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Traveling with a Game in Hand

April 16, 2011 - Premier Basketball League (PBL)
Rochester RazorSharks News Release


For the second straight year, the Premier Basketball League championship trophy will be won at the Great Plains Coliseum in Lawton Oklahoma. The Rochester RazorSharks won a compelling first game of the best-of-three series at home Friday night 105-101. Game two is Sunday night. Game three if necessary, is Monday night.

The Sharks left Rochester at 7:30am Saturday, bussed to Elmira and hooked up with a flight to San Antonio, connecting to Dallas. A bus ride back to Lawton got the team into town early Saturday night.

Game one was actually three games in one. The Sharks led Lawton by 18 in the first half. The Cavalry came back in the third quarter hitting 8 of their first 9 shots to trigger a 22-2 point run. They took a four point lead before Rochester was able to stop the bleeding.

"You lose focus," said guard Keith Friel. "You get carried away up 16, then up 14 and take a possession off. You can't. You find out as a unit you can't. Basketball is a game of spurts. We've seen that all year. They're a championship level team. We know that. There's not been a situation they haven't been in."

The Sharks managed to regain the lead before the end of the third, and pulled away in the fourth quarter.

"It was a character win that we forced on ourselves," said coach Rod Baker. "We had some space to be good and we gave all that back to make it a fight again. I do think we're playing pretty well. We got aggressive again and kept it manageable."

Once again the game's officiating was called into question. Rochester enjoyed a 44-15 advantage in free throws. This has become a constant postseason theme.

"I've been in this game for forty years," said Cavalry coach Michael Ray Richardson. "It's unheard of. It was a joke."

"They tried to guard us when we went to the basket," said Baker. "They can say, 'well we went to the basket a lot too.' But we didn't do a very good job guarding them and they got a lot of open layups. It wasn't like they got fouled going to the basket and calls didn't get made. I don't think."

In their four playoff games, the Sharks' aggressive go-to-the-basket mentality has produced a 211-96 edge at the foul line worth 99 points.

"We can't pay attention to that," said forward Mike Williams. "We have to be aggressive and every chance we get, attack the basket."

The series concludes in Oklahoma. The Cavalry have been nearly unbeaten at home, winning 35 of their last 36. The loss came last week in the playoff semifinals.

"We only have to win one," said Baker. "Halifax went to Oklahoma needing to win a game and they did. We'll play the game out at Corn Hill, I don't care. If we do what we do, we'll be fine."

The fact remains though that the RazorSharks have never won in Lawton. They're 0-6 there, including two defeats last year in the exact same situation.

"We're playing our best ball right now," said guard Jerice Crouch. There's no better way to go in there than playing the way we're playing right now."

Sunday night's game will be web-cast. You should be able to locate it at this address beginning at 8:00pm.

http://atsportstv.com/Home.aspx

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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.

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