SE Washington DC - It's playoff time in the gates!  The winners advance and the losers go fishin'.  3rd Eye, last year's Goodman League regular season and tournament champions lost Sunday so there will be no repeat champion this year. 

Lawrence "Poetry in Motion" Moten, the all time Big East scoring leader and former Carroll High/Syracuse standout nailed a 3 point shot with less than 12 seconds left on the clock to lead Drama Detailing to an upset victory in the first round of the Goodman League playoffs Monday night.

On paper the Rare Essence team looked formidable with the likes of former Maryland standout Lonnie Baxter, Nat Burton (GTown), Ricky Shields (Rutgers), and Isaiah Swann (Florida State) and Kush.   Taking into the account each individual players experience level, Essence looked solid and would have seemed to be a favorite to contend for the title but unfortunately couldn't maintain their intensity and focus the whole game.

Drama Detailing, a scrappy, hard nosed and focused bunch were lead by their star guards "The Silent Assassin", "Poetry in Motion" Moten, and super forward "Black Ty".   Despite getting down early, they upped their intensity level and the Essence team failed to match.

In the first half, Lonnie Baxter quickly established his dominance on the low block.  Baxter racked up 16 points in the first 12 minutes of play and powered Rare Essence to a 29-15 lead at the 7:08 mark of the first half.  Drama Detailing began to dig down and claw their way into the game on team defense and the sharpshooting of the "Silent Assassin." Drama Detailing surged back to take the lead into halftime at 44-41.

In the beginning of the second half the wheels began to fall off on the defensive end for Essence as Black Ty for Drama Detailing reeled off six straight points to help power his team to a 55-45 lead.   Rare Essence, loaded with a roster of players with big game Division I college experience, began to stage a comback led by the efforts of Ricky Shields, Lonnie Baxter and the mid range shooting of Kush. 

Rare Essence managed to battle back and tie the game on Lonnie Baxter's leaner at the 2:19 mark of the second half.   Baxter's free throws gave his team the lead 86-83 until Drama Detailing's Tony Durant nailed a 3 pointer to tie the game at 86-86.

With 44 seconds left in regulation, Baxter converted two free throws to give Essence the lead at 88-86.  Drama Detailing's Black Ty made one free throw to make the score 87-88 with 12 seconds left in the game.  Drama Detailing took the ball out and hit Moten on a curl from the right baseline, just outside the arc, and he nailed a dagger that gave his team a 90-87 lead.  The final score was 91-87.  Drama Detailing advances into the second round.

In the second first round game of the night The Family with guard Matt Burks advanced past Bump N Run in a tight game 64-62.

This was Matt Burks first game in the gates this summer. Burks, who is currently attending Oakland University in Michigan said "It's good to be back.  I just got here from Michigan last night and I was a little winded."

Go upcoming Goodman League playoff schedules go to www.thegoodmanleague.com

For playoff writeups go to www.dcmetrosports.com

For Goodman League archive articles go to www.dcmetrosports.com/dcmsblog