NATIONAL TOURNAMENT | Hong Kong Diesel Brings Mile High Magic to Vegas

Before 2015, the Denver area had never sent a team to the Ultimate Hoops National Tournament in Las Vegas. Hong Kong Diesel not only changed that, but put Denver on the map as a hot spot for UH basketball.

Expectations weren't very high for Hong Kong Diesel heading in to the National Tournament. UH Founder, Alan Arlt, called Hong Kong Diesel the "ultimate wild card" on his podcast leading up to the tournament. To make matters worse, Hong Kong Diesel's roster of ten, quickly shrunk to seven when three guys couldn't show up, and one of those seven was the self-proclaimed "team nutritionist." To say Hong Kong Diesel was the tournament underdog would be an understatement.

Game 1: The Mob - 85 Hong Kong Diesel - 65

Hong Kong Diesel made their tournament debut against the defending runners-up, The Mob from Las Vegas. This would be no easy task for HKD. The Mob is led by star player Chase Skinkis, who also happens to be a UH trainer in Las Vegas.

From the opening tip, HKD showed their inexperience and looked a little wide-eyed, as they made some mental mistakes and missed some easy shots in the early going. After finding themselves down early, Ruben Rivas provided a big spark for HKD, playing tough defense that included a steal, and knocking down a pair of three pointers to keep the game close. Hong Kong Diesel went in to the half trailing by only seven, 44-37.

Unfortunately for the boys from Denver, the second half was a completely different story. The Mob came out fired up and refused to lose to a team that nobody knew. The Mob finished the game shooting 56% from the field and Hong Kong Diesel was unable to overcome a cold shooting game from their star player, Shondell Lee, and ended up losing the game 85-65.

Game 2: Hong Kong Diesel - 91 Splash Brothers - 82

After a tough first game for Hong Kong Diesel, things didn't get any easier. They were facing a veteran-laded squad from Scottsdale, AZ, the Splash Brothers. Anyone who knows anything about Ultimate Hoops knows who the Splash Brothers are. Most people were shocked when the Splash Brothers received a two seed in their pool, as they were expected to get one of the top seeds in the tournament.

Now that Hong Kong Diesel had a game under their belts, they knew what it would take to get a W in the National Tournament. HKD started the game playing very well. They didn't care who the Splash Brothers were, and were executing in all phases of the game. Eli Ziegler and Sam Stoveall hit a couple of key three pointers in the first half, and HKD went in to the break with a 41-38 lead.

The only way you could describe the second half of this game would be it was a roller coaster. These teams weren't trading baskets, they were trading runs. Hong Kong Diesel would score eight straight; Splash Brothers would counter with a 9-0 run. This went on for the entire second half. Late in the second half, the Splash Brothers went on a run to push their lead to nine with five minutes to go. A lot of teams in that situation would have folded, but not Hong Kong Diesel. HKD went on a 16-0 run, to take a commanding seven point lead, and went on to score the massive upset of the Splash Brother, 91-82. Shondell Lee overcame a tough first game to score 28 points and grab 11 boards, while Tom Pane played a key part in the win, grabbing 15 hard-earned rebounds.

Game 3: Hong Kong Diesel - 84 YLie - 60

No games in the Ultimate Hoops National Tournament can be classified as "easy," but Hong Kong Diesel knew their third game would be the least challenging. Ylie is a team from Detroit that has played in multiple National Tournaments, and it's tough to say any team has more fun than them. Having said that, they don't bring the most talent to the table, so Hong Kong Diesel saw this as an opportunity to move on to the elimination round.

Hong Kong Diesel dominated from the start, and there isn't a lot of breakdown necessary for this game. By the time halftime rolled around, Hong Kong Diesel was not only leading 41-27, but they had become the crowd favorite that everyone was rooting for.

The only issue that stood in the way for Hong Kong Diesel, was the fact that the Splash Brothers were leading a favored Mob team, and if they were able to upset The Mob, three teams in Pool B would be sitting at 2-1, and the tiebreaker would be point differential.

As all of the UH staff was watching both games simultaneously, Hong Kong Diesel took down YLie in dominating fashion, 84-60. Meanwhile, Splash Brothers upset The Mob 94-78, and at the time, it appeared that Hong Kong Diesel would be on the outside looking in. The news was broken to HKD that they would not be advancing, in spite of their 2-1 record.

The UH staff decided they needed to count the points of all the Pool B games, just to make sure they were right. Hong Kong Diesel sure is glad they did, because the new point differential had them advancing by less than ten points. The team that nobody knew about would be advancing to the quarterfinals to square off against another team from Las Vegas, Vegas Ballers.

Quarterfinals: Vegas Ballers - 89 Hong Kong Diesel - 59

The Cinderella story, Hong Kong Diesel found themselves in the quarterfinals of the Ultimate Hoops National Tournament, squaring off against the Vegas Ballers, who were led by former NBA player, the Junk Yard Dog, Jerome Williams.

The first five minutes of the game were back and forth with neither team able to pull away. With the Vegas Ballers up by one, they decided they needed to use their best offensive threat, Warren RosegreenYour text to link... more often, and his sky hook was dominate. As Matt Cannizzaro pointed out, "You can't stop his hook shot. You have to hope he misses." Unfortunately for Hong Kong Diesel, Rosegreen didn't miss much, and took a commanding 43-25 lead in to the half.

The second half was more of the same, as the Vegas Ballers kept feeding the rock to Rosegreen. The big man finished with 24 points on 11-14 shooting, and the Ballers knocked out Hong Kong Diesel 89-59.



As Big Luscious pointed out, Hong Kong Diesel didn't have a big enough roster to compete, but he's already looking forward to sending the second Denver team to the National Tournament in 2016.

For photos from the National Tournament, click here.