Sports stats



RazorSharks Repeat as PBL Champions

April 19, 2009 - Premier Basketball League (PBL)
Rochester RazorSharks News Release


Rochester, NY - The Rochester RazorSharks won their second straight PBL Championship in front of 7,119 fans in attendance over the Battle Creek Knights with a 152-115 victory.

League MVP, Keith Friel, scored a game-high 28 points and tied his PBL Finals record of seven 3-pointers. Xavier Morton came off the bench for Rochester with 17 points and set a new PBL Finals record with 16 rebounds. Rochester finished with eight players in double figures.

Coleco Buie led the Knights with 24 points and Rashi Johnson added 21 points for Battle Creek.

Shattered backboards are becoming routine at Premier Basketball League Championship games, especially for RazorSharks' Forward, Sammy Monroe. With just over three minutes into the 2009 PBL Championship between the Knights and the RazorSharks, Monroe shattered another backboard off a breakaway reverse dunk matching last year's championship game when Monroe and teammate James "Mook" Reaves went up for a rebound and came down with all glass.

Following the smashed backboard, play was delayed for 45 minutes and resumed with the RazorSharks leading 11-6 with 8:41 remaining in the opening quarter.

Coming out of the break, Rochester increased their lead to 11, 17-6, with 6:47 left in the quarter. The RazorSharks led by as many as 12 and held a 35-26 lead after one.

Rochester came out on fire in the second on an 8-0 run forcing a Battle Creek timeout in the opening minutes of the quarter. Battle Creek Knight's All-League First Team Guard, Rashi Johnson, hit a 3-pointer coming out of the timeout to stop the bleeding, but the RazorSharks came right back to score six straight points extending their lead to 20, 53-33 with 7:59 to play in the first half.

Battle Creek went on a 6-0 run to pull within 11 with just over four minutes in the first half, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Keith Friel, while being fouled on the second for a four-point play, put the RazorSharks lead back up to 18, 67-49. Rochester closed out the half with a 76-59 advantage led by Friel's 17 points on 4 of 8 from beyond the arc.

Rashi Johnson and Allen White paced the Knight's with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

Rochester came out in the second half running a 1-3-1 zone defense and just shut down the Knights while blowing the game wide open. The RazorSharks limited Battle Creek to just seven points midway in the third quarter and closed out the quarter with a 37 point lead, 113-76.

Battle Creek was held to just 17 points, setting a new PBL Finals low-record for points in a quarter.

Despite the large deficit, Battle Creek fought back and started the fourth quarter on a 13-0 run to cut the lead down to 24, 113-89. Coleco Buie led the charge for the Knights with a trio of baskets from beyond the arc. Rochester's bench quickly showed their roster depth as the lead was pushed back to 30 and hung on to close out the 37-point victory.

Notes: The RazorSharks set several PBL Finals records: points in the game (152), half (76) quarter (2nd 41), FG (54), FG attempts (103), FT (32) FT attempts (43), rebounds (72), assists (34), blocks (8), and winning margin (37).

• Discuss this story on the Premier Basketball League message board...

Premier Basketball League Stories from April 19, 2009


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.

Other Recent Rochester RazorSharks Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central