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Sharks Advance as "Boom" Saves the Day

April 9, 2011 - Premier Basketball League (PBL)
Rochester RazorSharks News Release


It was by any measure a career day for Melvin "Boom" Council. The Wilson High School grad put the Rochester RazorSharks on his shoulders and carried them into the Premier Basketball League championship series. Rochester advanced past the Quebec Kebs in the decisive game three of their PBL semifinal series 129-122.

Council, starting at point guard in the absence of Jerice Crouch, scored a career high 36 points on 9 for 11 shooting from the floor, along with hitting 17 of 18 free throws. All are career highs and they came when his team needed him most.

Taking the court with just eight eligible players, Rochester coach Rod Baker did a masterful job keeping his troops fresh with frequent substitutions and short shifts. Council was the exception. Melvin played 42 minutes. The 36 point game tied Keith Friel for second on the Sharks all time single game scoring list, just two points behind Chris Carrawell's record 38 in a game played in December 2005.

Rochester hit its first three shots of the second half to go up by 13 points, the lead the Sharks carried into the fourth quarter. That's when things got interesting.

Quebec began to chip away at the lead and got it all the way down to two at 119-117 with 3:20 left. Unlike in game two of the series Wednesday, Rochester didn't cave. Todd McCoy and Jared Carter hit big shots down the stretch to preserve the victory.

The game was called with nine seconds left by the referees who after calling the fourth and fifth technical fouls of the game on Quebec players, felt conditions were too volatile to continue. Ths scene was chaos as the Sharks hastily left the court victorious.

The Kebs had a contentious relationship with the referees all series long. It came to a boiling point Friday night with Rochester enjoying a stunning 71-25 advantage in free throws attempted. The Sharks outscored Quebec 57-21 from the foul line.

Mike Williams added 17 points and a team high 11 rebounds to the RazorShark cause. Quebec's Royce Parran got 20 of his 25 in the second half. Tommy Mitchell scored 21 of his 25 in the first half. League scoring champ Quinnell Brown added 18.

The series could have gone either way. Rochester took game one in overtime after the Kebs missed four straight last minute free throws. The Sharks wrapped it up by splitting the two games in Quebec City.

In a rematch of last year's championship series, Rochester takes on Lawton-Fort Sill. The Sharks will likely host game one this week and then travel to Oklahoma to complete the best-of-three series along with the 2011 PBL season.

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