BABC Takes EYBL Title

New England Recruiting Report | Thursday, July 14th, 2011

The Boston Amatuer Basketball Club claimed the 2011 Nike EYBL championship on Friday with a win over Memphis YOMCA in a national televised game. 

Nerlens Noel played his most aggressive offensive game of the tournament, going 8-19 from the floor for 17 points along with 5 assists, while continuing to anchor the team’s defensive effort with 10 rebounds, 6 blocks, and 4 steals. 

BABC utilized their trademark 1-2-2 pressure throughout the game and held YOMCA’s touted duo of Shaq Goodwin and Jarnell Stokes well below their averages.  Goodwin scored just ten points while Stokes was forced into six turnovers. 

Jaylen Brantley and Georges Niang led the BABC offense, going for 24 points and 21 points respectively.  Brantley was 4-5 from behind the three-point line and 9-15 from the floor while Niang was as efficient as ever, going 9-12 from the field while also contributing 7 rebounds. 

Rene Castro went just 6-17 from the floor but still scored 12 points and handed out 4 assists with no turnovers. 

Domonique Bull was BABC’s fifth starter while Andrew Chrabascz, Goodluck Okonoboh, Wayne Selden, and Jake Layman all saw time off the bench. 

The championship game was a close one throughout the first 20 minutes, going back and forth before BABC would take a 3 point lead into halftime.  They broke the game open midway through the second with a 9-0 run that pushed the lead from 54-47 to 63-47 with eight minutes to play and then utilized their ball control offense to put the game away. 

BABC’s championship comes by virtue of defeating arguably the three toughest teams in the field, beginning with the defending champions, Team Takeover, in the quarterfinals and a semifinal win over top seeded Oakland Soldiers. 

The Peach Jam championship was the last remaining obstacle for BABC founder and head coach Leo Papile as his program had advanced to the finals 8 times without claiming the championship before this year. 

The title comes less than a year after BABC took last summer’s sixteen-and-under AAU national championship and only a week after taking this freshmen AAU national title.  BABC will return to action next week when they go for the sweep by competing for national championships in both the sophomore and junior divisions.