Nate’s Notes| Division 1 Championship Game Preview

#1 Morningwood vs. #3 Knicee

With the qualifying rounds behind us and season 5 coming to a close, two teams (#1 Morningwood- #3 Knicee) have proven that they are the top two teams in the division. They will battle it out this Sunday (Sept. 18th) for the right to call themselves CHAMPION. Knicee will have their hands full as they battle it out with a the defending champions.

Both these teams took different paths on their way to the Championship game, after finishing the regular season with a flawless 7-0 record, #1 Morningwood remained true to their seed and handled #8 Dictators in the quarterfinals, in the semi-finals took care of business defeating #4 Washed Up by a very, very large margin.

#3 Knicee finished their regular season with a 5-2 record in a tie for 2nd place but lost the tiebreaker to STAT in a Week 5 match-up. Knicee began their playoff run with a forfeit win over #6 iBall they advanced to the semi-finals where they pulled an upset over the #2 seed STAT.

For Morningwood this is their 4th Championship game appearance; they are (3-0) in Championship Round games. This is Knicee’s 2nd Championship Round game, they are (0-1) the loss coming to none other than Morningwood in Season 2 when Knicee was known as (Like Water).

This game is important to both franchise’s; Morningwood looks to continue their “Boston Celtic” dynasty ways and capture their 4th Championship in 5 seasons. Knicee looks for revenge and hope to pull an upset for the ages over the reigning champions.

The two teams met in Week 4 with Morningwood coming out on top with a double-digit victory, that was also the game where Morningwoods leader Derrick Pickett went down in the first quarter with an ankle injury that kept him out of action for 5 Weeks. Pickett is now back in the Morningwood line-up and has guaranteed a victory over Knicee to claim his 4th well technically 5th (Wednesday League) IBL Championship.

The addition of PG Jesse Jimenez has proved to be crucial to the success of this Knicee team, without Jimenez I can honestly say this team would not be in this position, Jimenez who play last season for STAT was signed by Knicee who lacked a true point guard. His defensive and athleticism has bothered other guards. He will be the X-Factor for Knicee in this championship game. Morningwoods X-Factor has always been and will be their 3-Point shooting, no one player has been responsible for Morningwoods success all of their Championships have been won with a consistent team effort.

Morningwood enters the game, with an advantage in every statistical category with the exception of APG where Knicee has a slim advantage. They are by far the heavy favorite to win this game and repeat as Champions for the 2nd time in 5 seasons.

There are only 4 Knicee players (Odell Howard, John Dang, Richard Hak and Minh Thong) who are still on the team since their last championship game appearance. There is no doubt that all these players are hungry for the division ultimate prize.

Morningwood should take this game by 20 or more points, they have too many weapons for Knicee to contain. Both teams have depleted benches so their will be few substitutions throughout the game.

Bottom line is Morningwood will capture their 4th Championship in 5 Seasons.

Division 1 Final	PTS	REB	APG	SPG	BPG	TPG	2PT%	3PT%	FG%	FT%
Advantage	M	–	K	M	M	M	M	M	M	M
Morningwood	72.3	34.0	7.1	6.7	3.4	6.7	0.58	0.35	0.49	0.56
Knicee	63.2	34.0	8.7	5.8	1.1	7.9	0.53	0.33	0.46	0.46