Steel City Yellow Jackets Journal

  Along with ABA Executives, family and friends, the Steel City Yellow Jackets celebrate after winning the ABA Championship in Baltimore. Photo by Thomas Leturgey by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond After Saturday Night's 123-118 win over the Number One Ranked Team Trouble, Pittsburgh's Steel City Yellow Jackets can now be called American Basketball Association (ABA) Champions. The contest at the John and Joanne Phelps Gymnasium on the St. Frances Academy campus in Baltimore was a hard-fought contest that saw the Yellow Jackets take a substantial lead over a slow-to-get-started Stockton, California team, and then witness that lead slip away. But as Coach Ace Pippens' team has done all season...they pulled it out in the final seconds in a highly-emotional affair. Co-Captain Tone Reddic, Sr. got the game off to a promising start with the first jumper of the evening. Ultimate tournament MVP Kenny Holmes hit a 3D shot that added three points and Reddic posted two more to m...

  Pittsburgh's Steel City Yellow Jackets celebrate after a 127-122 victory in the semi-finals of the ABA tournament in Baltimore. Photo by Thomas Leturgey by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond Tension was in the air when the Steel City Yellow Jackets were warming up for Friday afternoon's semi-final matchup with the defending champion Jacksonville Giants. The two teams met in the finals last year and the loss still stings for just about everyone associated with Ace Pippen's squad. Players, some of whom are always gregarious, were stone-faced. As the nation anthem rang out, Pippens was rustling his hands. When the tip off flew through the air of the John and Joanna Phelps Gymnasium in Baltimore, both teams were treating this game as the championship.  In actuality, the teams match-up favorably. Steel City Yellow Jacket Co-Captain and starting forward Tone Reddic Sr. started the game with a quick jumper and two-point lead. Guard Bernard Nugent answered with his own score...

The Jacksonville Giants celebrate after winning their first-round game. Photo from Facebook. by Thomas Leturgey The Jacksonville Giants made tidy work of the Music City Jazz in the first round of the ABA Final 8 in Baltimore. The defending 5-time (7 overall) champions nearly lead from buzzer to buzzer, 124-96. Aquan Mendenhall scored first for the Music City Jazz, but Maurice Mikens and Bernard Nugent helped get the Giants out to a 14-5 lead. In the first quarter, the Jazz fell behind, but not by too much. The Giants' run-and-gun style opened up the entire court and was just too much for their opponents. At the end of the first quarter, the Giants had a 36-20 lead. The second half is where things went south for Head Coach Angela Culliver's crew. Mendenhall, Mickens and Miguel Paul poured on the offense. Varyan Moody and Darrell White did their best to produce, but the Giants just had too many weapons Saturday afternoon. The Giants outscored the competition 37-16 in the second q...

  The Steel City Yellow Jackets celebrate after their first round victory over Las Vegas. Photo by Thomas Leturgey. by Thomas Leturgey At 2:35 minutes, the first round of the Final 8 playoffs been the Steel City Yellow Jackets and the Las Vegas Royals resembled a Major League baseball game instead of an ABA contest. But the long, afternoon ultimately worked out well for Ace Pippens' squad, as the Yellow Jackets came away with a hard-fought 139-133 win in Baltimore. From the outset Friday afternoon, the Royals were doubling down. They came out strong against the Yellow Jackets, who had a brief 2-0 lead thanks to a Claude Scott, Jr. score, but fell behind quickly as Brandon Green and Sir Washington quickly jumped to a 6-2 lead. Tone Reddic, Sr. hit a three-pointer and Scott hit a couple of jumpers to make it 9-9. Both teams scored frequently in the first quarter, with Gilmore Cummings, Scott, and Jason Arrington, Sr. adding points. Regardless, the Royals weren't going anywhere. T...

by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond It has been a long time coming for some members of the Steel City Yellow Jackets. Co-Captain Antonio Reddic, Sr. feels that there is an--excuse the pun--a "buzz" in the air for the American Basketball Association (ABA) team's impending trip to Baltimore and the Final 8 tournament to determine this year's champion. "This is very exciting," he said recently from his home in Aliquippa. "This is the most excited I've been. I think we have a good chance." The 15-2 Yellow Jackets were undefeated for a good portion of the season, and come into the tournament the #2 seeded team, representing the Northeast region. Team Trouble from the Pacific Northwest, are the #1 ranked team.   Coach Ace Pippen's Yellow Jackets are set to tip off against the 15-7 Las Vegas Royals from the Pacific Coast division at 12:30 p.m. on April 21. The winner of the first game will take on the winner of the 11-3, #5 Music City Jazz (M...

  Sky Walker teaches Arianna Rosemond how to spin a basketball with one finger. Photo by Thomas Leturgey. Arianna Rosemond holds center court. Photo by Thomas Leturgey by Thomas Leturgey Arianna Rosemond placed two basketballs at center court for a Pittsburgh Hispanic Chamber of Commerce fundraiser on Saturday, April 9. Mere moments earlier, she thought she would be running the four 10-minute-quarter time clock for Jesus Torres' Celebrity showcase.  But in a last-minute audible, she was asked to operate games that would pull kids and other fans from the audience and be involved in the festivities. She took the microphone, communicated the rules, executed the games, and took pictures with the winners. During intermission, when Torres took a break from playing in the game to hand out awards, it was Rosemond who made sure the presentations went smoothly. It was all on the fly. Rosemond and fundraiser organizer Jesus Torres (r) with award winners. A confident and exceptional showr...

Coach Ace Pippens (center with trophy) celebrates with the Steel City Yellow Jackets and family. Photos by Thomas Leturgey by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond Nearly from buzzer to buzzer, the Steel City Yellow Jackets had an advantage over the Wyoming Valley Clutch in the ABA's North East Regional Finals in Pittsburgh. The home team won a very hard fought, yet definite win 146-123. The Clutch opened up scoring quick, but Claude Scott, Jr. tied things up right away. Brandon Franklin nailed a triple and the Yellow Jackets were off to the races.  Not being able to hit field goals in the first few minutes, and the Yellow Jackets' superior rebounding allowed for ABA All-Star Tone Reddic, Sr. and crew to open things up. Franklin hit another three-pointer, extending the early lead to 10-2. Scott, Reddic and Franklin continued the pour on offense.  Wyoming Valley missed three consecutive 3-point attempts around six minutes left in the quarter. Had the team hit more of those in t...