10-30-2010 | YULA Panthers on Prowl for the Cooper Championship after win in Overtime

10-30-2010 | YULA Panthers on Prowl for the Cooper Championship after win in Overtime

By Dylan Cooper

The long anticipated clash between the #2 YULA Panthers and the #3 Flatbush Falcons was viewed not only by a packed gymnasium in Memphis, but hundreds of people online glued to their computers in Los Angeles and Brooklyn.

The east coast versus west coast game began extremely close, yet the Panthers had a slight edge over the Falcons. Soon Flatbush picked up the pace and took over winning 12-10 by the end of the first quarter. The game continued to be neck and-neck -during the second quarter as each team knew it was playing for a spot in the championship game.

With the second half underway, the YULA Panthers cam e back stronger than ever, going on a 10-0 run giving them a 31-19 lead. The Falcons swiftly bounced back, ending the 3rd quarter down by only 2. Then the Falcons started to dominate on the floor and took a small lead over the Panthers. At the 1 minute mark, YULA was ahead by 2 points, thanks to Captain Yigal Fatirian. However, both teams could not come up with any points in the last 10 seconds and the game went into overtime.

In overtime, the YULA Panthers started off slow, but soon got going, and were up by 2 points with 40 seconds remaining. The Falcons could not follow through, and were left to start fouling to keep the game close. After a 3 pointer at buzzer, the Falcons came just a bit short to YULA going down 53-51.