Steel City Yellow Jackets Journal

  by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond The Steel City Yellow Jackets had little time to think about Saturday's loss to the Ohio Bruins. Sunday night, the club traveled north to Beaver County and cruised to victory, 156-112. Ace Pippen's club came out strong in the first quarter, with Co-Captain Gilmore Cummings starting off the scoring. Etholion Vennie had a three-pointer and Kenneth Holmes added a series of three-pointers in the opening quarter, but to be topped by Tim Johnson's four 3-pointers. The visitors lead at the end of first twelve minutes, 40-26. Beaver County's Indians came alive in the second-quarter, and out-scored the Yellow Jackets 28-25. Claude Scott, Jr. lead the scoring for the Yellow Jackets in that quarter. The Steel City squad exploded in the second-half and extended the lead by scoring 47 points to Beaver County's 32. Brandon Franklin hit an incredible 6 buckets from beyond the arc. Co-Captain Tone Reddic, Sr. also pumped in several three-p...

  by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond The Steel City Yellow Jackets traveled to Ohio Saturday Night for a much-anticipated game against the Ohio Bruins. The #3 team in the ABA (the week of February 14) fell to the tough Bruins 136-125. It was a great return for Kenneth Holmes, who lead all scorers, with 40 points for Ace Pippen's squad. Brandon Franklin added 24, and Co-Captain Tone Reddic, Sr. added another 22 for the visitors. Co-captain Gilmore Cummings and the always-solid Tim Jackson pumped in another 13 each. James Jackson had 8 points and Claude Scott, Jr. added. five.  The game was tight throughout the night, but the Bruins poured on 46 points in the fourth quarter alone to secure the lead. Bruins Coach Rob Davis' club was ready for the sting. Jay Farrow had 35 for the Bruins, and Gary Hoover added 24. Cameron Mitchell had 29 and Marcus Reineke had 17. With the loss, the Steel City Yellow Jackets fall to 14-2 on the season. The Chula Vista Suns remain the ABA's...

  by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond The Steel City Yellow Jackets got right back on the winning track after last week's loss in Baltimore. Friday Night at Woodland Hills High School, Ace Pippen's team came out strong against the Buchannon Bears and left with a 164-114 victory. Earlier in the season when the Yellow Jackets were running up scores, they would put 40 or more up in a quarter. They were nearly to that standard in Churchill, with 39,34, 56 and 35 in the four quarters of play.  The Bears took a quick 2-0 lead in the first seconds of the game before Co-Captain Gilmore Cummings hit a three-point-shot to make it 3-2. The Bears would never reclaim the lead. Over the next few minutes, Co-Captain Tone Reddic, Sr., Tim Jackson and birthday boy Jason Arrington all got into the scorebook. Jackson would score a trio of three-point shots in the first 12 minutes. At the end of the first quarter, the Yellow Jackets were leading by a healthy 39-16 score. When the second quar...

  by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond The Steel City Yellow Jackets traveled away from A Giving Place Community Center for the first time in 2022, and lost their first game of the year to the Baltimore Hawks, 141-120. The Yellow Jackets leave Maryland with a 13-1 record. James Jackson returned to the Yellow Jackets lineup after missing three games due to injury. He had rolled his ankle when he got tangled up with Justin Hamilton during practice several weeks ago. Tim Jackson also started for Ace Pippen's visiting club. Center Justin Hamilton didn't make the trip and his presence under the basket was missed.  The Hawks lead early. The Yellow Jackets' Brandon Franklin scored the team's first nine points from the start.  Baltimore lead 36-26 after the first quarter, led by Aquille Carr's offense. He lead the Hawks with 34 at the end of the game.  The Yellow Jackets started to tighten the game in the second quarter but the Hawks still outscored the visitors, 31-26....

  by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond Less than 24-hours after defeating a Burning River Buckets team that played with only five members of the team, the Steel City Yellow Jackets faced one of their toughest opponents in the Binghamton Bulldogs. The home team was able to come from behind in the final moments of the fourth quarter and came away with an impressive 110-99 victory. The Yellow Jackets came out fast against the Bulldogs, with Brandon Franklin, Claude Scott Jr. and Tone Reddic, Sr. setting a quick, 8-2 pace. The Yellow Jackets extended their early lead to 13-7 before the Bulldogs started to gain their footing. The Yellow Jackets came back and had a 20-9 lead with 3:54 to go in the first quarter. The Bulldogs had their own run, and at the end of the first quarter, Ace Pippen's club was up 23-21. In the opening seconds of the second quarter, the Bulldogs tied the game at 23. Tim Jackson added two unanswered buckets and the Yellow Jackets were ahead 28-23. The Bulldogs ...

by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond The Steel City Yellow Jackets improved to 12-0 Saturday Night, after a hard-fought battle against a game Burning River Buckets team, 118-94. The ABA's #18 Buckets (8-3) came into the contest with only five player on the bench, and Head Coach Patrick Koenigs dressed in case he was needed on the hardcourt. They had come off of a win last week, by defeating the Indy Naptown Pros 120-106. The #2 Yellow Jackets had a nail-biting, last-second, come-from-behind win against the Ohio Bruins last weekend, 126-121. [Chula Vista Suns 12-0 were the #1 team in the land last week. They were to play the Tijuana Black Sheep in Mexico Saturday Night. The game had not been played at press-time.] Co-Captain Gilmore Cummings scored the first 8 points of the contest, and the Yellow Jackets were in full control of the game from the outset. On the strength of a flurry of missed shots, the Buckets did not score their first points of the game until 3:49 to go in the ...

The Steel City Yellow Jackets celebrate with family and friends following their hard-fought 126-121 win against the Ohio Bruins. Photo Yellow Jackets Facebook. by Thomas Leturgey In the first few seconds of the Steel City Yellow Jacket's game with the Ohio Bruins on January 15, the home team was behind by 11-2. In the 2021-2022 season, that had not yet happened to Coach Ace Pippen's team at "A Giving Heart" Community Center in Pittsburgh's Allentown neighborhood. Normally, the #3 Yellow Jackets score early and often, leaving their opponent's scrambling. Now, it was the 10-0 Pittsburgh's squad turn to readjust and climb the scoring hill. "Do me a favor and calm yourself down. It's adversity, we got this. All we have to do is finish," were the words captured by Pippens to his team. According to Arianna Rosemond, the team's perpetually positive and professional scorekeeper, the Yellow Jackets have been clawing for eight years to reach an ABA...