Summer league title game good to the last shot

The standing room only crowd at the John Marshall High School gym last night will remember several things about the Tri-Cities Summer League championship game.

They will remember the league all-star game is tomorrow at 4 p.m., also at John Marshall. Admission is $5, as indefatigable public address announcer Mack Anderson constantly reminded everyone throughout the evening.

The fans also will remember the Wallace Express, led by NBA veteran and former Virginia Union star Ben Wallace, won the title game 102-101 over DTLR.

T.J. "Flamethrower" Grimes hit the game-winning 3-point shot at the buzzer.

The DTLR coaches and players will never forget that, in their opinion, Grimes' shot came after time had expired.

The clock failed to start when the Express inbounded the ball with 15 seconds left.

That led to confusion concerning how much time was left when Tarik Wallace of the Express and Lamar Taylor faced off for a jump ball at midcourt.

At first, referee Curtis Blair, who earns his living calling games in the NBA, put 3 seconds on the clock. After some discussion, another second was added.

Grimes, a former star at Hampden-Sydney College and now a vice president for small business merchant services at Bank of America, needed every one of those seconds.

"I knew there wasn't a lot of time left," Grimes said. "It felt good when I let it go. It's feels good to do it for Big Ben."

Big Ben Wallace, currently on the roster of the Phoenix Suns, didn't do so badly himself. He finished with 38 points and dominated in the low post in the fourth quarter.

"I never lost a game I wasn't trying to win," Wallace said. "This was a good lesson for kids. No matter how bad things look, keep playing until the game is over."

Tyree Evans did some playing for DTLR. The former George Wythe High School star finished with 42 points.

Evans will be a senior at Kent State this season. He averaged 11.7 points for the Golden Flashes last year.

Evans had the dunk of the night off an alley-oop pass that came from near midcourt.

Kendrick Warren helped the Wallace Express by dropping in 26 points. Warren, a Richmond native and former VCU star, didn't do anything fancy.

"Same old Kendrick," he said. "Get the ball, put it in the hoop. I needed some oxygen, though. I'm 38."

Warren now is a crises counselor for The New Y-CAPP -- Youth Challenged Advised and Positively Promoted -- a private agency in Richmond. His basketball career took him all over the world.

"Brazil, France, Finland, London," he said.

But there's nothing quite like winning in your back yard.

"This is for bragging rights," Warren said, breaking into a big smile.

The DTLR players, though, reserve to right to argue about who should be bragging.

Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or .