from the free throw line with two charity tosses. However, Nathan missed both shots giving Fort Meade one more shot at redemption and they quickly called a timeout to set up their final play.
A long inbounds pass led to a wide open attempt for a Fort Meade player. However, Nathan made up for the missed free throws by rejecting the futile attempt. Clinging to a shaky one point lead, Quantico dug in and denied Fort Meade’s final attempt to win 76-75 and move on to the championship game.
Their final opponent, the Bolling⁄Anacostia team, would be no match for the Marines with Quantico racing to an early 20 point lead. The second half was no different with Quantico cruising to an easy 81-68 win and the title. Sales had an overall dominating performance and led all scorers with 19 points. All-Tournament selection and Tournament MVP, Nathan chipped in with 15 points. Joining him on the All-Tournament team was Dixon, who also scored 12 points in the championship game.
Quantico Head Coach, Marine Lt. Col. James Jones, was selected as the most Outstanding Coach during the tournament.
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