DIVISION 3 2011 Fall, SEASON 6
Championship Recap
by Nathan Apolonio/ @TheHomieNate
#1 UKnow V2 vs. #3 Young Money
The Inland Basketball League Season 6 Championship Weekend kicked off with a thriller in the Division 3 Finals. For the second straight season, a #1 seed (UKnow V2) was in the championship game. However this time around a #2 seed wasn’t their opponent. The #2 seeded Pantera Legends who were also the Divisions reigning champions fell to #3 seed Young Money in the Semi-Finals which ultimately led up to a match-up with these two teams, and the final result a 51-48 overtime win for UKnow, who capture their first Division 3 Championship, they also become the first #1 seed to do so.
UKnow (7-1) entered the game oddly as the under dog. When the two teams met in Week 5, Young Money came away with a 62-50 win. So it was only natural that Young Money would enter this game as the favorite to walk away with the division’s most prestigious prize. The two teams had their fair shares of regular season success with UKnow capping off a nearly perfect regular season with a (6-1) record, their only loss coming at the hands of Young Money. Young Money finished with a (5-2) record, with their two losses coming at the hands of Brea Jr. 7:30 in Week 2 and the Bombers in Week 3.
So this was the big game, dubbed as “the payback” and both teams came to play. Young Money started the game trying to take advantage of the height disparity between the two teams, but that seemed far-fetched due to UKnow’s renewed focus on the defensive end. YM seemed confused on offense at times, and for the majority of the first half, YM found it to be a hard task to adjust to the pressure UKnow was applying. However as the game progressed the YMCMB camp seemed to find offense from their leader Robel Kevorkian, Kevorkian shouldered the offensive load for the his YM team all game and led the team in scoring with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists.
While Young Money invested their offense in Kevorkian’s play, UKnow did the same with Anthony Cockrell, he was the teams lone source of offense. Cockrell led all scorers for the game as he finished with 26 points and 2 rebounds. The game was fairly close throughout the first half with UKnow controlling the pace of the game and building a 5 point lead and seeing it cut to 2 going into the half.
Before the second half got underway UKnow’s GM told his players “Basketball is a game of runs!, we can either prevent it or we will lose this game” his players seemed to understand the message but not quite. Young Money found their offensive groove mid second half, when they went to the line on a string of 3 point play opportunities at the line, in large part to feeding Abdul Aziz (7 points, 8 rebounds) the ball in the post where he would be “hacked”. Young Money took a 37-31 lead mid second half, and all the momentum seemed to be in their favor. That is until UKnow began crashing the offensive boards for easy putbacks, one of the players crashing the boards was Josh Johnson (5 points and 6 rebounds), Johnson had a terrible shooting game, as usual but he managed to become a factor by doing the small things to help his team.
Both teams struggled from the field, UKnow was fortunate however to have YM struggle in the final minutes while they erased a 5 point lead with a 1:30 left in regulation. Clutch 3 point shots by Brandon Kinard (5 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists) and Anthony Cockrell tied the game at 46-46. Young Money had a chance to win the game in regulation but a charging foul was called as Jason Trinh (5 points, 3 rebounds) drove to the basket and literally ran over a UKnow player. The game ultimately extended into overtime with UKnow making key plays down the stretch. The biggest play of overtime was a shot by Anthony Cockrell that grazed the rim, which was chased down by Josh Johnson who saved it from going out-of-bounds under the basket, by dishing it to Desean Collins (6 points, 2 rebounds) who hit a wide open 3 point shot to extend UKnows lead to 50-47, with under 30 secs remaining.
Mark Garcia (8 points, 5 rebounds) was Young Moneys offense in the extra period, getting to the line on numerous occasions, but a few empty possessions for this team caused them the game.
A very well-played game from both teams, Young Money had the game won but gave it away in the final minutes of regulation, and the rest is history. UKnow V2, Season 6 IBL DIVISION 3 Champions.
Finals MVP
Anthony Cockrell was awarded the Finals MVP for his huge contributions to his team.
IBL Full Court Press 