Rochester falls 91-88 to the Mavericks in the opening game of the PBL championship series.
OWENSBORO, KY. — The Rochester RazorSharks lost Game 1 of the best-of-3 Premier Basketball League championship series, 91-88, to the Kentucky Mavericks on Thursday night.
The series moves to the Blue Cross Arena for Game 2 on Sunday at 2 pm, with the third game, if needed, also to be played at the BCA on Tuesday, April 11 at 7 pm. The RazorSharks are striving to win their fourth consecutive PBL title while the Mavericks are gunning for their first championship.
Kentucky won the season series between the teams, 2-1, but the Mavs also lost two games to the Ohio Bootleggers. Rochester swept Ohio, 3-0, and captured first place with a 16-2 record to gain the home court advantage for the championship series.
The game started with the Razorsharks winning the opening tap and putting up the first shot with no success. The Mavericks came down and Stan Simpson hit an open 14 footer to open up the scoring and with that the Finals had begun. Both teams looked to attack the basket in hope that they could get the other in foul trouble, but all this did was create some bad shots by both teams and at the first timeout the Mavericks held a 16-5 lead. Rochester made a little run, but at the end of the first quarter, the Mavericks were ahead 24-16.
The Razorsharks slowly crept back into the game behind James Helton who hit a big three pointer to get the Razorsharks within one at the second mandatory timeout. Every time Rochester came close, Kentucky would have an answer to keep the lead. Then a Jordan Railey long jumper gave the Razorsharks the lead for the first time 39-38. From there both teams traded the lead for the rest of the quarter. At the end of the half, the lead was the same as at the start, even as both teams went into the locker room tied at 43.
The second half started as the first, with an Anthony Jackson layup for the Mavericks, but this time the Razorsharks answered and the game then took on a back and forth action with the teams trading the lead multiple times. Two long buckets by Ben Vozzola caused an 8-0 run for the Mavericks to put them up 69-63 at the end of the 3rd quarter. With only 12 minutes remaining it was sure to continue as it had for the previous 36 minute of play.
The Razorsharks started the quarter with a John Ivy drive to the basket to cut the lead to four. Deverell Biggs also attacked the basket on consecutive possessions to tie the game up at 71 at the first mandatory timeout of the quarter. Back to back three pointers by Anthony Jackson and Chris Hagen put the Mavercks up three before Corey Allmond answered with a long jumper of his own. Kentucky used some jumpers by Nick Waddell and Anthony Jackson to get the lead up to seven before Corey Allmond answered again with two three pointers and a James Helton put back to tie the game at 82 apiece with only 3:33 left in the game.
Two free throws by Anthony Jackson were answered by a Melvin Council layup on the other end. Stan Simpson threw down a huge dunk off an offensive rebound for Kentucky and then a stop by the Mavericks on the defensive end let Chris Hagen get to the basket to spread the lead out to four with less than a minute left. Rochester’s Melvin Council went to the line with 56.2 seconds left looking to cut the lead in half but missed both free throws. Gerald DeVaughn missed a jumper for Kentucky and Jerice Crouch made a mad dash to the basket to cut the lead to two with 18.3 seconds remaining. A quick foul by the Razorsharks put DeVaughn to the line with a chance to extend the lead, which he did by making both free throws.
Crouch launched a three but missed. However the Razorsharks got the rebound and Crouch was then fouled behind the arc. Crouch made two free throws and missed the third free throw on purpose hoping to grab the rebound. They were unsuccessful and Anthony Jackson made one free throw and the Mavericks pulled out a 91-88 victory.
Five players scored in double figures, with two notching double-doubles: Stan Simpson (16 pts, 13 rebs) and Nick Waddell (15 points, 10 rebs). Anthony Jackson had 14 huge points off the bench. Jerice Crouch had 18 points to lead the way for Rochester. Melvin Council had 16 points with James Helton scoring 11 points for the Razorsharks. Jordan Railey pulled down 11 rebounds. In an evenly matched game the score was tied nine times and the lead changed 14 times.