WS Chronicle

Photo by Timothy Ramsey

BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY 

THE CHRONICLE

With over 200 kids and close to 30 teams, the winter basketball league at the Winston Lake YMCA was chockfull of talent and depth.

After a grueling fight through the regular season and the playoffs, the Spurs took home the championship in the 13-14 age group by defeating the Legends 64-63 in a game that literally went down to the final 0.4 of a second.

To start the game, the young men and women of both teams played all out from the tip off.  The Spurs got out to an early lead and led by nine after one quarter with Nathan Cathcart leading the way.  The Spurs seemed to have all the momentum at that point and looked to pour it on in the second.

“In the beginning, my team seemed like they were slacking, so I thought me and my friend had to just step up and take over,” said Nathan Cathcart.  “At that time, my teammates couldn’t make shots, but we just played aggressive and that’s how we won.”

Shaking off the early deficit, the Legends came storming back in the second quarter, closing the gap to 6 at the half.  Staying within striking distance for the rest of the game, the Legends took the lead in the third and led by seven after three.

In the fourth, the Spurs roared back behind a phenomenal effort from Kevon Powell and tied the game at 55 with less than three minutes left on the clock.  With the game in the balance, the Legends went to the line with less than a second on the clock only needing to hit one to tie the game, but the player missed both free throws, giving the victory to the Spurs.

“I saw we were down and I knew I had to step up because I could not let them win, especially since they beat us last year,” said Powell.  “When we won, I just thought to myself that we had made it all the way to the top and that we did our best.”

Legends coach Byron Kanpper said he was extremely proud of his team because of the way they continued to fight throughout the entire game. He says even though they came up short, he was happy for the Spurs.

“We played well but we just missed a bunch of layups and were missing a few players,” Kanpper said.  “I kept telling them to just play their game and take your shots.  Even though we lost, we fought back all season because we were the bottom seed. They came a long way and I love those kids.  I’ll play with them against anybody.”

Lester Nowlin, Spurs head coach, says he thought his team played very well and was happy for his team.

“It was a great game even though we were up and let them come back,” Nowlin said.  “When they came back I had to call a timeout and had to let the guys know we need to tighten up, and once they figured that out, we were OK.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing my guys going to the various high schools in the city to play high school ball and hopefully they will start no matter where they go.”