HOBOKEN, April 27- The Winter Season finally reached its apex in the last few days. The best of the best had proven their spots as giants among men and the result was a couple amazing championship games that will long be remembered.
The Boozer Division champ game was played first and it pitted one of the most dangerous squads the ABL has to offer in D2 against a group of newcomers that took the league by storm in Chat Rooms are Still Cool.
Chat Rooms was faced with a very daunting task in the first round of the playoffs as they were tasked with going against a formidable Tigers team.
The Tigers had something of a down season this Winter, but anyone who knows the Tigers know that their talent is evident and their team chemistry is second to none.
Despite this the gritty Chat Rooms crew dispatched the Tigers in the first round 61-52 to earn the right to play for the title.
D2 had to make it past a surging Goodfellas team in their first round to get to the championship. Goodfellas has to be one of the most improved teams over the last few seasons in the ABL. In past years they have played in the lower divisions, but this season they bumped up to the big leagues and managed to make it all the way to the semi-final game, but D2 is an experienced pro level squad with dangerous shooters and incredible rebounding ability and simply washed the floor with Goodfellas 60-39.
In the championship game D2 as they normally do took a commanding early lead at the half with with a 35-21 score and it is rare for them to relinquish such a lead.
The second half evened up a bit as D2 only outscored Chatrooms 30-26, but the commanding lead D2 established was a foundation that was too strong to crack on their way to a 65-47 win and their second ABL Basketball Title.
the usual suspects on both teams were putting up the points. Robert Cheeks of D2 had an amazing 28 point night and all the D2 big men were grabbing boards to give D2 a 29-23 rebound advantage in the game.
For Chat Rooms it was Carlos Garcia with 19 points and Mason Lopez with 17 points that was a cut above the rest for the squad.
D2 Carlos Boozer Division Winter Basketball Champions
The Kyrie Irving Division championship game was utter mayhem. The two combatants were Charliewang Express and Wolfpack. The Wolfpack was the favorite going into the game as they had not lost a game all season long and seemed be on auto-pilot all season with the dial set to "win".
The Wolfpack team features a lineup of steady scorers up and down, as well as polished play from years of playing together.
Their road to playoff glory started against Below the Rim with a 48-29 victory. The Wolfpack proved in that game that they could shut down dangerous shooters as Mike Griesen of Below the RIm was one of the most dangerous in the league.
For Chaliewang Express it was Class of the 90's that would be their hurdle before the championship game in the playoffs.
Class and the Express already had one of the most exciting games we have ever seen a few weeks prior when Class of the 90's tossed up a prayer of a buzzer-beater 3 point shot to beat the Express by one point in the final weeks of the regular season.
Upon their second meeting in the playoffs the Express would make no such mistake as they dismissed the Class 58-45 to vault themselves into the championship game.
Charliewang and Wolfpack were pacing each other point for point in the first half of the championship game with a score of 25-21 in favor of the Express. The Express was leaving free points off the board from the free-throw line. At one point they were 0-10 in that area, and things like that can haunt your team later in the game.
Those missed points did comeback to haunt Charliwang as in the final seconds of the second half the Wolfpack had rallied all the way back and taken the lead on the Express.
Marquis Barron of the Express would have none of it though, as time clicked down he managed to sneak through the defense and slip a layup through the net to tie the game and force a championship overtime.
While Barron may have been laid down the chip that evened the stacks it was Kurt Reichert of the Express that shifted into captain clutch mode in the late goings.
At one point the Wolfpack had a bit of control over the Express in the late portion of the second half, but Reichert starting popping off threes like a man on fire and he was not missing. Clutch shot after clutch shot kept the Express in the running so Barron could sink that final bucket to tie the game.
On the others side of the court it was David Lee stepping up to the occasion for the Pack looking to be the ghost that would haunt their free-throw woes. Lee was solid as a rock in the champ game with 19 points, and he put up many of those while the hour glass had only a few grains of sand left in it.
The overtime was more of the same. back and forth play with both teams excitement growing with every shot but Charliewang managed to score just one more point in the overtime period than the Pack to take a stunning 57-56 victory for their second ABL title.
Charliewang Express Kyrie Irving Division Winter Baksetball Champions
An amazing season all around. Congratulations to both our champions on earning their second titles. This may be the beginning of two brand new ABL dynasty teams.
Tag(s): Home '15Winter Season Tournament
