Summer can be a time to relax with friends and family and forget about work. For Frantz Massenat and his former Drexel teammates, it's the exact opposite.
"If you're looking for competitive basketball in the summer, you got it all right here," Massenat said about The Basketball Tournament.
The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is back this summer with its second annual single-elimination open tourney that boasts a $1 million grand prize.
And despite boasting a roster that includes former Drexel standouts in Massenat, Chris Fouch and Scott Rodgers, the teamed dubbed the Blue and Gold Club fell way short in its opening-round game against Basketball City on Friday night with a 95-75 loss.
Regardless of the final outcome, the players still enjoy themselves when they step foot on the court for The Basketball Tournament.
"It was definitely awesome," Christian Burns, a Philadelphia University alum, said. "I think they do a great job of putting this all together. I had a lot of fun and the competition's great. It's just a really cool thing."
And the prize money for winning the tournament doesn't hurt the experience either.
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"The fact that a team can win a million dollars, you can't beat that," Burns said.
Trailing by double digits for nearly the entire night in a Northeast Regional matchup on Philadelphia University's campus, the 11th-seeded Blue and Gold Club made a huge push in the second half with a 13-0 run to cut the deficit to 59-50. However, the Blue and Gold Club wouldn't get any closer as 14th-seeded Basketball City pulled away in the game's final minutes.
Former Dragons forward Dartaye Ruffin led the Blue and Gold Club with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Basketball City had four players score in double figures. The team was paced by Florida Atlantic product Shavar Richardson, who was simply lights out. Richardson scored a game-high 21 points on 7 of 9 shooting and 5 of 6 from beyond the arc.
Basketball City will now take on Big Apple Basketball in the second round.
Balanced scoring fuels DMV's Finest
DMV's Finest cruised to an easy 128-72 win over Team Elite in its Northeast Regional round game. All but one player scored in double figures for the squad out of the DC/Maryland/Virginia area.
"We're a very balanced team," Georgetown alum Chris Wright. "We've had time to practice and work on a few sets, so we came in with great chemistry."
Wright, who plays professionally in Italy, was an assist shy of a double-double, tallying 10 points and nine assists in 24 minutes.
One of the team's newcomers, Gilbert Brown, led all scorers with 23 points in 19 minutes for DMV's Finest. Brown also chipped in four steals on the defensive side of the ball.
"We came out hard and we wanted to win," Wright said. "That's all there is to it."
DMV's Finest will move on to face WYOG (Work On Your Game) in the second round.
Friday's TBT scoreboard
• Basketball City 95, Blue and Gold Club 75
• DMV's Finest 128, Team Elite 72
• City of Gods 88, Pup N' Suds 69
• Free Bands 114, Horsemen 107
• Max's All-Stars 75, TYGTAL 68
What's next?
The second round of the Northeast Regional continues on Saturday at Phila U and features a number of Philly-centric teams, as Liberty Ballers (featuring former Villanova Wildcats Antonio Pena, Reggie Redding and James Minor-Bell, former Temple Owl Ryan Brooks and former St. Joe's Hawk Garrett Williamson) take on The Wrecking Crew (featuring the core of Lehigh's 2011-12 NCAA Tournament team that upset Duke, minus Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum who is the club's booster) at 9 a.m.
Also in action are the North Broad Street Bullies (featuring Temple products Khalif Wyatt, Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson, T.J. DiLeo, Dalton Pepper and Jacob Godino) at 5:45 p.m. Plus, 20th and Olney (which includes Tyreek Duren, Ramon Galloway, Tyrone Garland, D.J. Peterson, Jerrell Wright and Steve Zack from La Salle's Sweet 16 run in 2012-13) hit the floor at 9:15 p.m.