Tri-City Summer League

The biggest Wallace -- who's also the one with the biggest name -- wasn't the best Wallace at George Wythe High School last night.

That distinction belonged to 6-2 guard Tarik Wallace, not his summer-league teammate Ben Wallace, whom NBA fans know as the Cleveland Cavaliers' 6-9, 240-pound power forward.

In the South Richmond gym where he starred for legendary coach Bob Booker as a schoolboy at Wythe, Tarik Wallace scored a game-high 34 points to lead Wallace Express to yet another title in the local pro-am summer league.

"It's extra special when you come home," said Wallace, who helped Arkansas reach the NCAA tournament in 1998.

A year ago, Wallace Express won by 24 points in the championship game. Against the same opponent, DTLR/Cosmopolitan Lounge, Wallace Express romped 129-108 last night.

As the second half wore on, the league's longtime P.A. announcer, the loquacious McDaniel Anderson, kept telling the fans, "It's not over, it's not over."

They knew better. The standing-room-only crowd that packed the gym for the first half had thinned considerably by the end of the third quarter, when the scoreboard showed Wallace Express leading 93-72.

"We ran out of gas," said DTLR/Cosmo's Kendrick Warren, the former Thomas Jefferson High and Virginia Commonwealth star.

That happens to teams against Wallace Express. The league has gone by several names over the years, and it's been played in several venues. Now called the Tri-City Summer League, it moved from John Marshall High to Wythe this year. One thing, however, hasn't changed: the dominance of Ben Wallace's team.

"I get tired of losing to them every year," said Warren, who scored 19 points.

It was a good night for former Wythe standouts. For DTLR/Cosmo, Chris Greene came off the bench to score 33 points, and former Group AAA player of the year Tyree Evans added 32.

For Wallace Express, Robert Johnson, an All-Metro point guard at Wythe before starring for Virginia Union, scored 12 points and, as usual, directed his team's offense flawlessly.

"Their guards, they stretch the court," Warren said.

Express' big men -- most notably Ben Wallace and his nephew Wayne Wallace -- are formidable too. Together, all these pieces form a cohesive unit that frustrates the rest of the summer league.

"We're older now," Johnson said. "We don't get rattled. We've been playing with each other going on eight years, and everybody knows his role."

Ben Wallace had a quiet night, scoring three points and airballing two 3-point attempts and one free throw. But the former VUU great's defense was superb -- of course -- and his team didn't lack firepower.

Two other ex-Union stars, Darius Hargrove and Wayne Wallace, scored 27 and 18 points, respectively for the victors.

For Wayne Wallace, who's getting married tomorrow, the championship was an early wedding present. This isn't the last summer-league title he and his teammates are likely to celebrate.

"I don't think we're ever going to break up," Wayne Wallace said with a smile.
Contact Jeff White at (804) 649-6838 or jwhite@timesdispatch.com