The 2011 Liberty Division featured eight teams competing for the title. Before the tournament, most people predicted that it would come down to the NY Sabres Black and the Washington CYC China Dolls. Both teams had been participating in the Women’s Open for numerous years, so they were the obvious favorites. This year, due to various reasons, Washington was missing 4 of their top 5 players from the past few NACBAIT’s so the move down to Liberty made sense. Meanwhile, the Sabres have been caught in the dreaded no man’s land for the past few years. They have never defeated a Women’s Open team, but they were probably more talented than the Liberty teams. In the end, it was time for them to take it down a notch and make them earn their way back to the Open. But on Saturday, both heavyweights appeared to be mortal as each team took a loss in pool play. In Pool L, the Toronto CCYAA Thunder emerged undefeated and in Pool LL, it was the shocking NY Force who came in first. These two teams, along with the Sabres and CYC advanced to the medal round.

At 10am Sunday morning, the NY Force would play the NY Sabres Black for the right to advance to the Chip game. The Sabres were prepared and jumped all over the Force with rookie Deb Chen hitting 3 first half trifectas en route to 13 pts, as they built a double digit cushion before halftime. Tenacious PG Joey Chan (19 pts) did her part to keep the Force in the game, but no one else could score consistently and the Sabres won 42-33. At the same time, the Toronto CCYAA Thunder was looking to stay undefeated as they squared off with the Washington CYC China Dolls. CCYAA went inside early to their Zach Randolph-esque All-Star Kara Ngo (8 pts). They also did a stellar job defensively on PG El Birman (USP), keeping her in check with only 11 points. But it was the unexpected hero, Miss Michelle Chan, who came through when it mattered most as she poured in 9 points, had 7 big time rebounds, and nailed a monster three as CYC won 30-26.

As anticipated, the Championship game did end up with the NY Sabres and Washington CYC China Dolls battling it out for the 2011 trophy. CYC was hot early and did a tremendous job on the defensive end as they took a 13-2 lead into halftime. Lydia Lui (All-NACBA, 10 pts) was playing great and the China Dolls were on their way to a championship dinner of Lobster Rolls. But the game turned sour quickly as the decidedly pro-NYC crowd began to wander over to this matchup when the games on other courts ended. Mega-controversy ensued as every call, every foul, and the resulting momentum began to go the way of NYC. Washington couldn’t do much to stop the bleeding as the crowd and NY style of coaching seemed to persuade the zebras to make it a game. The game somehow ended up going into OT, and MVP Maisie Wong put the Sabres in position to win it as they led by 4 points with 5 seconds to play. However, CYC would not get their chance for a miracle comeback as the lead official inexplicably called the game and declared it over with the score 33-29. Congrats to the NY Sabres on their second Liberty Championship!