Cold Shooting, Loss To Webster Mar Night Of Celebration For U. City Hoops

UNIVERSITY CITY HIGH SCHOOL – Ever since the schedule came out last summer, folks in and around the boys basketball program have had Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, highlighted as one of the biggest nights ever in U. City hoops history.

Not only was Friday a big night for the Lions because they would be hosting longtime Suburban South Conference bully , which has won 10 straight league titles, hasn’t lost a Suburban South game since 2002, and boasts a 74-game conference winning streak.

But it was also the night that U. City would finally get to honor two of its greatest program legends ever, by naming the school gym after legendary head coach Ed Crenshaw, and by dedicating the actual basketball court to 70s basketball star Hasan Houston, who many consider the greatest player ever in U. City history.  

“It’s going to be a great night,” current U. City boys basketball coach Dave Gammon said, in a conversation leading up to the big night. “We’re going to have the whole U. City family come out and be a part of that night. It’s going to be amazing.”

And boy was it ever, as nearly every U. City athletic legendary and district dignitary came out to be a part of Friday’s U. City hoops celebration.

Crenshaw was a physical education teacher and boys basketball coach from 1974 to 1997, and retired as U. City’s all-time winningest coach in history, and is the 10th on the all-time list for coaching victories in the history of Missouri high school basketball.

Houston, who was a star on some of Crenshaw’s earliest teams, was a three-sport letterman (baseball, football, and baskeball), who graduated in 1976, then went on to have a stellar career at Kansas and Bradley Universities, before eventually playing professionally for the Houston Rockets of the NBA and the Chicago Bears of the NFL.

Unfortunately, all the U. City celebrating ended once the game started, as Webster Groves showed just why it is, and has been, the Suburban South’s top dog for more than a decade, claiming an absolutely dominant 71-50 win over the Lions.

“We just have to give credit to Webster Groves,” Gammon said. “One think I know about (Webster coach) Jay Blossom’s teams from watching them over the years, is that he does a great job of getting his kids up for big games. And he definitely had them ready for tonight.”

The Statesmen took control of the game in the second and third quarters, when they outscored the Lions 24-9 and 24-16, turning what had been a small U. City first-quarter advantage (13-9), into a huge Webster Groves second-half lead.

Three players scored in double-figures for the Statesmen, led by senior Demetrious Robinson’s game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds.

Fellow seniors Peter Fairbanks and Rayshawn Simmons had big nights as well for Webster. Fairbanks hit four three-pointers and had 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Simmons added 13 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds, narrowly missing out on a triple-double.

“They’re a great team, there’s no doubt about that,” Gammon said. “And what they showed tonight is that they deserved to have that long winning streak, and they deserved to keep it going.”

U. City, on the other hand, only showed that its got a lot more work to do before it’ll be ready to compete with upper echelon teams like Webster Groves.

Gammon though, thought that simple inactivity played a key role in U. City’s lackluster performance.

“We’ve played like (two) games since Meramec,” Gammon said, of U. City having so much time off since its last game. “We’ve been practicing for nearly 20 days straight. And it can be hard to practice that much and not get the reward of having a game. It’s easy for kids to lose focus. We’ve got to figure out how to get it back.”

One thing that’ll help for sure is U. City having three games next week at the Fox High Tournament in Arnold.

The Lions will open with the tournament hosts on Monday, then will play on Wednesday, before finally advancing to a championship or third-place game on Friday.

Then the following week, U. City will have three more games, with contests at home versus Jennings (Jan. 31); at Ritenour (Feb. 1), and at home again against Rockwood Summit (Feb. 3).

“We’ve almost got like an NBA schedule coming up,” Gammon said. “We’ve got three games every week over the next month leading up to districts. I told the kids, ‘I don’t have anything more to teach you. You’ve just got to listen in games.’”

Hopefully, that listening will lead to more winning, as U. City’s record had dipped to 8-5 on the season, after losing three of their last four contests.

Webster, which was ranked No. 4 in the area in last week’s city-wide top 10 poll, is now 15-2 overall and 2-0 in Suburban South play.