Hoops Face Sun Kings for CBA Title
March 20, 2003 - Continental Basketball Association 1 (CBA 1) News Release
Boise, Idaho (March 20, 2003)â The Grand Rapids Hoops will advance to the CBA Championship for the second time in the franchise's 14 seasons, after a 127-124 victory over the Regular Season American Conference Champion Rockford Lightning Wednesday night, winning three-games-to-one in the best-of-five series. They will travel to Yakima to face the Sun Kings, who closed out the National Conference Finals three-games-to-one Monday night with a 105-100 win over the defending champion Dakota Wizards, in the one-game championship on Monday, March 24. Tip-off is set for 7:05 PST.
The Sun Kings have reached the CBA Finals twice in the franchise's 17-year existence, coming away victorious both times (2000, 1995). The Hoops fell four-games-to-two to the Omaha Racers in their lone championship appearance (1993).
The Yakima vs. Grand Rapids outcome prevented a rematch of the 2002 Championship Game and marks the second time in the last six postseasons that a regular season conference champion does not appear in the CBA Finals (2000). It also represents the first time since the league's original season as the CBA, that two first-year CBA head coaches, Bill Bayno (Yakima) and Rod Baker (Grand Rapids), led their teams to the final game. In 1978-79, the first year the old Eastern Basketball Association (1946-78) was known as the CBA, rookie coach Mauro Pannagio led the Rochester Zeniths to a 4-0 sweep of Ron Moore's Anchorage Northern Knights.
For the second straight season the CBA Championship Game will be available on the Internet from SportsJuice.com. Veteran CBA broadcaster Scott Johnson (the current Director of Operations for the CBA) will provide the play-by-play. The pre-game show will begin at 6:30 PM PST.
Fans can access the broadcast through a link on www.cbahoopsonline.com or by logging on to www.sportsjuice.com and finding the link referencing the CBA Championship Game on the "Today on SportsJuice.com" schedule. SportsJuice.com events require Windows Media Player, which can be downloaded free via the SportsJuice.com website. Coupled with the live webcasting available on the official CBA website (www.cbahoopsonline.com), fans will have the ability to watch and hear the action unfold.
"For the second year in a row, SportsJuice has given us a tremendous opportunity to provide free live coverage of our Championship Game to CBA fans in each of our markets and around the world," said CBA Commissioner Gary Hunter.
SportsJuice.com broadcasts live and archived sporting events from around the world, as well as interesting sports features. It has been broadcasting minor league, semi-professional, amateur, collegiate and scholastic sports since 1999, and is one of the largest providers of sports broadcasting on the web.
"SportsJuice is happy to be working with the CBA again to broadcast the championship game," said SportsJuice President John Onorato. "Personally, I have been a basketball fan for years and I am glad to be able to extend this opportunity to the league."
Those who are unable to listen to the broadcast live can listen to an archived version, which will be available after the live broadcast.
Continental Basketball Association 1 Stories from March 20, 2003
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
