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Published: Monday, February 13, 2012, 2:20 AM Updated: Monday, February 13, 2012, 2:25 AM

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Lawrence Borha fired in 37 points to lead the Staten Island Vipers to a 98-82 American Basketball Association Northeast Division win over the No. 16 Connecticut Top Ballerz on Saturday night.
Borha, who played for the University of Utah, added 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.
Curtis HS product Zaire Taylor contributed 17 points, 10 boards, and 7 assists.
Ron Stokes added 10 points and Adam Jensen eight for the (4-6) Vipers, who host Connecticut on Sunday (4 p.m.) at the Jewish Community Center, Sea View.
http://www.silive.com/recsports/index.ssf/2012/02/staten_island_adult_sports_rou_393.html

Vipers forward Daryl May fires up a shot during a 133-122 loss to the Jersey Express.
The Staten Island Vipers of the American Basketball Association have a 4-4 record and a competitive group of players. They also have a marketing problem. That has led to a financial shortfall which, if not resolved in the near future, could turn the Vipers' 2011-2012 inaugural season into its last. "It's tough," said Kyle Brereton, who co-owns the Vipers with former St. Peter's Girls" HS star Ayanna Phillip. "But the group we've put together is looking at the bigger picture." That picture is not exactly being projected on an IMAX screen, but a much more modest stage with small goals. Difficulty in making expenses -- the betrothed couple has its life savings tied up in this venture -- has put the Vipers' future in peril, though Brereton said he and Phillip are committed to finishing the 11 remaining games on the schedule.
"We're going to get through this," Brereton said. But Brereton admitted it will be a struggle. The ledger stands about $15,000 below sea level. Sponsorship has been slow in coming. Players and coaches haven't been paid, and at least one of its two featured stars, Lawrence Borha, could be leaving for a contract in Europe.
The other, Zaire Taylor, missed last week's game for personal reasons, but could return for this game.
The team hasn't practiced as a unit for two weeks, owing much to the difficulty in securing a home court. Initial plans to play the bulk of their home games at the College of Staten Island gym have been scrapped for now in favor of the JCC, which offered less expensive rates for hosting the games. Brereton still has hopes of holding the last few games at CSI.
"The main financial thing is paying for the venues," Brereton said. "We're going to stay here (at JCC) for a while and build up some revenue. But we're planning on playing our last five or six games at CSI, just to go out with a bang and let everybody know we're still here and that everything's going to be all right." Attendance has dropped off significantly, from 320 at the Dec. 5 opener against Connecticut, to 250 at the Fast-Break Basketball Center in Tottenville, to 85 last week at the JCC.
"We have a fan base, but it's tough with the venue because a lot of people don't know where we're playing."That's where the marketing aspect comes in. ABA teams, according to the league's CEO Joe Newman, either sink or swim. The league will not step in to take over a financially floundering squad as the NBA did with the New Orleans Hornets. It is therefore incumbent upon each team to take up the ABA's marketing plan and run with its four-fold model -- ticket sales, sponsorship, merchandising, and media. With limited financial resources and even more limited front-office manpower, the Vipers haven't performed the kind of outreach Newman would have hoped for. "It's one thing to put a basketball team on the court," Newman said. "It's another to follow the business model. I tell them, if you open up a McDonald's and don't have French fries and Coke, it doesn't matter how many hamburgers you have. You're not going to be successful. "You have a responsibility to do everything, not just a few things."
Newman said he hasn't heard of any impending disasters from Phillip and Brereton, but did indicate he expected a better marketing effort after they formed the franchise in near-record time.
He said marketing the team properly would solve all the Vipers' financial woes.
"For a team not to be successful on Staten Island following the ABA plan is sort of silly because it's a closed, tight market," Newman said. "Professional basketball at an affordable price (tickets go from $12, $8 and $5) is a terrific product in a place like Staten Island, where everybody is in after 6 o'clock.
"I'd hate to see a team not being successful in a great area like Staten Island. I'm putting extreme pressure on them to follow the plan."
Brereton, meanwhile, plans to keep plugging along. Tim Jennings, a star at Gardner-Webb and a former teammate of Brereton's, is planning to join the team soon. And they still have a solid Staten Island core that includes former Jaques Award winner John Baiano of St. Peter's and Curtis standout Angel Branch. "I'm actually close friends with Marsha Blount, the president of the Jersey Express," Brereton said. "They've been around seven years now. She said the first year was tough, but after that first season everything started rolling along fine, and she's got no complaints.
"Hopefully everything comes together. We just want to finish the season strong and get prepared for next year. Get everything going, get the expenses going so we don't have this for next season."
http://www.silive.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/01/staten_island_vipers_look_to_r.html
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PURCHASE, N.Y. – Former Manhattanville men's basketball standout Angelo Laroche '10 will be taking his game to the next level this season, as the Brooklyn native has signed on with the Staten Island Vipers of the American Basketball Association, it was announced recently.
Laroche is the second Valiant men's basketball player to sign with a professional team in recent program history, following the footsteps of Donte Chisolm '08, who also signed with the ABA's Jersey Express before the 2008-09 season.
A 2010 graduate of Manhattanville, Laroche was named to the All-Freedom Conference second team as a senior, when he finished second on the team with a career-best 13.6 points per game. As a four-year letterwinner on the basketball court, Laroche averaged 8.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in 97 career games, while also shooting 47.3 percent from the field.
After graduating from Manhattanville in 2010, Laroche remained active in the game, first playing against local companies as part of the MasterCard basketball team and soon moving on to more competitive local events with RPSA Basketball and the West 4th Street Basketball League. It was then that the competitive fires pushed him to get back into the game full time.
“After having a couple games that I played really well in, I considered actually doing something basketball-related, realizing I still got some juice left after my four years playing for Pat Scanlon,” Laroche said. “After playing all over the city during the summer, I told myself I would try to go pro.”
After a great game in the West 4th League during the summer, Laroche was handed a flyer to try out for Staten Island's first professional basketball team, the Vipers. After consulting Chisolm about the quality of play and the probability of making the team, Laroche battled more than 100 players from all over the area for a spot on the team. Even with a severely sprained ankle, the former Valiant still didn't give up.
“The road was not easy, as tryouts lasted for about one month and then training camp,” Laroche said. “Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle during training camp and I knew it was bad. But after rehabbing constantly throughout the day I had to return a couple days later to complete training camp, and I played at 50 or 60 percent with one goal in mind: to be a pro. Luckily, the heart and hard work paid off – I can proudly say I am now a member of the Staten Island Vipers.”
Laroche will be playing under head coach Wesley Matthews, who played nine years in the NBA and won a pair of NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1987 and 1988. With the Vipers, he will play alongside players of varied backgrounds both geographically and athletically.
“My teammates come from many different competitive areas of basketball,” said Laroche. “A couple notable standouts are Utah's Lawrence Borha and Missouri's Zaire Taylor, both of whom come from Division I programs and have played overseas for Germany and Holland. Some other teammates have played for other ABA teams and all have diverse collegiate experience playing for Division I, II, and III.”
After overcoming injuries during the preseason just to make the team, Laroche looks to make his mark on the Staten Island squad. The Vipers are scheduled to begin the 2011-12 season this weekend, beginning on Saturday when the team travels to New Jersey to take on the Jersey Express at 7 p.m.
For more information on Laroche and the Vipers, go to http://www.sivipers.com.
http://www.mascac.org/news/2011/11/17/MBB_1117113817.aspx
Tompkinsville residents Ayanna Phillip and Kyle Brereton have jumped headlong into the biggest gambit of their lives in hopes of making the Staten Island Vipers of the American Basketball Association (ABA) the biggest thing to happen here since the Staten Island Yankees.
Using their own combined life savings, the two have organized, funded, and created the ABA's newest franchise among its 90 teams nationwide. The Vipers, featuring former Island high school stars Zaire Taylor and Lawrence Borha, are scheduled to open their 11-game home schedule at the Gerard Carter Community Center in Stapleton Monday at 7:30 p.m. against the Connecticut Top Ballerz.
For those who believe starting a franchise is as simple as writing a check, think again. The couple, who have two children, have basically put their financial lives on hold to make a go of the Island's first men's pro basketball team in 24 years. The last squad, the Stallions of the defunct United States Basketball League, lasted only two seasons, playing in the summers of 1986 and '87.
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VIPERS AT A GLANCE
SI Vipers vs. Connecticut
WHEN/WHERE
Monday, 7:30 p.m.
Gerard Carter Comm. Cente, 230 Broad St., Stapleton
WHAT
Admission for S.I.'s ABA home opener is free
FAMILIAR FACES
On the current active roster for the Vipers are former Jaques winners Lawrence Borha and John Baiano as well as former HS standouts Zaire Taylor, Angel Branch and Adam Jense
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There are also plans for a women's franchise, the Lady Vipers, to start play in January.
"It's very scary," said Phillip, who led St. Peter's to four straight Island championships, played collegiately at Seton Hall and is currently listed as a member of the Trinidad & Tobago national team. "We're still in a big hole. But once we start building revenue, we'll be OK. We're just keeping our fingers crossed."
To spur interest, admission to tomorrow night's game will be free. All other games will be priced at $12, $8, and $5 (under 12), with children under 5 admitted free.
The team is scheduled to use the College of Staten Island for future home games.
The couple has yet to draw any meaningful sponsorships, and significant financial backing from the ABA will only come when Phillip and Brereton prove they have a viable franchise. The league is providing uniforms, but they won't be shipped until Dec. 9. So the 0-2 Vipers (they lost road games to the Jersey Express and Connecticut) will have played their first three games in practice garb.
That's a small price to pay for getting started, considering two of the Vipers' Northeast Conference foes fell out of the league before they even started. The conference is down to five teams now.
"It's very difficult without funding and trying to pay for everything out of pocket," the 29-year-old Phillip said. "We're still waiting for sponsors, so everything has been out of Kyle's and my pocket. And the players, it's a professional team so they expect to get paid. But they're all being patient and we're hoping that will happen soon."
Phillip said the players will earn between $150 and $400 per week. And then they have to pay the coach, nine-year NBA veteran Wesley Matthews.
What the Vipers lack in funds, they make up for with local talent. Eight of their 13 players come from Staten Island, led by Taylor, an Advance All Star for Curtis who played in the NCAA Elite Eight with Missouri. He last played 31 games for the Dutch League's Magixx, averaging 13 points, three assists and two steals in 30 minutes per game.
Borha, a Jaques Award winner at MSIT who went to Utah, averaged 31 points for the Sea Gulls in 2002-2003.
Other names listed on the current roster that will be familiar to Island hoop watchers include Jaques-winning St. Peter's guard John Baiano, former Monsignor Farrell big man Adam Jensen, ex-Curtis frontcourt player Angel Branch and Stanley Bolden, an Advance All Star for New Dorp.
Even Brereton, a former Curtis and ABA star with the Harlem Strong Dogs from 2004-06, is thinking about lacing up the sneakers again after the Vipers' slow start.
"The past two games, he's been a little antsy about whether he should play," Phillip said. "He started to work out. He played for Trinidad two years ago, but he had a knee injury and really hasn't played after that."
The CEO of the ABA, Joe Newman, thinks the twosome can make a go of it.
"I've always thought Staten Island would be a great place for an ABA team and have waited for just the right ownership group," Newman said. "In Ayanna and Kyle, we have a wealth of basketball and business experience. In just a few weeks, they've made enormous progress."
That hasn't helped with the pocketbook, however. Phillip works full-time for the External Relations department of Chartis, the insurance arm of AIG, and also runs her family. Putting together a roster on top of all that as the Vipers co-GM with her longtime fiance Brereton wasn't easy.
"I'm getting a lot of gray hairs," she said. "I've got 12 or 13 more children now."
Brereton said the Vipers should be competitive quickly. And that should draw fans to the Carter Center.
"There's so much talent in the New York Metro area," he said. "We know we can make this a successful business and an important part of our community, too."

On behalf of The Staten Island Vipers, I feel proud to inform you that in spite of problems like lack of adequate resources and available facilities, our players have managed to still compete on a high level of competition due to their sheer will, practice and dedication and have started their inaugural season with a 3 and 3 record.
With hopes of making the playoffs, your Vipers turn to you for support. We need financial assistance from the community. Any monetary help that you can provide is welcome. The donation can be in the form of season tickets, attending our home games or money. If you decide to help us in our endeavor to continue competing in the ABA and putting Staten Island on the map for Professional Basketball, please don't hesitate to contact us at 347-500-4626
or visit http://donatetoyourvipers-eorg.eventbrite.com/.
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Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) www.abalive.com today announced that the Staten Island Vipers will begin play this season as part of the ABA's Northeast Division. "We are absolutely delighted to have a team on Staten Island," stated Joe Newman, ABA CEO. "I have always thought it would be a great place for an ABA team and have waited for just the right ownership group. In Ayanna Phillip, Kyle Brereton and the group they've put together, we have a wealth of basketball and business experience, everything needed for a successful organization. In just a few weeks, they've made enormous progress.
Basketball Team and the Fastbreak Cup in Cali Columbia He starred at both Union County College and Globe Institute of Technology and served as Athletic Director & Coach at the Young Women's Leadership School in Brooklyn, coach at the Sports & arts in Schools Foundation and Georgian Court University. "Ayanna and I know Staten Island, basketball, business and the ABA," stated Brereton. "We know we can put together a very competitive team, there's so much talent in the NY metro area. And we know that we can make this a successful business and an important part of our community too. We are very excited about this opportunity."