Seattle, WA - The Cross Chargers dingy old bus that served the Cross Chargers so well in their road playoff tour has brought the team home winners. The Chargers closed out the TriLams 102-90 in game three of the DIII.9 finals last night, earning them a promotion to DII.
The Cross Chargers did it the hard way. The team entered the season with a deep cup run as its goal, even at the expense of dropping a few league games in the process. This plan was reinforced further after a couple mid-season injuries to Guo Jianpeng and David Mairandres led to team to divert focus from tough league games to winnable tournament games. The team succeeded in achieving its deepest cup run to date and wound up 14-8, solidly in 3rd place.
However, fate intervened. The team got healthy in the stretch run and was able to build up enthusiasm, allowing them to steal two road playoff games against the Defenseless Babies and an injury depleted Illusion squad. The team also caught a huge break with the TriLams pulling an upset of their own, knocking off the distracted 21-1 Hippies on the road, as the Hippies would have caused all sorts of matchup problems for the Chargers.
This is not say the TriLams were a pushover. Led by the ageless wonder Fox Junqueria and Fabrice Berthier, the TriLams were undefeated at home during league play. It certainly looked like the Chargers spent all their energy just getting to the finals as they dropped the first game on the road 98-78, which was not as close as the score indicated. Late season acquistion SF Graham Miranda called a players only meeting after the game to settle the less experienced players down and whatever he said seemed to work. The Chargers eked out a 102-97 victory despite 4 players ending the game with 5 fouls. Energized by the big home win, the Chargers went all out in the rubber match picking up their 3rd road win of the playoffs and puching its ticket to DII.
The team will likely look a bit different next season as the team prepares to face even stiffer competition. The PG position will need an upgrade and the bench will need to be lengthed. As for now, the team is savoring the sweet taste of victory from its miracle run.
Last edited by jista26 at 2/6/2012 10:21:17 AM
Last edited by jista26 at 2/6/2012 10:22:48 AM