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The SABL BS

Issue 101 April 2003

FROM COMMISSIONER SCOTT ELLIS, 2^ND AMER. BASKETBALL LEAGUE

Galactic up 2 games to 1 in 2003 Classic Conference Finals

The Thunder won its first two home games against the St. Lucie Aces, but St. Lucie came back at home to win Game 3. More details later!

Evil Druids beat Tigers in Game 7 at Bettendorf, advance to Round 2

The crouching Tigers had two chances to pounce, but the Druids' magic was too strong. After controlling Game 6 to even the series, Bettendorf struggled to hold off a Brooklyn comeback and capture a 102-98 victory and advance for the first time in the SABL playoffs. The Druids will take on Richmond in the next round.

Bettendorf led 93-85 with 4:51 to play, but the Tigers scored nine straight points on a jumper by Chris Mills, two strong inside moves by Lamar Odom, a
free throw by Mills and driving layup by former Quad-City Thunder star Jeff McInnis. Sam Cassell kept his poise, drew a foul and sank two free throws with 2:02 to play to put Bettendorf back on top, and H. Turkoglu buried a three-pointer to stretch the lead to four with 1:30 remaining. The two teams traded baskets until Vashon Leonard hit two free throws with 5 seconds to play to ice the game.

Akron Wins, Akron Wins! Beats Quad City, goes to Round Two

There was magic in Blimpland Saturday night Akron defeated Quad City and advanced to the second round of the SABL playoffs.

The excitement began in the pre-game introductions as the entire Blimp Squad arrived via a huge helium blimp launched from the top of Zipville Arena. Some of the thrill was gone before the game as the pregame took 30 minutes longer than expected. It turns out even helium blimps are slow and just a bit awkward. At one point a rowdy bunch of fans on the east side of the stadium got together and blew real hard all at once and made the floater crash into the calliope in Section 301, injuring Austin Croshere. He did not play at all in the 5 games.

Another unusual feature was that the first two games, in fact all five were played on the Zipville plywood as Quad City management failed show up, preferring to have their team coached by a computer. Out of respect, the Blimps wore their road unis in the first two games, a tasteful blend of blue and gold with black socks. Isaiah Thomas was in attendance and said he thought the Akron threads were "stunning" and "tres sheik."

And it was in their bodacious bloomers that the Blimps lost their only game of the series, experiencing a shooting slump in Game Two. The other games were not very close as Akron, which spent most of the year running a plodding, downright boring half court offense, decided to try a fast break strategy to great effect.

Being unaccustomed to postseason joy, Blimp fans appeared puzzled after the Game 5 clincher and then ran outside and tore down the goal post. It was
kind of embarrassing.

Commissioner's Note: This is the first playoff series ever won by the redoubtable Dave Scott and his Akron Blimps. The balloon boys now head for Tri City and Chris Feeney's perennial playoff and division-winning squad, the Blackhawks.

Druids force Game 7 by winning Game 6 over Tigers at Bettendorf

Bettendorf's press forced 26 turnovers, and the Druids kept their playoff run alive with a 118-106 victory over the Brooklyn Tigers. Sam Cassell scored 26 for the Druids, while Fred Hoiberg added 19. Rafer Alston dished out 11 assists. The Druids' guards totaled 26 assists with only one turnover. Tiger stars Cuttino Mobley, Kenyon Martin and Pau Gasol had 25, 23 and 18 points respectively.

Thunder defeats Holcomb 117-92 in Game 6 at Galactic, advances

Holcomb was lead by Abdur-Rahi with 30 and 7 rebs. Galactic lead by Payton with 22 and 7 assists and Brandon with 16 and 10 assists.

This sets up a titanic Classic Conference Final vs. the St. Lucie Aces, who Galactic beat in the regular season 5 games to 3.

Tigers take Game 5 at Brooklyn go 3-2 over Bettendorf

The Tigers are poised to go to the second round. Another big game from Mobley and tough defense complete the sweep in Brooklyn.

Tigers tie series vs. Druids (2-2) at Brooklyn

The walls at the Eastern Parkway Arena were rattling. The Brooklyn Tigers in the playoffs for the 1st time in 4 years have come back from a 2-2 defecit to tie the series, and the Brooklyn faithful responded enthusiastically. Cuttino Mobley scored 28 to lead the team. Cassell had 23 and Turkoglu 21 to lead the Druids.

Heat wins two of three over Galactic at Holcomb

Holcomb wins two of three to send the series back to Galactic.

Game 1: Holcomb jumped out to a 32-23 1st qtr lead only to have Galactic outscore them in each of the next three qtrs. to win going away 115-100.
The game was decided for the most part in the third when Galctic built a 14 pt lead. Galactic was led by Payton with 29 on 13 of 21 shooting, Brandon
had 22 on 11 of 16 shooting and 11 assists. 4 other players finished in double figures for the Thunder. The Heat were led by Williams with 22 pts and Rahim with 20. Galactic shot 58% to Holcomb's 44%.Galactic had 48 rebounds and 40 assists to 35 rebounds and 23 assists for the Heat.

Game 2: Holcomb jumped out to a 9 pt halftime lead and had to hold off several Galactic rushes to win 116-107. Galactic was again led by Payton with 33 on 14 of 27 shooting, Malone had 20 on 7 of 16 shooting. Galactic shot 51% from the floor, had 37 rebounds,33 assists. Holcomb was led by Jones with 29 to lead five other players in double figures. Strickland had 11 assists. Holcomb shot 57%,had 39 rebounds and 39 assists.

Game 3: Holcomb at one point had a 19 pt lead in the 4th qtr, only to watch the Thunder cut it to 2 at one point, but the Heat held on to win 106-100. Malone led Galactic with 21, Marshall had 17 and 17 rebounds, and Coleman had 16 with 12 rebounds as the Thunder outrebounded the Heat 52-37. The Thunder shot only 42% from the floor. Jones had 35 to lead the Heat, Van Exel had 20 and Ratliff had 16. The Heat hit 51% of their shots

St. Lucie wins Game 6 at Bakersfield, advances to Classic Finals

St Lucie advances to conference finals. Aces brkoe open a 2 point game with a 42-22 4th quarter outburst. Tim Duncan had 33 points and 13 rebounds and Shaq added 31 and 8. Glenn Robinson topped all scorers with 36 points and added 7 boards.

The Aces will take on the winner of the Galactic-Holcomb series.

Bakersfield vs. St. Lucie - St. Lucie ahead three games to 2, so far

St. Lucie split the first two games at Bakersfield, but took two out of three at home, setting the stage for Game 6 back at Bakersfield. Due to computer problems, Coach David Squires West Division champions are being coached in the playoffs by another Amazing Feeney, Davenport Coach Kevin Feeney.

Stay tuned.

Tigers win first game from Druids at Brooklyn

After losing the first two games in Bettendorf, Steve Feldheim's Tigers roared back at home in Brooklyn by winning Game 3 over Amazing Mark Feeney's Evil Druids:

Brooklyn 117- Bettendorf 90

The Tigers had a 20-6 run in the 1st period. led by Pau Gasol with 6 blocks and six points, and Lamar Odom's 9 points. The Tigers never looked back. 61% shooting, 25 points from Mobley, 17 assists from Vaughn and McGinnis. This was probably Brooklyn's most dominating game of the season. The bench had a lot of playing time. In all six Tigers were in dbl figures

Sam Cassell did his best to keep the Druids in the game with 27 points, but Turkoglu with 12 was the only other Druid in douible figures. Grant turned the ball over 5 times.

Thunder takes first two from Holcomb at Galactic

Round Two of the Classic Conference playoffs are rolling and so is Steve Walters' Thunder:

Game one: Holcomb 108
Galactic 132

Heat was lead by Abdur-Rahim with 26 points, Jones with 21 and 4 steals and Kirilenko with 20 and 7 rebs. no one else in double figures. J.Williams had 7 with 9 assists.

Galactic lead by Patterson with 22(in 19 mins) and Payton with 21 and 9 assists.

In the first quarter, when Thunder built a 21 point lead, Patterson scored 15 points in 6 mins.

Galactic had the edge in fg% 63-52%, assists 40-27 and turnovers 14-24. Holcomb had a 1 rebs edge 34-33.
Thunder made 6-8 3's. B. Wells fouled out in 16 mins!


Game 2: Holcomb 105
Galactic 120

Heat lead by Abdur-Rahi with 27. Jones had 14 with 7 rebs. J.Williams had 14 with 9 assists.

Thunder lead by Coleman with 20. Payton had 17 with 11 assists, 6 rebs and 3 steals. Brandon had 18 with 9 assists.

Again Galactic out shot holcomb 64-48% on FG. Thunder made 26-32 free throws. Heat was 7-24(29%) on 3's.

Evil Druids tame Tigers, win first two at home vs. Brooklyn

Royal Conference playoff action is underway as Bettendorf takes two from Brooklyn to ensure the Druids of at least one more home game this season. Poor shooting by the guards cost the Tigers in both games.

The series now shifts to Brooklyn where Tiger Coach Steve Feldheim will try to hang on against Coach Mark Feeney's Bettendorf squad.

ST. LUCIE CLOSES OUT MCLEAN

The Nationals made a good try to extend their season, but it came down to too much firepower for the Aces. After losing the first two at St. Lucie, the Nats went down three games to none in a hard fought 113-107 loss. The Aces came back from a six point deficit in the final six minutes and went ahead with a late run. Then Shaq sealed it by hitting three of four free throws after intentional fouls in the final minute. Kobie Bryant led the Aces with 25 on 10 for 26 shooting. Jerry Stackhouse led the Nats with 29.

Game four went to the Nats 117-109, as there was no comeback this time. Andre Miller was the key with 23 points and 13 assists. The Aces hit a better field goal percentage (53% to 48%), but the Nats had a 49-40 rebound edge and had only nine turnovers to the Aces 18. Duncan and Bryant led the scoring with 20 each.

The Aces had slow starts in games three and four, but Kobie was having none of it in game five. He scorched the Nats with 19 in the first period, 32 by half time, and he would up with 48. Jalen Rose led the Nats with 32 on 14 for 19 shooting - most of it outside jumpers over Kobie.
We felt our strategy was pretty good. Not fastbreaking limited our turnovers (12.3 a game) and, while Stockton hit a good percentage, his defenders' double teams on Shaq held him to under 10 points a game in the three games here. We outrebounded the Aces 128-117 and had more free throws 110-83. Wait til next year.

Commissioner's Note: The Aces now advance to Round Two in the Classic Conference bracket for two games at Bakersfield, the West Division champ.

The Tulsa Twisters "celebrated" their first playoff appearance in years by being drummed by the Holcomb Heat, 115-100.

Tulsa kept pace with the Heat up until the 8:01 mark of the 3^rd Quarter, with both teams with 64 points. Holcomb then, over the next 7 minutes, proceeded to outscore the Twisters, 20-4. The Heat just coasted from there, stretching the lead at one point to 18 points.

Leading stats for the visiting Heat included Eddie Jones (25 pts), S. Abdul-Rahim (20 pts, 12 boards), A. Kirilenko (17 pts, 4 blks), N Mohammed (12 pts, 10 boards) and T Ratliff (12 pts, 6 boards).

Leading stats for the home Twisters included S Marion (19 pts, 8 boards),

W Person (19 pts), Alvin Williams (15 pts, 11 assists), and J O’Neal (15 pts).

"Freaky" game stat was S Abdul-Rahim’s 11 turnovers.

Lowlights for Tulsa:

Heat outrebounded the Twisters, 54-33.

Marion and O’Neal combine for dismal 39% shooting.

Twisters shoot only 28% from 3-pt land ( 8 for 29 ).

"That stretch in the third obviously killed us," groaned Coach Philip Creider. "After that, we just started heaving up a bunch of 3’s and we stunk at that tonight. The rebounding margin was also critical. You have little chance of winning when you get outrebounded like we did tonight."

"After being out of the playoffs the past few years, I would have liked to reward our fans with a better showing."

With each new day comes new opportunity and such was the case for the Twisters in Game # 4. Tulsa righted the ship with a 104-95 victory over the Holcomb Heat.

The Twisters were led by their primary trio of Marion (16 pts, 13 boards), O’Neal

(20 pts, 9 boards), and Wesley Person (19 pts). Other major contributors were

Darius Miles (11 pts, 7 boards), Eric Piatkowski (12 pts), and Williams (7 assists).

The Heat were led by the guard play of Jones (15 pts, 10 assists), Rod Strickland (13 pts), and Jason Williams (12 pts, 9 assists). Abdul-Rahim added 11 boards but scored only

11 pts on 3 for 10 shooting.

Foul trouble limited Abdul-Rahim to only 31 minutes.

Tulsa outrebounded the visitors, 47 – 45.

Tulsa shot 8-15 (53%) in 3-pt shooting to the Heat’s 5-19 (26%).

Tulsa gained the lead for good at the 11:20 mark of the 4^th Quarter and led by as much as 11 pts. O’Neal scores 9 pts and Piatkowski hits 2 big 3-pointers during this period.

Holcomb had led by 12 pts at the 4:56 mark of the 1^st Quarter.

"Basketball has always been a game of runs and they had theirs early in the game. We fought back and took things over in the 4^th," beamed Coach Creider. "Hopefully, we can carry this type of play over into Game # 5."

Game # 5 turned out to be a reversal of Game # 4 with Tulsa blowing a 14 point lead, and losing to the Heat 118-105.

The Heat were once again led by the guard play contributions of Jones (26 pts,

6 assists), Nick VanExel (12 pts), and Jason Williams (23 pts, 9 assists). Other contributors were Abdul-Rahim (16 pts, 8 boards), Kirlilenko (10 pts, 6 boards), and N. Mohammed (10 boards). Brought in as a result of foul trouble concerns, Tony Kukoc even played a role as he scored 5 critical 4^th Quarter points.

The Twisters were once again led by their primary trio of Marion (15 pts), O’Neal

(18 pts, 10 boards), and Wesley Person (15 pts) but even their shooting was off (39%). Other major contributors were Darius Miles (12 pts, 5 boards), Raef LaFrentz (12 pts),

T Parker (10 pts) and Williams (13 pts, 4 assists).

Holcomb outrebounded Tulsa 50-38.

Tulsa led by 14 pts at the 9:20 mark of the 2^nd Quarter. By halftime, Tulsa only led by the score of 55-54.

During the first 7 minutes of the second half, the Heat outscored the Twisters 23-9.

Lead got down to 5 pts with 12 minutes to go in the game, but then pushed it back up to 13 pt lead with 2:55 to go in the game.

"Boy, we really let this game get away from us. I must confess that, after we built that early lead, I was envisioning a Game # 6. Foolish me," lamented Coach Creider. "Once again, our lack of timely defensive rebounding killed us. Not only did it give them second chance points but it also kept us from running our fastbreak."

"I am still proud of our team though. We finished the season strong and at least gave the Heat a battle here on our homecourt. It would have been sweet to take 2 of 3 here at home; a well deserved treat for our fans."

Commissioner's Note: Charlie Dillinghams' Heat moves on to Round Two of the Classic Conference bracket for two games at Galactic, the South Division champs.

Thunder rolls over Aces at Galactic to take South Division title

Here's the recap from Galactic Coach Steve Walters:

Galactic Thunder roll home, after spliting 4 away games with St.Lucie, needing to take 3 of 4 for the division title.
 

Game one: St.Lucie 125
Galactic 131

Both teams shot 54% on FG's. Aces missed 11(21-32) FT's. Thunder had more assists 42-28 and less turnovers 18-23. Aces had more rebounds 45-38.

St. Lucie lead by Duncan with 36 points and 12 rebs and O'Neal with 24 points and 12 rebs. Stockton had 14 assists. Galactic was lead by Payton with 33 points and Wells with 27. Brandon had 16 assists. Malone only 8 points but 9 assists.
 

Game 2: St.Lucie 142
Galactic 150

Both teams shot over 60%(St.Lucie 67, Galactic 64). Aces miss 14 FT's(29-43). Thunder take rebs(38-27) and Assists (43-34), but had 2 more turnovers 32-30. Thats 62 turnovers in game!

Aces lead by Duncan with 35 points and 8 rebs but had 11 turnovers and fouled out. O'Neal had 11 points with 2 rebs and also fouled out in just 22 minutes of action. Stockton had 16 points, 14 assists and 7 steals. Bryant added 21 points and 7 assists. Nash had 17 points with 9 assists. Popeye Jones had 15 with 7 rebs and 2 assists in 24 mins.

Thunder boomed wiht Payton scoring 26 with 11 assists and 6 rebs, Wells with 26, 4 assists, 5 rebs and 2 steals in 26 mins. Malone scored 25 points but fouled out in 23 mins. Brandon had 8 with 17 assists. Zendon Hamilton had 15 points, 7 rebs and 2 BK in 21 mins.


Game 3: St.Lucie 144
Galactic 113


St.Lucie shot 63% from the field while Galactic took the night off shooting only 47% St. Lucie missed another 11 FT's(24-34), which was about the only thing that didn't go right for the Aces. Taking the rebs(58-32). Both teams had 37 assists with Thunder with less turnovers 16-24.

Aces put 8 players in double figures lead again by Duncan with 29 and 10 rebs. O'Neal had 26 with 12 rebs in 27 mins. Stockton had 19 with 14 assists. Popeye Jones with another good game with 16 points and 12 rebs in 27 mins. Webber with 20, 6 rebs, 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 BK.

Thunder lead by Malone with 22, Payton with 15 and 10 assists. Zendon Hamlton had another good game with 11, 6 rebs, 2 assists and 2 BK in 11 mins.

THE GAME to decide the League Division title.

Game 4: St.Lucie 132
Galactic 133

Thunder out score Aces 40 to 28 in 4th quarter to erase a 11 point lead by St. Lucie at the end of 3 quarters.

MJ's Dazzler to Malone with 2 seconds left was the winner as Nash (after a timeout) missed a 3 point attempt at the buzzer.

Aces out shot 64% to 54% and out rebounded Thunder 41-29. Galactic with more assists 41-37 and alot less turnovers 17-30.

Two factors turn the game for Galactic, Turnovers and Free Throws. St.Lucie with another 11 misses (26-37) as Galactic was 27 for 27 from the line!!

St. Lucie lead by Duncan with 32 and 11 rebs, but 8 turnovers. Bryant with 29 and 7 assists but 6 turnovers, O.Neal with 27 and 8 rebs. Stockton had 6 with 15 assists but 5 turnovers. Nash with 9 and 10 assists. Webber with 19, 11 rebs and 4 steals.

Galactic with Malone 28, Brandon with 28, 15 assists and 4 steals, Payton with 20, 8 assists and 5 rebs and Wells with 21.
 

Here are the 8 game series totals.

Field Goals 3's Free Throws OF DEF TOT AST PF DQ STL TO BK OUT PEN IN
Aces 448-707 .634% 18-43 .419% 196-269 .729% 64 241 305 301 170 3 88 210 30 101-119 52-88 176-267
Thunder 445-800 .556% 34-88 .386% 175-211 .829% 102 191 293 330 193 2 75 165 43 176-262 68-151 118-207

Tentative 2003 SABL Draft Order

The following is based on won-lost records and includes penalty point adjustments. Divisional and World Champions draft last, unless penalty points alter the order. Where won-lost records were tied, penalty points, autoplaying and other league records were used to break the ties. The playoffs are still underway, so the order is not final until our new 2003 SABL Champion is crowned. At this time, the draft order is:

1. Chapel Hill 2. Good News 3. Finney 4. Miles 5. Davenport 6. Tulsa 7. River City 8. Iowa 9. Brooklyn 10. Akron 11. Bettendorf 12. Holcomb 13. Quad City 14. McLean 15. East Asia 16. St. Lucie 17. TriCity 18. Richmond 19. Galactic 20. Bakersfield

Aces take first two from McLean at St. Lucie

Game 1 – 125-114 

Nat Jerry Stackhouse led all scorers with 33 points. He also added 6 assists. McLean’s Jalen Rose scored 24, with 3 steals. Andre Miller had 12 assists and 15 points.

Not enough to stop St. Lucie this time, as Tim Duncan scored 25 points with 15 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Kobe Bryant scored 20 and John Stockton scored 19 with 13 assists and 4 steals. Shaquille O’Neal scored 19 with 11 boards. 

Game 2 – 125-96 

The Aces scored the same amount, but McLean’s offense went down, as the Nats managed just 45% from the field to St.Lucie’s 59% FG shooting. Duncan, Bryant and Chris Webber all scored 24 points each. Duncan added 16 boards and 7 big blocked shots. Stockton scored 23, with 11 assists. 

Rose led McLean with 21 points. Andre Miller had 19 points and 13 assists and Brad Miller had 10 points and 13 boards.

The next three games are in McLean as Nat Coach Robert Storey hopes to keep his home game win streak against the Aces alive into the post-season. McLean won all 4 of its home games this year against St. Lucie.

Holcomb wins first two at home vs. Tulsa

The 2003 SABL Playoffs are underway as Charlie Dillingham's Holcomb Heat takes Game 1 & 2 from Philip Creider's Tulsa Twisters in Round One Classic Conference action.

Game 1: Game is tied 51 at the half. Holcomb outscores Tulsa 34-17 in the third to go up 85-68, as O'Neal and Davis both get in foul trouble. Tulsa cuts the lead to 4 late in the fourth but loose 107-98. O'Neal fouls out, going just 2 of 8 from the field and playing only 21 minutes. Marion gets 25 pts and 10 rebounds, but on 9 of 24 shooting. Davis gets 14 and 10 rebounds, but it was Person who picked up the slack hitting 5 of 6 3's and ending up with 29 on 12 of 15 shooting. Turnovers hurt Tulsa with 26 to Holcomb's 15. Holcomb was led by Rahim with 27 on 10 of 22 shooting, he also had 13 rebounds. Jones had 17, and Van Exel and Ratliff had 14 each. Ratliff had 7 blocks, one more than Tulsa as a team. Both teams shot 45% from the field.

Game 2: Holcomb outscores Tulsa in each qtr to win going away 120-94. Holcomb led at half, 56-42. Tulsa was 16 of 50 from the floor in the first half, 38 of 98 for the game for 37% Marion had 23 on 9 of 23 shooting,O'Neal 16 on 6 of 15 shooting, Davis 10 on 4 of 13 shooting. O'Neal did have 5 blocks. Holcomb was led by Jones with 29, 10 of 16 from the field, Rahim was10 of 13 for 22, Williams had 19 and 8 assists, Van Exel had 15,. Holcomb shot 57% from the floor on 50 of 88 shooting.

The series now goes to Tulsa for three games! Stay tuned!

Playoff picture is set, get those instructions out! April Anarchy begins!

Congratulations to all our 2003 playoff entrants. It looks like we have a great playoff season coming up. All SABL playoff teams should send our their first round instructions now! It's time for our 2002 SABL playoffs, our April Anarchy! Here are the brackets:

Another playoff surprise: Steve Feldheim's Tigers (32-50). Brooklyn squeaked in over Iowa (32-50) because the Tigers won 7 of 8 games against Dennis Derby's Tornadoes.

Brooklyn is actually a perennial playoff participant, being in post-season play five years in a row, from 1994-1999. Steve is one of only two SABL coaches to have stayed with the league every single year since the beginning in 1994 (Your commissioner is the other coach). He won his first divisional title in 1996 and appeared in his first SABL Finals the same year (he lost, to Dave Plisko). Steve won his next divisional title in 1998 and won his only SABL championship the same year.

He won his final divisional title and had perhaps his best year in 1999 (71-11) and had the league's MVP in Karl Malone, the only SABL player to make the All-Star team every single year. The Tigers were beaten by the Aces in that year's Finals. Following that, Steve traded Malone and John Stockton off, preparing for the future, which could be now.

Also, the Bakersfield Blades are being coached in the playoffs by the Amazing Kevin Feeney of the Davenport Dazzlers. Please send all Bakersfield instructions to Kevin.

All playoff games are played on the game's neutral court setting, just like we do in the regular season. All playoff series are 7 games, in a 2-3-2 format.

Divisional winners always get to play 4 games of the 7 game series at their arena (home-court advantage). Two games at the home-court advantage team's arena, three games at the other team's arena and then two more games at the home-court advantage team's arena.

If no teams in the games are divisional winners, then the team with the best won-lost record gets home-court advantage. If both teams are divisional winners, then the team with the best record gets home court advantage.

The team with the home-court advantage is the one that won the most regular season games or the one who won a division title. If both teams won a divisional title, then the team with the best regular season record has home-court advantage.

Round 1 - In the Bettendorf/Brooklyn series, Bettendorf has home-court advantage.

In the Quad City/Akron series, Quad City has home-court advantage.

In the Holcomb-Tulsa series, Holcomb has home-court advantage.

In the St. Lucie-McLean series, St. Lucie has home court-court advantage.

Send our your instructions and play ball! It's the second-season in the SABL and Round 1 games must be finished by April 15!

The winners of first round action will take on our divisional winners in Round Two.

Thunder (68-14) take 3 of 4 at Galactic to take South Division title

Congratulations to that wily Walters, who edged out, and I mean that literally, the Aces in the final seconds of the final game of their 8-game match to win his third divisional crown in the SABL. His other divisional wins were in 1996-97 and 1999-2000. Steve will be filing a complete report of the four games at his place very soon.

Good job, Steve, on winning the toughest division in the SABL!

Brooklyn (32-50) takes 4 of 6 from Bettendorf (37-45)

The final regular season games of the Royal Conference are in the books.