| | | |  | #s# Ingle | Monds | Cox | Dorsey | Saunders | #e#6 Bobby Brown downs 28 and Dorsey takes control, scoring 14 of Mayas' final 17 points…
Lilburn, Georgia - While many were watching a defensive, rather boring NBA game Thursday evening, game one of the WBA Championship Series was an exciting old fashioned 'barn-burner' inside Berkmar High School. Mayas led for all but the opening three minutes, but Ravia battled back from 10-12 down on three occasions to put themselves in contention to win the opening game of the best-of-three title series. MaJic Dorsey (6'1''-G-81), slowed by a tweeked hamstring most of the night, woke up late, dazzling the crowd while scoring 14 in the final 5:21 of the game.
Rodney Kirtz's jumper gave Ravia an early 4-2 lead a minute and a half in, but Bobby Brown (6'6''-F-79, college: Kennesaw St.) led a 10-2 Mayas run, to take a 12-4 advantage at the 7:26 mark of the opening period. Brown tallied six in the run. Mayas would build a nine-point cushion in the first quarter, before Ravia, as it did all night long, would fight back to cut it to one, at 28-27 on a 3pt bomb by Robert Cox (6'5''-G/F-83). In the Rebel return, Golden Ingle (5'11''-G-81) would spurt for nine points. Edmund Saunders (6'8''-F/C-78) got a put-back with three seconds left to end the quarter, giving Mayas a 30-37 lead after one stanza. Brown finished with 10 in the quarter for Mayas.
In the second, Mayas quickly pushed out to a 36-29 spread, as their size began to take effect, with Reo Logan, Jeff Daisley and Saunders each getting touches and buckets in the paint on successive trips to open the period. Mayas later went up by 12, after DeShawn Anderson rebounded a David Monds (6'8''-F-83) miss, dribbled the length of the floor and converted the transition basket. Ravia trailed 45-33 with 7:13 left in the half. The teams would trade baskets over the next few minutes, as Dorsey got two short jumpers, followed by another lay-in by Anderson. Monds and Cox countered with deuces, and Joe Hamilton got dropped a shot, but Mayas still led by a dozen with 4:35 showing in the 2nd quarter. The Rebels stepped up their defense, forcing misses by Dorsey and Derrick Stevens. Ravia's defensive stance would spark another march back, as Cox and Ingle both answered with threes to pace a 12-4 stretch to close the half. Brown managed a runner and Saunders got two free throws for Mayas, but Ravia's aggressiveness award them with several trips to the line as well. Brock and Gustavo Atanacio both contributed freethrows in the final two minutes of the half, to help Ravia go into the break only down 55-51.
Brown opened the quarter with a lay-in, to put Mayas up six. Ravia would cut it to 60-59 after Monds rebounded his own miss and converted. Mayas began to open up, as Saunders grabbed an offensive rebound and scored, followed up by two straight transition baskets by Anderson off of Ravia turnovers. Chris Jackson got a lay-in for Ravia, but Dorsey answered with a trey putting Mayas up 77-68 with 5:30 left in the 3rd. Hamilton would muster a dunk for Ravia, but Mayas front court again reared its ugly head with Brown, Sanders and Logan all dropping caromes inside. Ravia again found themselves down by a dirty dozen at 85-73. Never to die, the Rebels would force consecutive turnovers, then a defensive stance, then execute an 8-0 run over the next 60 seconds. Monds got the run started with a shot in the middle, Jackson cut in the lane and made a nifty lay-in, then Hamilton got a double-clutch slam, and Ingle got fouled and made two freethrows. Ravia trimmed the score to 85-81, before Brown finally stopped the Mayas bleeding with a bank shot in the lane to end the quarter.
Taking a very uncomfortable 87-81 lead into the final period, Mayas looked to be losing steam. Ravia had appeared to collapse towards the end of the 3rd quarter, but somehow fought back yet again to make it interesting. Ravia would not go away in fourth either, Cox opened with a bucket. Brown made another two for Mayas, but Hamilton cut it back to four, at 89-85, after making a turnaround bank shot from the right side. Two minutes into the 4th, Ingle converted two shots at the line to trim Mayas' lead to 91-89. But, Mayas would outscore Ravia 8-2 over the next three minutes, off of six combined points from Brown and Saunders. Mayas led 99-91 with 8:02 remaining. Ravia seemed to be buckling. But quickly, Doug Underwood nailed a three and a Daisley miss, Jackson converted to bring it back to 99-96. Kirtz capped a 9-2 comeback run by Ravia to cut it to 101-100 with 6:05 left on the clock. At this point, somebody must have knocked Dorsey on the head, because he proceeded to score six straight, to just begin his "take-over" tactics. He nailed a short jumper in the lane, off a huge screen by Saunders, then a lay-in after a Kirtz turnover, followed by a runner in the lane, to push Mayas back up by seven at 4:05. He wasn't done. After trading freethrows, Dorsey drove the right side of the lane and lofted a high runner, while getting fouled. The ball slipped through the nets. He made the foul shot, giving Mayas another double-digit lead. Followed by a Jackson miss and make at the charity stripe, Anderson grabbed the offensive board and connected, putting Mayas up 113-102. But, Cox answered with a tri-fecta for the Rebels. Then after two misses by Logan at the line, Monds' muscled up for a two, bringing Ravia back to within 113-107 with 1:31 left. Ravia was still not going down with out a fight. On the ensuing possession, Dorsey would again drive the lane and while drawing the foul, softly drop the runner. The shot put Mayas up by seven with only :55 ticks showing. This may have been the dagger in Ravia's sides, as turned the ball back over immediately. Dorsey would twist the dagger by sinking the transition basket off the turnover, while again being fouled on the play. He was good on the foul shot attempt with :40 seconds remaining, capping off a remarkable stretch of 14 points over the final 5:21 of the game.
Cox led Ravia with 18 points on the evening, followed by Monds and Ingle with 16 each. Kirtz got 14 points and eight rebounds, while Hamilton and Jackson both tallied 12 off the bench. Hamilton also had eight rebounds and three blocks. Brock was held to only eight on the night. Monds also grabbed eight rebounds and Ingle led Ravia with five assists. Ronald Chinchilla and Atanacio rounded out the scoring with two and one, respectively
For Mayas-USA, Brown paced all scorers with 28 points and also had eight rebounds and two steals. Dorsey finished with 27 points, nine assists, and three steals, while Saunders pounded in 21 points and ruled the glass with 13 rebounds. Logan scored 12 and DeShawn Anderson had 11 points on 5 of 5 shooting from the floor. Zach Anderson and Kareem Grant each posted six and Daisley and Hartley scored 4 and 3, respectively.
With Mayas leading the best-of-three series 1-0, game two is set to tip off at 7:30pm tonight at Berkmar High School at 405 Pleasant Hill Rd Lilburn, Georgia. Game three, if necessary, will be Sunday at 4:30pm. | | |
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