Darnell Braswell's team wins TOC while his Vikings fall in Summer League semis

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/

FROM KEITH GROLLER

It was a mixed bag for former Allen and DeSales star Darnell Braswell on Thursday night.
He scored 34 points and actually did a good job in "holding" former Canary teammate Terrence Roderick to 35 as his Pammer Chiropractic team beat Certified Chemical 87-67 in the finals of the 25th annual Tournament of Champions at the Catasauqua Playground.
See my story here on that game: http://www.mcall.com/sports/mc-toc-basketball-finals-20140731,0,2335234.story
However, the high school team Braswell helps to coach, Central Catholic, fell to Reading in the Stellar Summer League semifinals at Cedar Beach. The Vikings got another solid offensive night from Zay Jennings, but fell 40-31 to the Knights.
Parkland, meanwhile, kept rolling along and whipped Nazareth 55-43 as Devante Cross tallied 14.
So, it sets up a Parkland-Reading final to end the summer season at 7 p.m. Friday. They were the top two seeds going into the league tournament. The Trojans will be trying for a summer hat trick after winning the Stellar and SportsFest tournaments. To my knowledge, coach Andy Stephens' has yet to lose a game this summer.
Hopefully, the weather stays good and that game can be played at Cedar Beach rather than indoors. That's where last year's final between Central Catholic and Dieruff was held -- at Muhlenberg's Memorial Hall.
As for Braswell, I asked him if he still thought about playing overseas the way Roderick has for many years, most recently in Israel.
Certainly, I think he's capable of playing in Europe and making a few dollars.
Braswell said a professional career is no longer in his thinking, but he still loves to play the game.
"You've got to keep playing until you can't," he said. "There may be a point in time when I can't play, but right now I'm 25 years old and I still enjoy it.
"I've learned from a lot of great mentors in my life -- coach [Doug] Snyder, coach [Scott] Coval -- and many others. Right now I see my role as trying to pass down my knowledge to the younger kids who are hungry to do what we did and that's get to college and allow basketball to get them somewhere in life."
Braswell can still play and teach the game with the best of them.
CCHS is fortunate to have him on its staff and on Thursday night Pammer Chiropractic was fortunate to him on their side.