The WYBA held their annual rec. basketball high school division championships on the 9th of March, and the night did not disappoint.

The action started out with the Boys’ championship between the Suns and Rockets. Both of these teams were the heavyweights of the league all year. Each team had only lost one game during the regular season.

In the beginning of the game the Rockets jumped out to an early 11-5 lead receiving most of their offense from their senior lead Pat Nolan who finished the game with 13 points. The Rockets continued to bolster their lead with timely 3’s from Chris Delouchrey who finished the game with 15 points. The combination of skilled pull up jump shots from Nolan along with Delouchrey’s first half outburst the Rockets held a commanding 11 point lead with three minutes to play in the first half.

The Suns comeback started from an unexpected source as Rockets senior Zack Kelly mistakenly hit a 3 pointer on his own basket. Then senior Jake Hill of the Suns powered his way to a layup in the post Giving the Suns new found confidence heading into the second half.

The Second half was a much different story. Nolan and Delouchrey cooled off and were unable to provide the scoring that they had in the first half. The Suns then made a habit of fast breaking after Hill came up with defensive rebounds.

Hill was able to find Sam McMillan and Jason Dolan running up the floor. Mcmillan later hit a pull up 3 to give the Suns their first lead of the game at 47-46 with 8 minutes to play. The Suns then never looked back as the defensive presence of Hill in the middle proved too much for the Rockets.

The Suns beat the Rockets by a score of 63-57. Hill who finished the game with 13 points was named tournament MVP. Hill then cited his team’s timely play as a key to the win.

“We locked down, played defense, and got key rebounds,” said Hill, “We got key buckets and played as a team.”

The second game of the night was between the Troopers and the Dust for the Girls’ Championship. The Dust came in as the favorite having won the most games during the regular season.

However, the Troopers were the team who jumped out to an early lead as Elizabeth Deloia opened up the scoring with a deep two followed by a Kayla Rochon three pointer. Molly Maclure then hit a deep three.

The Dust stayed in the game with help from Katherine Arnold who went 4 for 4 from the free throw line in the first half.

Veronica Alinskas later grabbed a rebound and put it back in for the Troopers giving them a 16-10 lead at halftime.

In the 2nd half Alinskas finished a layup and drew a foul to give the Troopers an 18-13 point lead.

The Dust then mount a comeback as Arnold hit back to back layups followed by a Megan Bramanti two pointer. This gave the Dust their first lead of the ball game.

The game was then extremely back and forth when Maclure and Arnold hit consecutive jump shots which knotted the game at 21 all.

The Dust were able to find a 27-24 lead after timely baskets from Bramanti and Caley Mckenney. Rochon then went one for two from the line making the score 27-25.

With under 20 seconds left Alinskas went to the free throw line to shoot two shots down 25-27. Alinskas was only able to make one of her two free throws and the Dust held on to win 26-27.

Arnold proved to be the difference for the Dust with a team high 12 points. Arnold stated that the Dust’s key to success was how they played as a team.

“I thought teamwork and communication [was why we won],” said Arnold, “It was a real team effort.”