Falcons Soar To ECL Championship Repeat
[Written by Patrick Bean]
Falcons claimed a consecutive championship of the Bermuda Basketball Association [BBA] Elite City League [ECL] with a thrilling, back and forth contest worthy of a series deciding match that ended 68-60 in favour of the returning champs over Storm, Falcons seizing the best-of-three game season ending competition.
At the end Jason Lowe proved himself a ‘Hercules’ as he literally carried the flock of Falcons upon great wings, pouring in more than half of his 32 game high point total in the fourth final quarter and laying waste to a gallant effort from Storm.
Time and again during the critical last three minutes Lowe showed up at the offensive end getting any shot he wished whether creating off the dribble or catching and shooting, draining three-pointers, mid-range jumpers and lay-ups and proving unstoppable to the Storm’s defensive schemes while allowing his side to extend to a 10 point lead at one point.
The inability to adjust late to Lowe and the Falcons offence proved the ultimate undoing to Storm’s challenge for their first ECL title.
At the start the game witnessed Storm burdened by turnovers bad passing and decision making, however they recovered to make it close at the end of the first quarter at Bermuda College Gymnasium.
Both teams traded the lead back and forth in the second quarter and there was little to separate either entering the half-time interval.
Falcons came out an sought to further establish their style on the affair following the break, but the Storm were resilient, with Akil Smith a force and Storm’s marksman of note and scorer of 20 on the night. Storm ended the third on a run that gave them a four point advantage entering the final stanza, with Akil Smith their marksman of note who would end the night.
There, as mentioned, Lowe soared to the greatest of heights with points scored, allowing the birds to again feast in delight upon the spoils of victory, becoming the second team to record a repeat championship in tournament history and can now attempt a three-peat to join Fort Knox Panthers as the only teams to do so.
The BBA Winter League is tentatively scheduled to commence play January 14, 2019 with teams and squads still enduring the registration process. Unlike the ECL, which is a draft league where teams are dismantled and all players go into a new pool to be selected from, the Winter League is more tradition in format where players generally choose the team they play with, with the BBA ensuring the overstocking of better talent by any particular outfit by limiting the number of listed A-Class players to a set number that shares around those of exceeding ability so as to bring greater parity and competitiveness.
