School Basketball, Season One: Game 16--vs. McLish at Roff Festival

WILLARD WHITE UPSETS MCLISH IN LANDSLIDE

By M. E. Leo (for GDaddy)

ROFF -- Ada's Willard White (13-3) Cougars beat Stonewall's McLish Middle School 39-17 in the Roff Basketball Festival on Saturday.

McLish and the Cougars came in having split their last two face-offs. In the first battle in October, McLish demolished Ada White by double digits, and as a result, Ada White went to the consolation bracket of the Stonewall Tournament. In the second battle, in November, Ada White barely pulled off the upset in the McLish gym.

On Saturday, Ada White was the underdog in their third match-up of the season.

A minute and ten seconds into the eight-minute first quarter, Ada White guard Emilio Benton grabbed a board, ran full-speed down the court, and drained a pull-up jumper for the first score in the game.

With a minute and a half left in the first quarter, with the score 2-2, Ada White center Hunter Price threw a half-court pass to Benton, who dribbled to the free throw line and then passed to Ada White guard Sean Ivan, who made a layup.

In the next two minutes, Ada White went on a 6-2 run. Then, seventeen seconds into the second quarter, with the score 10-4 in Ada's favor, McLish inbounded the ball and could not get past Ada White's full-court press defense. As McLish's point guard tried to pass the ball, Benton tipped it to his teammate Caden Mitchell. Mitchell then passed the ball right back to Benton, who made a layup to extend the Ada White lead to 8.

A minute later, Benton stole the ball, dribbled down to the three-point line and got his second assist on a pass to center Logan Hulbutta, who made a layup, giving Ada White a double-digit lead.

With five minutes left in the second quarter, the McLish point guard faked a pass to the left, then passed it to the right, where Mitchell was patiently waiting to get the steal. He then dribbled down the court and passed it to a streaking Benton, who scored his third basket.

When the lead reached 20-4 with 4:20 left in the second quarter, Benton snatched the ball out of the hands of the McLish point guard, and Ada White coach Megan Groves told him to wait until his teammates set up the offense and run a play instead of running the fast break. Benton then got his third assist by passing to an open Mitchell in the corner, who swished a mid-range shot.

At the half-time break, Ada White had stretched their lead to 28-4.

On an early possession in the third quarter, Benton missed an open three, grabbed his own rebound, and missed another open three. Mitchell collected the board, put up a quick shot in the paint, and Benton chased down his second offensive rebound of the possession. Several passes later, Mitchell chucked up another shot, and Benton grabbed his third offensive rebound of the possession. He would finish the day with eleven rebounds.

In the third quarter, both teams played well and added six points to their totals.

With three seconds left to play in the game, Benton raced down the court and handed off the ball to Ada White guard Hunter McDonald, who launched a three to beat the buzzer and give Benton his 5th assist of the day.

In addition to his 11 rebounds and 5 assists, Benton scored 6 points, had 7 steals, 1 block, 1 foul and 3 turnovers.

Ada White plays its next game at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 24th against Tupelo, the team they lost to by 4 points in the consolation championship of the Stonewall Tournament. They then play Stratford at 4 pm on Thursday, January 25th, before ending the season with the Ada Tournament, January 29th - February 3rd.

Emilio hits his first shot to score the first points of the game (3:18 pm)

Emilio swats a McLish pass (3:19 PM)

Emilio blocks a shot and passes to an open man in the corner (3:21)


An Emi dish (3:23)


Full-court press defense produces a steal and a layup (3:27)


An Emi swipe and dish 3:28


Emi scores on a fast break layup (3:29)


Emi steals, slows it down, and serves up another dish (3:30)


Emilio covers court to nab 3 offensive rebounds on one possession (3:51)


Emi says this one was all ball (3:56)


Last second, buzzer-beater dish (3:57)

Ada Cougars (White) Record: 2017-2018
Ada Tournament (January 39-Feb 3)
vs. Stratford, January 25 (Thu. at 4 p.m.)
vs. Tupelo, January 24 (Wed.at 9:30 a.m.)
W vs. McLish at Roff Festival,  January 13 (Sat. at 2:30 p.m.) (13-3)*
W vs. Homer, January 10 (Wed. at 9:30 a.m.) (12-3)*
W @ Byng, December 4 (Mon. at 5:00 p.m.) (11-3)*
W vs Roff, November 30 (Thu. at 5:00 p.m.) (10-3)
W @ McLish (Stonewall), November 15 (Wed. at 9:30 a.m.) (9-3)
W @ Stratford, November 13 (Mon. at 4 :00 p.m.) (8-3)*
L vs. Justice at Byng Festival, November 11 (Sat .at 2 pm.) (7-3)*
W vs. Byng, November 6 (Mon. at 5:00 p.m.) (7-2)*
W @ Konawa, November 2 (Thu. at 4:30 p.m.) (6-2)*
L vs. Tupelo at Stonewall Tournament, October 28 (Sat) (5-2)
W vs. Roff at Stonewall Tournament, October 26 (Thu) (5-1)
W @ Allen, October 25 (Wed at 9:30 a.m.) (4-1)
L vs. McLish at Stonewall Tournament, October 24 (Tue at 6:00 p.m.) (3-1)*
W @ Latta, October 17 (Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.) (3-0)*
W vs. Roff at Tupelo Festival, October 16 (Monday) (2-0)*
W vs. Roff at Ada Festival, October 2 (Monday) (1-0)*

*Attended by sb

Afternoon Emilio

Grand Tour, Day 40: Last Day in Europe

Our last day in Madrid was very chaotic at the start. We thought we were going to miss our flight. My mom and I started running towards our flight. Pablo and Nina tried to keep up with us, but they got lost. Luckily, my dad found them and we made it on the plane. On the plane I watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and a little bit of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Every hour, I stopped watching and wrote about our last days in Europe for thirty minutes. Pablo was very happy on the plane because he got Goldish for the first time in 40 days. We landed in North Carolina, Charlotte, and we had to wait for a few hours until our flight to Texas took off. I did not really like the flight to Texas because it was pretty boring. We landed in Texas got our bags and then we saw Grandmother and Grandaddy waiting for us. We drove to their house and went to sleep after talking for a little while.

When we got back to Ada, my dad asked us some questions about memories from Europe. Here are my answers:

1. Best Decision? Going to Zell-Am-See.
2. Best Train? Salzburg to Zell-Am-See.
3. Best View? From the top of the Alps in Austria
4. Best Dessert? Nectarine Ice Cream at Madrid Rio park
5. Best Restaurant? Pizza in Torino on our first night there
6. Best Snack? Malaga Goldfish. I was very happy when we saw flavor-blasted Goldfish in a store in Malaga, but no one was happier than Pablo.
7. Best Walk? Malaga with my dad
8. Best Art Museum? El Prado
9. Best Day? The day when I played soccer in the park and had a sleepover with Rita and Uxue. I forgot to write about the sleepover in my journal, but it was fun.
10. Best non-train transport? Madrid Metro. I really didn't like any non-train transports, but this one was OK. If the chair lift counts, then that would definitely be it.
11. Hottest Moment? Rome Taxi to Vatican. That taxi ride almost made me throw up.
12. Coldest Moment? Alps
13. If we had one more day to spend in any city we visited,  it would be … Madrid. I would spend time with Abuelo and Abuela and Rita and Uxue and Tia Gimena.
14. Most Memorable Artwork? "The Night Watch" and "3 de Mayo."
15. Best Bed? Bruges Hotel
16. Best Shower? Abuela and Abuelo’s
17. Biggest Surprise? Missing the train in Munich. That was bad.
18. Best Performance? Soccerman on Montmarte. That was awesome.  I don't know how he did that. It was like he was defying graviety.
19. Best Book? Trials of Apollo
20. Best Park? The park where I played soccer with some boys in Madrid.

While we were in Europe, I tried to write every day, but sometimes I either forgot or did not have time. So I sometimes had to write two or three days in one day. I also wrote the last ten or so days on the plane from Madrid to Charlotte. During my sixth grade school year, I came to my dad’s office and typed my journal entries. During the summer of 2018, my dad and I worked on giving them more detail and making them longer. At the end of the 2018 summer, we finished writing and posting it. I think that this vacation was the best vacation eve,r and I wish we could do it every year. I saw a lot of famous artworks, famous buildings, and a lot of my family that I had never met and family that I had met but don't get to see a lot. My favorite thing was seeing family.

These are my reflections on the 2017 Ruiz Benton’s summer vacation. Emilio out.

Grand Tour, Day 39: Madrid Wednesday

When we woke up, I went with my mom and dad to buy presents for our family. Then my mom went back home, and I went with my dad to the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which is an art museum.

One of the most memorable paintings was by Vincent Van Gogh of Auvers Sur-Oise. There is grassy field with some trees in it. It was memorable because we had been to Auvers Sur-Oise.

The other memorable painting was by Salvador Dali. In it there a woman down on a rock in the middle of a large mass of water. There are two tigers about to pounce on top of her. One of the tigers is going to get eaten by a big fish and the other is going to land right on her. This one was memorable because I knew about it before we went there because it was in the Study Blue that I wrote about earlier.

With "Santa Casilda" (1640-45) by Francisco Zurbaran.

With "Hotel Room" (1931) by Edward Hopper.

After the museum, we went back home, and Rita and Uxue were there. I tried to read them a book called "Asterix" in Spanish. Then they had to go back home. After they left, we had dinner. I had a mango popsicle, carrots with hummus, and tomatoes. Then we played our last Carioca of the trip. Abuela won.

Grand Tour, Day 38: Madrid Wednesday

When we woke up, we had breakfast. Then I played on my mom’s phone until Abuela’s friend Emilia came. She gave  me a sketch pad with pencils, an eraser, charcoal, and oil pastels. I used them to draw a picture for Rita and Uxue.

The picture depicted El tres de mayo by Francisco Goya which is the picture above. It had a man with his hands up and three dead people around him. Then there is a man pointing a gun at the man with his hands up. The man with the gun has three people behind him. The sky is red and every thing else is black except for the people. At first, I did not want to give Rita and Uxue the picture because it had dead people in it. But Tia Gimena wanted me to give it to them, so I did.

When Rita and Uxue came over,  we all went to the park. There were some boys there who asked me if I wanted to play soccer with them. At first, I did not want to play because I could not talk to any of them, but then I thought that they might not talk to me anyway, so I played. The guys on the other team were show-offs. They put all the bad players on one team and all the good players on the other team. They put me on the team with the bad players, but I scored three goals and had two assists.  They beat us, though. They scored, like, twenty goals. 

Then we went back home, and I played on my mom’s phone and watched Hercules with Rita and Uxue. Rita got scared at the very end when Hercules almost died, so I comforted her by telling her that he wasn't going to die. She got less scared after he didn't die.

Grand Tour, Day 37: Malaga to Madrid

When we woke up, we went to climb the Gibralfarol. The Gibralfarol was the last stronghold of the Muslims in Malaga during the siege of 1487. The path we climbed was very steep.

The view from the path to the stronghold was amazing. You could see all the buildings, and then behind them, you saw the Mediterranean Sea.

After we left the stronghold and came down, we met Abuela and Abuelo at a restaurant. I had paella and tomatoes. The paella was super tasty--one of the best dishes I had on this trip.

Then we all went to Zara to get some clothes for Nina, and we got some ice cream. I got strawberry. My brother dropped his scoop and got another scoop for free.

After we got our luggage, we went to the train station. We put our bags in the waiting room and went window shopping. Then we got on our train. We were not sitting by Abuela and Abuelo, so I played Carioca with my mom. She beat me.

Once we got to Madrid, we went to Abuela and Abuelo’s house. We were planning to go on a walk, but right before we left, my mom’s cousin Gonzalo and his partner Karina came to Abuela's house, and they came with us.

We made a loop around a park where we crossed a bridge and played on a rope-climbing course, which I liked. Then we went back home. I had rice and tomatoes for dinner. Then, since Gonzalo is the best player in the family, we played Carioca. He won.

Here is a list of my favorite things I did today:
1. Playing Carioca with Gonzalo, Karina, my mom, and Abuela
2. Walking in the park with Gonzalo and Karina
3. Climbing the Gibralfarol
4. Riding on the train to Madrid

Grand Tour, Day 36: Malaga Monday

After we woke up and got ready, we went to the beach.

When we got there, we played with paletas that we had gotten the day before.

Then humongous waves started coming, and I played in them. For lunch, I got tomatoes and pita bread. By the time we got home, it was 5:00!

When we got home, we took a shower and played Carioca while my dad and Pablo went on a long walk. I beat my mom and Abuela.

Then we ate dinner. I had carrots, hummus and a nectarine. Then we got ice cream. I got mango, strawberry, and raspberry with a lemon macaroon on top.

On the way to get ice cream, we walked by a wall that had words in Spanish on it, and I tried to climb it. It would have been easier if I had been wearing my Converse shoes instead of flip flops.

After everybody else went back home, my dad and I went on a walk by the port, beach and a lighthouse!


My dad thinks that we might have seen Africa. We looked it up later and the closest point in Africa was 105 miles away from Malaga.

While we were walking, my dad told me stories. One was about how he almost got robbed in Morocco, and another was about how he almost helped a Moroccan woman illegally immigrate to the United States.

Here is a list of my favorite things I did today:
1. Walking on the beach with my dad
2. Swimming at the beach
3. Playing cards with Abuela and my mom