Bona Vista All-Stars continue winning ways at annual Disability Awareness Basketball Game

Tyler Juranovich, Kokomo Tribune, Ind.
·2 min read

Mar. 20—March Madness was alive and well Wednesday night in Memorial Gymnasium.

Bona Vista Programs held its annual Disability Awareness Basketball game in the historic gym. The fundraiser raises money for the nonprofit and pits the Kokomo Celebrities against the Bona Vista All-Stars in an exhibition-style game. March is Developmental Disability Awareness Month.

As with the last several years, The All-Stars, coached by Danta Rogers, came out of the gate strong, established an early lead and never let it go, handily beating the Celebrities by more than double digits.

This year's Celebrities included longtime staples Mayor Tyler Moore, Paul and Shelly Wyman, Ryan Smalley, Jack Hingst, Mark Jansen Service, Drew Larison, EZ Zimmerman, Jonathan Rogers, Brian Pier, Brian Cossell, Matt Bolinger and Dane Fife, former Indiana University men's basketball player.

Smalley and Fife led the Celebrities in scoring with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Fife was also awarded MVP of the game, given to the Celebrity who raises the most money. Fife raised $5,000.

The All-Stars were bolstered by the play of veterans Antonio Reyes, Andrew McKinney, Chuck McKinney and Steve Martin.

Nate Tate lead the All-Stars in points, scoring 15 points. Tate dominated in the paint.

"It was a fun game," Tate said. "I did my best to help my team."

The All-Stars have a lot of playing time together and it showed Wednesday night.

During one point in the second quarter, the Celebrities crawled back to within four. Any comeback opportunity, though, was squashed by a late second quarter run by the All-Stars, who took a 42-32 lead into halftime.

By the end of the third, the All-Stars had extended their lead to 12. In the fourth, the team's lead never dropped any lower than that.

Andrew McKinney said the team didn't go into the game with any specific strategy and simply played to the team's strength.

"We like to utilize our big men a lot," he said.

All money raised Wednesday goes to Bona Vista. The organization provides services to more than 2,000 children and adults with disabilities in north central Indiana. Programming includes education, life skills, pediatric and early childhood therapies, adult day services, residential homes, supported living and employment assistance programs

Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.