The Hoyas are the four-time St. Croix summer league basketball champions after sweeping the Lakers 3-0 in the 2009 New Breed Basketball Association finals with a 102-91 victory Saturday night at the Educational Complex gym.
This one was basically over in the first quarter though the undermanned, never-say-die, hard working Lakers gave it all they had. They were just no match for the team the champs put on the floor Saturday.
From the opening whistle, it was obvious that the Hoyas meant to finish off the series. They came out aggressive on both ends of the floor; attacking the basket every chance they got while playing a stingy, smothering defense that immediately had the Lakers back on their heels.
By the time the horn sounded ending the opening period, the Hoyas had dropped 36 points on the Lakers for a 19 points advantage at 36-17, led by nine points apiece from Darnell Hendrickson and Steven Hodge. It would be a deficit that the Lakers, hard as they tried, were not able to recover from.
The teams would play evenly over the next two quarters of the game but only because Hoyas’ coach Sammie Lee began substituting his players freely.
The second and third quarters were played dead even with both teams scoring 21 and 24 points in the respective quarters. This meant that after three quarters the lead was still 19 points at 81-62. The Lakers would finally cut into the Hoyas lead in the fourth, but that was mostly during garbage time with the game already decided. Playing hard to the very end, the Lakers outscored the Hoyas 29-21 in the final period to reduce the margin of defeat to a more respectable 11 points at 102-91.
Told of plans by other teams to dethrone him in the coming season, an elated Lee exclaimed, “Every year it’s the same thing — wait till next year, and when next year comes we do it to them again.
"This is a good team, we have depth, and we will here again next summer."
For the Lakers coach who had to play without his starting front line, it was a disappointing series. But the Lakers vowed to be back and better than ever next year.
Former national player Steven Hodge led the Hoyas with a game-high 22 points and wowed the crowd on several occasions with his nifty ball-handling skills. Hendrickson had 17 points for the Hoyas, Kurt John netted 16, Roman Castillo had 14 and Omari Applewaite finished with 10. For the Lakers, it was Roal Caesar leading the way with 22 points, Shane Hodge netted 18, Jerome Nathaniel 16, Rondell Harris had 14 and Rashawn Williams finished with 10.
