Fish House curse Magic in playoff opener

BY MIKE PEDEN

Playoff action began Monday night for the Howard Pulley Pro City Summer League.

The playoffs are a double-elimination format, which means two teams will be gone by the end of this week while the rest will go on to week two.

Top-seeded El-Amin Fish House ensured their ticket to the second week by beating the eighth-seeded Pat Madison Magic 122-93 at the St. Paul Salvation Army gym.

MSU-Moorhead's Dennis Williamson was the game's high scorer, earning 25 points for the Magic. But the rest of the Magic could not support him.

Six players scored double-digits for the Fish House, led by Minnesota's Paul Carter with 22 points. Former Gopher Dan Coleman and overseas player Ben Price both put up 21.

"We don't care who really scores all the points," Carter said. "We have different matchups. Everybody can score at will."

The game was close until midway in the second quarter. The winless Magic got up by as much as six in the second before the Fish House scored a 9-0 run to take the lead for good.

Khalid El-Amin himself entered the game with 6:06 left in the third, but his team had the game wrapped up by then.

"He just came in, told us to relax and just play like you've been playing," Carter said.

With that advice, the Fish House did what they wanted to for until the end. The crowd remained to see what tricks the Fish House could do, and they got their answer with 30.4 seconds left in the third.

El-Amin picked up a steal and had an open path to the basket. His alley-oop appeared too high for Carter to bring down, but it was perfect for the intended target, Minnesota's Devron Bostick. Bostick slammed the basket through the net and wowed the spectators.

Carter was more worried about his summer courses at the U of M than Wednesday night's matchup with Sabes TRP, who won the following game.

"I'll probably work on some homework and get a paper done," he said, adding that his studies will not prevent him from playing Wednesday.

The Fish House and TRP will play at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday followed by the Magic versus the Errol Carlstrom Playaz at 8:45 at the Salvation Army gym. The loser in the Magic-Playaz game will be eliminated from the playoffs.