PAGE 24 — THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 LOCALSOURCE.COM UNION COUNTY LOCALSOURCE

Photos courtesy of Ally MongoThe Quiet Storm captured the Rahway Recreation Women's Basketball League'schampionship by turning back KU 41-38 in last month's title contest at the RahwayRecreation Center. Kneeling, from left, are Yolanda Alford, Shanee Clarke, NicoleLilenfeld and MVP Bianca Brown. Standing, from left, are Taisha Hylor, Ann Bar-rino, Silvia Rios, Bianca Harris, Kelly Charles and Candance Lloyd.

Quiet Storm tops KU indefensive battle for titleBrown lifts women's hoops team as MVP

Playing good defense usually leads to a great dealof success.

It was a superb defensive effort by QuietStorm that paced the squad to a 41-38 triumphover KU in last month's Rahway RecreationWomen's Basketball League championship gameat the Rahway Recreation Center.

KU led 19-15 at halftime behind an intermission-leading eight points from Brittany Powell.

Quiet Storm came back to outscore KU 26-19 in thesecond half to take the championship.

Neither team scored easily, with every shot being con-tested. It was a back-and-forth affair, with no lead biggerthan live points. KU could not get off a game-tying 3-pointfield goal in the final seconds to force overtime.

Naimali Clemons from KU paced all scores with 16points. She was the only player from either team toreach double digits.

Candance Lloyd and Ann Barrino led Quiet Stormwith eight points each. KUand Quiet Storm were toface each other in the regular season, but the game wascancelled because of extreme heat.

KU, which finished 5-3, got to the championshipgame by beating top-seeded Showtime 56-48 in thesemifinals. Showtime entered with a 6-0 record. KUlost to Showtime 52-31 in the regular season.

Quiet Storm's road to the championship game wasa littie easier. In its semifinal, Quiet Storm downedHeavy Hitters 40-29.

Even though Bianca Brown was not able to play inthe championship game due to injury, she took homethe tournament MVP award.

Brown coached her team to victory the night of thechampionship game.

She was an important part of Quiet Storm's 6-1regular season record.

Brown averaged a little under eight pointsper game, but it wasn' t her scoring that madeher the MVP.

Brown played calm and distributed the ball whereneeded.

She was asked to guard the other team's bestplayer and took pride in her defense. She was theglue that kept her team together.

The Roster for KU: Simone Smith-Colonia High,Briana Winston-Hamton High, Meghan Williams-Monroe Twp High, Brittanie Payne-BCIT Westamp-ton, Noel Mathis-Westover High, Brittany Powell-MRHigh School, Naimah Clemons-Nwk-Teth, AnnarosePierre-Nwk-Tech, Emily Cristaldi-Summit High. Allplay for Kean University..

The Roster for Quiet Storm: Taisha Hylor-Feli-cian College, Shenee Clarke-Caldwell College, NicoleLilenfeld-Union County College, Silvia Rios-RobertsState University, Bianca Brown-Wake Forest-04, AnnBarrino-Caldwell College-02, Yolanda Alford-NYU-02, Candace Llyod-Hartford-01,Bianca Har r i s -Teaneck High, Kelly Cla rke-Har t fo rd .

Union's Diamond named college hoops coachBill Diamond of Union has been named assistant men's basketball

coach at Berkeley College in Newark.The former assistant coach/life skills coordinator at St. Benedict's

Prep and former assistant coach at Union County College and UnionHigh School brings over 25 years of coaching experience to the Knights'basketball program.

Diamond began his coaching career as a student-assistant coachin 1980 at American University in Washington, D.C.. under formerUniversity of Maryland head coach Gary Williams.

While attending attending Antioch Law School, he was a NBA CollegeScout for Marty Blake & Associates where he was responsible for scoutingand evaluating college players in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

While an assistant coach under Ted Zawacki at Union, he was a part ofthe staff that caputured Union's first Group 4 state championship in 1997.

Diamond has also served as an assistant coach to Brian Crawfordfrom the nationally recognized Newark Rams AAU program from2000-2007.

Upon graduating from law school, Diamond was hired as ExecutiveVice President of Basketball Operations for Professional ManagementAssociates, Inc., a Washington, D.C. based sports management firm rep-resenting professional basketball players in the NBA and Europe.

He represented over fifty NBA draft picks such as Charles Oakley,Kenny Anderson, Nate McMillan, Rick Carlisle, Nick Anderson, DennisRodman, Rod Strickland, Mark Jackson and Chris Mullin.

In 1991, Diamond formed his own sports and entertainmentmanagement firm, the Diamond-Sumner Group, LLC with Rosellenative Bob Sumner, creator and Talent Coordinator for HBO's Rus-sell Simmons Def Comedy Jam.

In his spare time for the past two decades, Diamond has mentored highschool student-athletes from the Union and Essex county areas. He assiststhem with their college application and financial aid process and jobplacement.

He has also written columns and articles for the former WatchungConference high school website addressing multiple issues regarding highschool, college and professional basketball. His most recognized columnwas titled "Where Have All the High School STUDENT-Athletes Gone?"

"I'm elated to have Billy as part of the Berkeley staff as we beginour second year as a member of the USCAA conference.'" said Antho-ny Calabrese, Berkeley head coach.

"His love and passion of working and developing high school andcollege basketball players, on and off the court for the past twodecades, is unparalleled.

"1 will count on his experience and diverse basketball knowledge toassist me with every aspect of our program."

At left is action fromthe championshipgame between QuietStorm and KU. At rightis MVP Bianca Brownof Quiet Storm.

LindenGirls' soccerSept. 9 New Providence, 4 p.m.Sept. 12 at Elizabeth, 6:30 p.m.Sept. 13 at Plainfield, 4 p.m.Sept. 20 Rahway, 4 p.m.Sept. 22 Scotch Plains, 4 p.m.Sept. 23 Plainfield, 4 p.m.Sept. 30 at Kent Place, 4 p.m.Oct. 3 Queen of Peace, 7 p.m.Oct. 4 Union Catholic. 4 p.m.Oct. 6 Oak Knoll, 4 p.m.Oct. 11 at New Providence, 4 p.m.Oct. 14 at Mother Seton, 4 p.m.Oct. 18 Elizabeth, 6:45 p.m.Oct. 21 at Rahway, 4 p.m.Oct. 24 Roselle Catholic, 7 p.m.Oct. 28 at Union Catholic, 4 p.m.Nov. 1 Summit, 4 p.m.Nov. 3 at Oak Knoll, 4 p.m.NOTES: Linden went 5-12-2 lastyear, falling to Piscataway in states.

RahwayGirls' soccerSept. 13 Union Catholic, 4 p.m.Sept. 15 Oak Knoll, 4 p.m.Sept. 20 at Linden, 4 p.m.Sept. 22 at Gov. Livingston, 4 p.m.Sept. 24 at Union Catholic. 11:30Sept. 27 at New Providence, 4 p.m.Sept. 30 Benedictine. 4 p.m.Oct. 4 Plainfield, 4 p.m.Oct. 6 Elizabeth. 4 p.m.Oct. 13 at Woodbridge, 4 p.m.Oct. 17 at Roselle Catholic, 4 p.m.Oct. 18 at Oak K$oll, 4 p.m.Oct. 21 Linden. 4 p.m.Oct. 26 New Providence. 4 p.m.Oct. 28 at Plainfield, 4 p.m.Nov. 1 at Westfield, 4 p.m.Nov. 3 at Elizabeth, 4 p.m.NOTES: Rahway went 11-8 lastyear, including a 1-1 record in theNorth 2, Group 3 playoffs.

• • JR'sSPORTS^ ^ - * - _ ^ ~ " ^ ~ ^ ^ ^ ^ scores for Union County.

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