By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

When I posted the review of 300 on my blog seven years ago, the views were outstanding. The first responses that I received were complimentary, especially from an individual claiming to be in the military. Eventually, the responses turned sour, nasty and insulting. The Iranian government banned 300 due to the depiction of the Persian Army. Seven years later, this entry still receives a regular dosage of spam.

While not as good as its predecessor, 300: Rise of An Empire has opened with a strong box office, revealing that ticket buyers enjoy watching history taught by comic books. Based on Frank Miller’s graphic novels, this new 300 is more of a companion piece than a direct sequel to the old 300.

The film opens a generation before the events of the first movie. King Darius is killed by an arrow shot by Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) in battle. The late King Darius was the father of Xeres (Rodrigo Santoro), a deluded individual who proclaims himself a god. While the delusional King seeks the spotlight, behind the scenes Artemisia (Eva Green) pulls the strings of Persian politics. Undefeated as the Admiral of the Seas, Artemisia seeks to avenge the glory of King Darius.

As a ragtag selection of city states, Greece is a bickering democracy awaiting to be conquered. Themistocles, an Athenian, is fully aware of these political problems and desperately seeks cooperation with the Spartans, especially Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey). Gorgo is the widow of the king, whose army of 300 Spartans were slaughtered by the Xeres and his Persian Army of thousands. Themistocles is fully aware that Artemisia has topower to crush the bickering Greek Isle.

Like the first 300, the computer graphics create vivid action scenes involving navy battles. Unlike the first 300, this new movie seems sloppy in direction. Utilizing the 3-D technology, 300 Rise of an Empire features too many scenes of splattered blood floating in the air.

Despite some disappointing visuals, this film is a fun movie to learn about Greek and Persian history. While Stapleton is a likeable leading man, it is the women who rule this empire. While reprising her role from the first movie, Headey gives a stoic performance with simmering rage. As the angry Artemisia, Green is given many memorable moments with a sword.

As the title role in Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill

For Green cements her image as today’s femme fatale.

James 5:13

13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.

NLT

No one is exempt from going through bad times, but please do not forget that we have many good times also. Whether everything is great or it totally stinks, God should always have our attention.

Last Sunday, when I went to church, I knew I was in for a great day. How could I not be? I was in God’s House, the “Happiest Place on Earth.” However, as I looked around at this happy place, I started to think. In this happy place, there was a crying child, a man who just lost a family member to cancer, a young woman going through a divorce and a preacher who felt each of their pain. I couldn’t help but think, even in God’s House, the happiest place on earth, there is still suffering and hurting people. Check out Psalms Chapter 20 (Awesome)

Psalms 20

1 In times of trouble, may the LORD respond to your cry. May the God of Israel keep you safe from all harm.

2 May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem.

3 May he remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings.

4 May he grant your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans.

5 May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory, flying banners to honor our God. May the LORD answer all your prayers.

6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power.

7 Some nations boast of their armies and weapons, but we boast in the LORD our God.

8 Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm.

9 Give victory to our king, O LORD! Respond to our cry for help.

NLT

For some, our happiest place is with our family and friends, or taking a walk on the beach. We cannot escape suffering; no matter how hard we try we are not exempt.

Sometimes, suffering is used for correcting; sometimes, it is used for God’s glory; sometimes, it is used to build our character and, sometimes, one person suffers for another’s benefit.

Yet, there are times when we really don’t understand why others or we ourselves are suffering. Like Job from the Bible, we must seek to trust God and endure because we win when we do! We have a happy place found in the presence of the Lord. If God could hear Jonah’s cry from inside the whale, then I am sure he can hear your cry. One thing is for sure: if we are suffering in any way, then we should be praying and talking to God a lot. What do you think?

Perhaps, you are in a season of hurt or suffering right now. In this moment, it may not be clear why your suffering is happening. Your role in this season is to spend time with and reach out to God, knowing that He will help you through this trial with His strength. In this way, at the end of the day, you will be able to rejoice in who God is.

James 5:13 says we should pray and praise God during the good times and the bad times. In good or bad times, we’d better be spending time with God. Try happiness; it is found in the presence of the Lord.

Tony Guadagnino is the pastor at Christian Love Fellowship Church, 801 SE 10 St.,Deerfield Beach, 33441. www.CLFministries.org

By Gary Curreri

Jordan Murphy loves fighting.

The Deerfield Beach teenager recently won his third national Silver Gloves boxing championship and said he plans to join the military when he turns 18 and fight for his country.

Murphy, a 14-year-old eighth grader at Lyons Creek Middle School in Coconut Creek, and a member of the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s Police Athletic League (PAL) boxing program, recently won top honors as in the 80-lb., 14/ 15 age division at the National Silver Gloves boxing tournament in Independence, Missouri when he defeated Patrick Fair (Ohio) by unanimous decision.

Murphy has three national titles (2010 National Junior Golden Gloves, 2013 Ringside World and now 2014 National Silver Gloves), in addition to four state and four regional titles just for the silver gloves tournaments. He has also accumulated several Junior Olympic state titles and Police Athletic League titles.

“I absolutely believed I would win the championship,” said Murphy, who will compete in the upcoming State Golden Gloves competition on March 27-29 in West Palm Beach and the State Junior Olympics competition in Boca Raton on April 12.

“I knew that I worked hard and that I worked hard for a reason and that was to win,” said Murphy, who has been boxing in the PAL program in Deerfield Beach for the past six years. “Boxing has taught me to behave in school and not to let anything get to you. It has also taught me to work hard to achieve what you want.”

Murphy trains three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) for 1-1/2 hours each day. He said the rigorous training gives him confidence when he is about to go one-on-one with his opponent.

“When I walk in the ring I am a little nervous at first,” said Murphy, who has compiled a 52-8 record. “As soon as the bell rings, I know that I have confidence in myself that I am going to win the fight most of the time.”

It was redemption of sorts for Murphy who fought a close fight last year in the finals of the 75-lb., 12/13 age division, but dropped a split decision to Malik Nelson (New Jersey).

Murphy competed in a series of national boxing competitions and came out as the national champ for his class. Murphy trained extensively with his coach, Steve Collazo, and had to win several local and regional boxing matches in order to make it to the nationals.

“Jordan has worked long and hard to achieve one goal, to be the best,” said his coach, Collazo. “He was very determined to win this year, especially after falling short in the finals last year.”

In order to reach the nationals, Murphy captured the Silver Gloves State Tournament in early December 2013 in Ft. Pierce, making him the Florida State Silver Glove 80 lb., 14- 15 years-of-age champ. Murphy then won the Regional Silver Gloves competition in early January in Maryland, making him the Region 3 champ to advance to the Silver Gloves Nationals held in Independence, Missouri.

When he turns 18, Murphy is going to be fighting a bigger cause.

“I am going to join the military and box in the military before I go pro,” Murphy said. “I want to help our country out and fight for freedom and our rights. I kind of think about that when I go into the ring now.”

Murphy also plays baseball in the Junior Division of the Deerfield Beach Little League. He is a pitcher and shortstop for the White Sox and has been on the diamond for the past seven years.

“I like boxing more,” Murphy said.

Collazo said BSO’s Police Athletic League provides youths an opportunity to stay out of trouble by participating in sports and other activities after school or during the summer.

The activities are structured to attract all youths regardless of their previous athletic abilities. PAL’s goal is to provide them with activities that build character and self-esteem, foster positive relationships, enhance self-awareness and promote good citizenship.

All PAL programs are free of charge. All participants must be currently in a school or home schooled. For more information, contact BSO Deputy Butch Santy at 954-778-0174.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

While best known for her Oscar-winning leading role in Gone With The Wind, Vivien Leigh earned her second Oscar as Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.

A reliable British actress on both stage and screen, Leigh’s award-winning performances created an indelible image of a young and aged Southern belle.

Last Sunday night, Australian actress Cate Blanchett earned her second Oscar for playing a DuBois-inspired character in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. While Jasmine (Blanchett) is no Southern belle, she does suffer from similar delusions with that of Blanche Dubois.

The film opens with Jasmine flying into a San Francisco airport to spend time with her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins). During the long flight, Jasmine annoys the people around her with constant chattering. We learn that the selfabsorbed Jasmine was once married to a Bernie Madoff-like character, Hal (Alec Baldwin), a successful money manager. Being a trophy wife, Jasmine lives a charmed life in the Hamptons, while ignoring Hal’s indiscretions.

Blue Jasmine shares DNA with A Streetcar named Desire. In a way, the travails of Blue Jasmine seem to be the back story of DuBois. After enjoying the debutante’s life for so long, both women’s fall from grace is tragic to watch.

While his family scandals from 21 years ago are still vivid, there is no denying that Woody Allen is a very literate filmmaker. When inspired by the literary masters. Woody Allen’s humor is at its sharpest … with films like Hannah and her Sisters influenced by Chekhov’s 3 Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors influenced by Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment …

The Woody Allen ensemble of New York actors (Alec Baldwin, Bobby Carnvale) are appropriately cast. Best Supporting actress nominee Sally Hawkins provides the most transitional performance as Jasmine’s sister. Yet, Blue Jasmine is Cate Blanchett’s movie from beginning to end. Jasmine is an unlikeable character, but Blanchett creates a unique sympathy for the fallen woman.

Oscar season is now officially concluded, but a new season has begun. The Miami International Film Festival opens this weekend with 100 films from 40 countries. Of note, the 2013 Oscar winner for best documentary, 20 Feet from Stardom, premiered at the Miami International Film Festival last year.

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

I was sitting in the big chair getting a pedicure at the Vietnamese Nail Salon on a school holiday.

The 10-year-old son of the salon owner wandered aimlessly around the salon, closely watched by his mother and grandmother, and other working relatives. The young boy was friendly and alert, and everything about him signaled “smart.” He stopped by my chair and we exchanged a few words about his vacation and school.

And then, without any warning, he looked up at me and asked, “What do you do when you’re bored?”

Somehow, from that childish stance, I sensed a really thoughtful and serious mind; although, I had to ask him to repeat the question to give myself time to construct an age-appropriate response. And then, no! My response was un-tethered to age. I merely blurted out the unvarnished truth as if I were on a podium giving a lecture.

“Bored?” I repeated “I’m never bored.”

“How come?” he asked, with genuine curiosity.

“Because I love my own company, and I have so many thoughts running through my head that I can seem to be doing nothing, but I am thinking all the time.”

He scrunched up his nose and leaned closer to me. “Yes, but what do you DO when you have nothing to do?”

The “thinking” part was too abstract.

“Well,” I felt I owed him something more concrete. “I read, I write, I listen to music and REALLY listen, I love to invent new recipes from leftover food, I ….”

My voice trailed as he jumped up and ran to one of the back rooms of the salon, leaving me thinking seriously about “boredom.” I didn’t want to tell him that I have occasionally felt considerably more bored in the company of some people than when I am alone.

Within a few minutes, he returned with a few sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 white typing paper, which he evidently retrieved from a printer. He squatted easily at a site close to my chair and began to fold a sheet of paper very purposefully. He looked up at me quizzically.

“Origami! “ he stated, “You know what that is?”

I nodded affirmatively, watching him construct – all with folds — a perfectlysquare paper box about 2” in depth with a tidy reinforced rim around it.

“That’s great,” I said. “What will you do with that?”

Instantly, his mother, who was “doing” my fingernails, pulled several bills from her pocket and tossed them into the box, sending her son directly to the cash register to perform a familiar task, as they conversed easily in their high-pitched Vietnamese language.

He returned to my chair, told me his name and then felt obligated to add that it wasn’t his actual Vietnamese name, which he pronounced for me, and which I couldn’t repeat if my life had depended on it. He had no trouble pronouncing my name. We chatted about school and his favorite subject, math, and some things he could do when he felt bored.

He is one of the “dream” kids, not born here, but who will grow up to be one of our national treasures if he is allowed to remain in this country and become a citizen. And he is not likely ever to be bored.

I have this thing about using various melodies for the hymn Adon Olam. Recently, I did it to the tune of the theme from Gilligan’s Island. This was the story of the Skipper and his little buddy Gilligan, along with those who sailed with them on a three-hour tour on the S.S. Minnow, a trip that went horribly awry.

Bob Denver, Bob Hale Jr., Jim Backus … the movie star, the professor and Marianne … every one of these castaways was very different from one another. Each had their own talents, and each learned that, if they were going to survive on that island, then they had better learn to live together as one.

Of course, as far as I can remember, religion never seemed to come up in the show. I guess that was a good thing too, because they would have spent far too much of their time arguing over how many houses of worship to build and which one was better than the other and why.

Most of you remember that old joke about two people who are marooned on a deserted island for several years and, finally, a ship comes to rescue them. When the ship’s captain gets off to meet them, he finds that they have built three houses of worship … and, since there are only two castaways, he has to ask, “Why three?” To which they reply, “One is for me to pray in, the other for him, and the third neither of us would even think of ever walking into.”

According to the Torah, we were like one heart and one soul when we accepted G-d’s Law. That’s right, we were one … and isn’t that what we say of G-d in the Shema, Hear, Oh, Israel, the Lord our G-d is One!

Most of you have heard about the new math. But, while two plus two equaling three might be a bit confusing for you, get this, if you look up the word ONE in the dictionary, one of the definitions will say something along the lines of constituting a unified entity of two or more components … or being in agreement or union.

What on earth does that mean? Does it require two or more to make one?

On Friday nights, we chant L’Cha Dodi which tells us to greet the bride of Sabbath to greet Shabbat as we would a bride. In order for there to be a bride, there has to be another component. There has to be a partner, a groom. Of course, there would be no bride or groom without a mother and father … no mother and father without a bubbe and zaide, etc., etc. And there would be no one if not for G-d.

When Moses gathers all of Israel together again, it is not just to gather them together in one and the same place, at one and the same time, but to instill in them again one and the same vision. Sadly, I have heard far too many politicians on TV lately say that they do not share the same vision. It is time for all of us to gather and find that joint vision again– for that is what makes this country great.

If you want to be Echad … if you want to be one, then you have to EeChed. You have to unite. Let us unite again as one family, one nation, under one flag, under One G-d.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach. We welcome you to join our warm and caring family for Shabbat and festival services. We’ll make your heart glow…who knows, you might even fall in love with Shul all over again.

By Gary Curreri

While Deerfield Beach High School’s baseball team is still searching for its first win of the season, it already scored a victory of sorts during the offseason.

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Mike Fiers, a 2003 graduate of Deerfield Beach High, spent a few weeks at his alma mater helping coach the players before he left for spring training. The Pompano native worked with both the pitcher and position players on the varsity and junior varsity programs.

Fiers said he came back to help players reach the next level. He is good friends with Bucks assistant coach Mike Dobre and asked to come out and help.

“I wanted to help them out with everything whether it is baseball or life in general,” said Fiers, who is 10-14 for his major league career. “I came out every day before I left for spring training and I loved being out there.”

After graduating from Deerfield Beach, Fiers went on to Broward College, spent a year at the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky for one year and finished as an All-American at Nova Southeastern University. He was drafted in 2009 in the 22nd round by Milwaukee and reached the big leagues in 2011.

Fiers said he always had a dream to pitch in the major leagues. He played with another major leaguer in Mickey Storey, who is a pitcher with the Toronto Blue Jays, for three years at Deerfield.

“It’s definitely a tough game and takes a lot of hard work,” said Fiers, 28, of Pompano Beach. “I pride myself on that. I always had that dream and I wanted it. I’ve had setbacks. I’ve had success. It was a long journey. I had the mindset of knowing I was going to make it and staying positive.”

Fiers said he was impressed by the work ethic the players displayed at DBHS. He worked on the fundamentals of baseball with many of the players. In his senior year at Deerfield Beach, they lost in the regional final to Hialeah High.

It was his second visit to Deerfield Beach High since he graduated. Fiers went while he was at Broward College and also volunteered at nearby Zion Lutheran when Dobre was a coach there.

“I like coaching and helping out kids,” Fiers said. “They have to take it as a game, because it is a game. You want to go out and have fun and that makes it easier. Some guys maybe take it as a job, but it is not a job yet. You want to get good grades and that will help you out.”

“I graduated 10 years ago and it feels the same,” Fiers continued. “It is good to come back and help them get where they want to go. I just want them to compete and, hopefully, their mindset is to want to win. I just wanted to try and make the game as simple as possible.”

Deerfield Beach High School junior Kyle Miller said it was a bonus to have Fiers around.

“It was great to have coach Fiers around,” Miller said. “He’s been through this program before and he knows the ins and outs of baseball. He is somebody you can listen to because he is at the top level of baseball right now.

“He is not just some guy that puts on a hat and calls himself a coach,” Miller added. “He lives it every day. It was good to have him around teaching us.”

Miller said among the things that Fiers helped him with was his approach to pitching.

“He is a right-handed pitcher who doesn’t throw 98 (mph), but he knows how to pitch and get outs,” Miller said. “He relies on good off speed pitches and good location. You really learn good pitching from a guy like Mike Fiers. It’s cool that he volunteered to give back to the program, a program that gave him so much as a kid.”

“This definitely gives you hope to see a guy who came out of Deerfield and has had great success playing the sport,” Miller said. “It shows a lot of kids that if you work hard every day and you want it bad enough, even if you don’t throw a 106-mph fastball, you can still have success.”

“Mike was like the Pied Piper with the players following him and picking his brain,” said first year Bucks coach Angelo Latrento. “He’s a homegrown kid who gave the kids hope and motivation.”

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

August Osage County is your typical Hollywood contender for an academy award. It features serious award-winning actors like Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Chris Cooper. The story is based on a Pulitzer Award-winning play and it has the Weinstein Brothers marketing machine behind it. The film is finely directed by John Wells with an emphasis on symbolic cinematography, contrasting the beautiful landscapes of Oklahoma with the spider’s lair of the Weston Family.

We are introduced to Pa Weston (Sam Shepard), who has hired a caregiver. Pa disappears and Ma (Streep) summons her family. With children portrayed by Julia Roberts, Juliette Lewis and Julianne Nicholson, one can expect shouting matches around the subjects of drug abuse, suicide and incest. In between this dysfunctional family feud, this film features moments of comedy and laughter.

The problem is that it does not feel like a slice of life. For all of its technical beauty, it’s an ugly film to watch. Streep and Roberts reveal their inner barnacles and give excellent, but disturbing, performances.

Disturbing best describes the ensemble cast in Dallas Buyers Club. Directed by Jean- Marc Vallee, this film features extreme close-ups of the AIDS epidemic from the perspective of both patient and caregiver. Yet given its gloomy premise, it has many redemptive moments.

Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is a roughhousing rodeo cowboy. After an orgy, Ron contracts the HIV virus and is given 30 days to live. During this month, he runs afoul the medical community and dislikes being associated with the homosexual community. When he survives past his original death sentence, he challenges the medical community when he learns about AZT – a drug that can postpone full blown AIDS. McConaughey gives the performance of his career and is likely to take home an Oscar Sunday night.

Dallas Buyers Club and August Osage County are performance- driven movies with the best actors of the age.

For 31 days, Turner Classic Movies has been presenting Oscar-nominated and winning films from the previous 85 years. Given the distance of time, one can see that performances can become outdated. Though Oscar-nominated, Sir Laurence Olivier gave an unintentionally comic performance as Othello complete in blackface minstrel. How I wish I caught James Earl Jones’ performance in Othello at Parker Playhouse 30 years ago. Christopher Plummer, who portrayed Iago in that stage production, will be honored at the Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), which begins March 7. Mike Myers, Shirley MacLaine, John Turturro and Andy Garcia are expected to attend.

Many years ago, a friend and his wife learned they would not be able to have their own natural born children. They decided to adopt. It took the patience of a judge for them to move through the process, but they finally succeeded.

They imagined an infant from the beginning. An infant, they thought, would be perfect and know them as parents from the outset. What they received were not one, but two, young boys. These boys were anything but infants and anything but perfect. They had been abused by their drug-addicted parents. The boys arrived with mental, psychological and emotional baggage.

But, my friend and his wife were steadfast in their parental duties, long-suffering in their love for these two boys through formative years of school expulsions, arrests, juvenile detention and one heart-wrenching problem after another.

My friend once told me, “As hard as it has been, our faith has grown alongside these boys. The experience may have given us insight as to how God feels watching us grow!”

Adoption meant these boys received far more than a new last name and safe place to stay. They were adopted into a family. They were forgiven even when they didn’t deserve it. They were loved. They survived.

Did you ever wonder what would have become of baby Moses had he not been adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter or what would have happened to Hadassah, the beautiful young woman who became Queen Esther, had she not been adopted by good ole Uncle Mordecai?

Moses likely would have been drowned with the other male babies. Hadassah probably would have been killed with the rest of her people. The course of human history and the development of Judeo Christian faith traditions would at the very least be different were it not for God’s plans for adoption.

What are God’s plans for adoption today?

There are thousands of children in South Florida in need of physical adoption. If you are able, then I encourage you to consider adoption, But, the truth is, we all have need of adoption, just an adoption of a different, more permanent, kind.

The Apostle Paul says it this way: “Even before God made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ….” [Ephesians 1:4- 5, NLT]

Our most important adoption is made possible by the cross, not by the courts. There is no lengthy legal process. We consent to our adoption when we accept Christ as Lord.

No perfection required. None of us remain innocent as a newborn child. We all have baggage. None of us are always loveable, and we may not deserve forgiveness, but we all can have it through Christ.

Pray God continues to be steadfast and longsuffering with the open loving arms of adoption, patiently watching us grow and accepting us into the family.

Ever think about adoption? I hope so because the most consequential adoption you will ever think about is your own …

Dennis Andrews is a minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on A1A. See more at www.comm unitych.org or on Facebook. Worship gatherings are: Saturdays @ Six, Sunday morning at 8:30 and 11 a.m.

By Gary Curreri

And just like that, Blanche Ely’s hopes for a boys’ basketball three-peat were squashed by a team that had its number all season. The Blanche Ely boys’ basketball team dropped a 61-54 decision in the Class 7A regional semifinal to host Boyd Anderson on Tuesday night, and, with it, vanished a spot in history.

Blanche Ely (21-5), which last season became the first boys’ basketball team to win back-to-back titles as it joined Dillard (2000-03) and Pine Crest (2008-09). They came up short in their bid to become the 12th in state history to win three consecutive titles.

Cobras’ guard Pitchon Pierre sank eight free throws in the fourth quarter as host Boyd Anderson (24-5) held off a late charge by the two-time defending Class 7A state champion to pull out the win. Pierre finished with 12 points, 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 rebounds.

Blanche Ely (21-5), which had won 11 consecutive playoff games, closed to within two points at 45-43 with 6:24 left in the game, but struggled at the line and fell for the fourth consecutive time in five meetings against Boyd Anderson this season. The Cobras were 19 of 24 from the line, while Ely converted just 14 of 24 from the charity stripe.

“It was a well-fought game, and what killed us was we lost it at the free throw line,” said Tigers coach Melvin Randall. “We missed double digits at the line.

“You have to get to the line and knock them down and we didn’t. That was an important factor in the game. We have been shooting like that off and on the entire season. We had a couple of games this season where we shot 70-plus percent, but we made it hard in games this year by missing what we did at the line.”

Boyd Anderson’s Rodney Simeon had 17 points, while Nick Eubanks added 14 points and eight rebounds. Lance Tejada led Blanche Ely with 18 points, while Therell Gosier and Javon Heastie each had 11.

Boyd Anderson jumped out to a 12-8 lead in the first quarter as Simeon scored seven of his team-high 17 points and Dondre Duffus hit a 3-pointer with 2:05 remaining in the period.

Blanche Ely battled back to take a 15-14 lead as it scored the first four points of the second quarter on two free throws by Javon Heastie and a basket off a steal by Gosier.

The host Cobras then went on an 8-0 run to take the lead for good at 22-15 on two free throws by Diondre Wilson. Boyd Anderson led 27-21 at halftime and extended the advantage to 29-21 on a rebound and layup by Nick Eubanks. Tejada then got hot as he made a free throw and a short jumper and found Gosier cutting to the basket for a layup to trim the lead to 26-29 with six minutes left in the third quarter.

The Tigers were also dealt a blow in the third quarter when Gosier was whistled for two fouls in a 38-second span and had to sit with four fouls and Boyd Anderson leading 30- 28. Gosier had scored eight points, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked three shots until then and didn’t re-enter the game until there was 3:02 remaining and the Cobras leading 51-46.

The game seesawed back and forth; however, the Tigers, which had won 11 consecutive playoff games, could get no closer than two points at 45-43 with 6:24 left.

“I am disappointed, but I am not upset or mad that we lost,” said Tigers coach Melvin Randall. “It would be selfish for me to bicker. Of course, I wanted to win; but, in looking back, I have been there six times and won five.”