Mens Senior 25 & Over Division

This year's edition of the Mens Seniors 35 & Over NACBAIT was the most highly contested Tournament in recent memory. Almost every one of the 10 teams had a real shot at making history here. Saturday's pool play yielded a couple of upsets and couple of surprises. But for these tourney vets, the real basketball was to be played in the Medal Round. In the First Round on Sunday, the Boston Knights Senior met up with last year's Consolation Champs- Markham FCCM. Early on, Tai Duong (10 pts, 4-4 FT's) was playing great for FCCM as they took a 15-11 lead at the break. But in the second half, the battle tested Knights came back thanks to the boardwork of big Kin Yun and a momentum turning triple from Harry Seeto. The Knights moved forward 29-27. In the other First Round game, Arthur Hong was a one man shooting clinic as he fired in 26 to lead his Montreal Mynix Seniors to a 38-20 win over the Boston Wong Association. The Mynix then took on the undefeated New Jersey Pirates. Arthur continued to shoot the lights out with 22 points, but a lack of depth really hurt Montreal as they played a much younger and more athletic Pirates team. Jersey won handily 66-52 as Steve Lee had 16 for the Pirates. Up next was the Boston Hurricanes Sr v/s Toronto CCYAA Sr. This was a game of size v/s speed as 6-5 Richard Zhu would have find a way to deal with Boston's (relatively) young guard tandem of Ray Kiam and Jin Lau. Mr. Zhu simply went about business as usual, scoring 23 points and even stepping out to swish a trip every so often just to show he could. CCYAA took an 8 point lead into halftime. Jin sank 5 3's in the second half for the Canes but it was a story of too little, too late for the Canes. Toronto won 47-41. In other Elite Eight action, last year's Friendship Champion NY Fishmen defeated the 2005 Seniors runners up, the Chicago Dragons Senior, 36-35 in a nail-biter. Ageless Dragon wonder Robert Choy torched the Big Apple for 23, while big man Wing Lau dropped in 10 for the Fishmen. The final game of the round saw the hometown Knights Senior take a commanding 10 point lead early before sailing to a 43-30 win over the thin benched NY Thunder. All-Tournament forward Rich Lee paced Beantown with a cool dozen.

In the Semis, the Knights met up with the NY Fishmen in a pool play rematch. The Fishmen had taken the previous game 34-29 thanks to some outstanding perimeter shooting. However, the second time around, it was the Knights who were shooting the rock unconsciously to take a 6 point lead shortly before the half. Guard Harry Seeto was killer as he scored 18 big points to lead his team to the Finals 32-29. Yen Liu was high man for the Fishmen with 9. The other Semifinal was a game that everyone wanted to see- the NJ Pirates v/s Toronto CCYAA Senior. The Pirates came out gunning as they ran up and down the court against the shorthanded Canadians. Beaver Ho and Ted Hom buried 3's like they were layups, and Steve Lee scored with stellar efficiency from all over the court. By halftime, the score was 28-16 in Jersey's favor. The second half gave us more of the same run & gun show from the Pirates. Jeff Fong did his best to keep T dot in the game as he pumped in 19 of his 24 points after halftime but it just wasn't enough to overcome the feverish Pirate attack. Pirates 55-Toronto CCYAA 44. The Finals game saw the NJ Pirates meet the Boston Knight Sr on Monday morning at the Wang YMCA. This was the 7th game for the Knights Seniors, and the 6th game for the Pirates. That extra game must have made a big difference because it became obvious early on that Boston just didn't have the legs to compete with the Pirates squad. The younger Pirates just kept pushing the ball upcourt against the fatigued Knights. The Knights found themselves down big early. Rich Lee (14 points, 7 rebounds) did his best to stop the bleeding, but the Pirates just kept coming in waves to take control of the game 30-19 midway. Towards the end of the second half, Harry Seeto (10 pts, 2 treys) gave the Knights a second chance as he ignited a small run to get the hometown crowd back in the game, but New Jersey guard Beaver Ho (NACBAIT Top 25) responded with a strong drive down the middle to get the game back under Jersey's control. The Pirates captured their third NACBAIT Seniors title with a 55-43 win. Congratulations New Jersey.