AAU

CYBL Playoffs Take Center Stage – Championship Matches Set!

March 12, 2018

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The 2018 CYBL playoffs provided many great match-ups and even some upsets on the way to deciding who will play in the Showdown for the Championship.

Banners of Under Armour at Durham College – Oshawa campus

The Under Armour sponsoring helped transform the Oshawa campus of Durham College into a perfect haven for young and inspiring ballers.

The CYBL playoffs took place all weekend and the biggest upsets of the weekend happened when the No. 3 seeded CIA Bounce (East) got bounced out of the tournament by the sixth ranked Team Breakdown (416) 68-66 in the Quarter-Finals. Chambers drained an ill-advised 3 for Team Breakdown to clinch the game and get his team to the Semi-Finals. Chambers finished the game with 19 points including FIVE three pointers.

Freddy Appiah’s CIA Bounce team dominated their playoff matches. Appiah’s team feeds off his incredible energy on the sidelines, playing a hard and with a very quick tempo brand of basketball.

CIA Bounce – Appiah easily defeated Milton (Canada Elite) in the Quarter-Finals 55-38, led by their point guard X Lee scoring 12 points. In the Semi-Finals, Appiah’s team dismantled the Cinderella story that was Team Breakdown 416, 70-40 with Ashton Brown scoring a game high 22 points and completing dominating the game on both ends of the floor.

YAAACE (Canada Elite) also cruised through the Elite pool playoffs, first with a 56-39 win over 8th seed Brampton Warriors Elite and then put together another great defensive performance winning 57-44 against Triple Balance (Canada Elite). Osagie Osagiede led his team not only in points with 13 but also coming down with big rebounds.

This sets up a very intriguing battle with the two best teams in the Elite pool. The Final between YAAACE and CIA Bounce-Appiah goes down on Mar. 31 at 8:15 PM inside Durham College. Can Freddy’s electric energy and pure passion help ignite his team to defeat the undefeated YAAACE squad?

Switching over to the Grade 8 Competitive pool, the incredible game between YAAACE Purple and CIA Bounce (West) during Session Four, led many to believe this could be a preview of the Championship game. However, Team Breakdown Central had other plans.

YAAACE Purple easily got past Team Breakdown (Ainsworth), winning 55-39 to advance to the Semi-Finals. They would come across a tough London CYO team. London’s Aaron Roeun had a very strong first half where he put up nine of his ten points in the game and was a big reason the game remained close for most of the game. Down the stretch, YAAACE just had too much fire power and took the game 41-34. Ryan Barrett exploded for 20 points in the win.

The other Semi-Final saw the 15-1 CIA Bounce (West) team take on Team Breakdown Central who were 12-4 throughout the season.

The game was very tight the whole way, with 2:10 remaining Breakdown Central held a 44-43 lead. For them, they wanted to spoil the #1 vs #2 Final, and that’s exactly what they did.

With under a minute left in the game, they scored then got a steal off an inbound pass and scored a bucket in transition to make it 48-43. Breakdown Central iced the game at the free throw line making one of two and the upset was complete. Team Breakdown Central 49, CIA Bounce (West) 43.

The Showdown Final match-up is set. The No. 1 ranked YAAACE Purple will play the No. 3 ranked Team Breakdown Central on Mar. 31 at 10:35 AM inside Durham College. Breakdown Central will need all their weapons firing to take down the top ranked YAAACE Purple squad in the Final.