LANSING | It's official. Lansing Christian is a dynasty.
At least that's the case when it comes to the Lansing Roundball Classic.
In the four years since the fifth-grade boys basketball tournament began, Lansing Christian has won it three time. The third came Feb. 21 with a 26-20 championship game victory over Reavis.
Like with the previous Lansing Christian champs, this team was comprised mainly of organized basketball rookies.
"We had four practices to get ready for this," said Lansing Christian coach Dave Gomez. "We tried to learn a different play every practice, and we ended up with a three-play set."
Lansing Christian went undefeated during the six-team week-long tournament that had all the games, including the championship, played at Memorial Junior High School.
Led by the open-court play and finishing finesse of Gomez's son, guard David Gomez — who has AAU basketball experience — and post player Tim Schaaf, Lansing Christian jumped out to an 8-0 lead and eventually led 22-9 midway through the third quarter.
But Reavis forward Kaleb Jones began to heat up from the outside, hitting his second 3-pointer of the game as well as using the glass for a pair of other field goals to help keep his team in the game.
Reavis also tightened the screws defensively while forcing a series of turnovers. But it wasn't enough to catch Lansing Christian.
Gomez and Jones were named co-MVP's of the championship game.
The Roundball Classic was started by Sally Reynolds and Rick Seymour.
"It was something we decided to do to bring the community together while helping out some local charities," Seymour said.
Though plans for a fifth-grade girls Classic are not in the works — "They may have to clone another one of me for that," Seymour said — the tournament did include a Hot Shot competition for girl basketball players from the participating schools.
In the final round, Oak Glen's Emma Biegel managed to swish a pair of 3-point baskets — worth five points in Hot Shot — while shooting granny-style to defeat Taylor Benes of Lansing Christian, 38-28.
Local charities benefiting from ticket sales, donations and contributions from the Classic's sponsors are the Lansing Association for Retarded Citizens, Meals on Wheels and the Lansing Food Pantry.
Oak Glen was the winner of the Food Drive Contest for the school with the most donations to the Lansing Food Pantry.
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