After an exciting day of semifinal action, we're set to determine the champions of our 13(!) Divisions. As always happens during the playoffs, we had some surprises, including a couple huge ones. The Side Loaders, a team that didn't win a single game their first two seasons in the League, have reached the championship game of their Division after squeaking past Los Leones, 40-39. The two teams traded the lead back and forth for much of the game. Twice in the final minute of the contest, the Side Loaders took a three-point lead, but Los Leones point guard Gerardo Cordova hit two long threes to tie the game back up. The Loaders went up by one and Cordova had a tough shot from the dead corner at the buzzer, but it rattled in and out. The Loaders will take on Hickory, who edged past Below The Rim, 47-44 in the other semi.
Sixteen of the 26 games on Sunday ended with single-digit margins. We had scores of 73-69, 71-69, 71-68, 53-52, 40-39, 74-71, and 64-62. Several games went down to the last shot. It was a fun atmosphere.
In the Breaking Away (top) Division, it was probably expected to be a title showdown between Basketball Junkies and The Hawgs, two teams that have combined to win 13 of the last 15 titles. Well, not everybody got the message. Da Wolves put on a defensive clinic, holding the Junkies to a season-low 45 points in the eight-point win. In the second semi game, The Vets outscored the Hawgs, 62-58, to set up a surprise pairing in the title game.
Skoden had their hands full in their semifinal match-up with The Fam. Actually, it was with The Fam's Christian Flores, who was absolutely on fire. Thanks to several long-range bombs from Flores, The Fam held the lead through most of the first 30 minutes of the 36-minute game. Skoden finally pulled even behind the inside play of Norman Wolfchief (the coolest name in the League) and pulled away in the last minute for the hard-earned 82-71 victory.
Runnin' Rebels 2.0 picked a bad time to go ice cold. They had to have missed a dozen or so easily-makeable shots (the kind they would normally hit) in a loss to Frosty Hesson.
Please note that because we added a 13th Division, there will be a slight bit of reseeding. Plus, there are a couple teams that I obviously had in the wrong Divisions. I want to see to it that the games are as competitive as possible. Good luck in the championship games.
The next season (Summer 2023) will begin on May 7th, featuring new teams and returning teams that went out in the first round of the playoffs way back on April 2nd (and April 16th). Then, the 14th is Mother's Day, which is sacred. We have never played on Mother's Day and we never will. Everyone will be back by May 21st. We got some good news. There will be no volleyball in the summer, so we will have multiple Sundays in which there will be NO BYES!!! It will be crazy having 45 or so games in one day, but I'm looking forward to it.