New York won it's second basketball championship in a row by defeating Detroit 106-78 in the championship game held on Saturday July 4th. The championship was the third in four years, and fourth in the eight years of the games dating back to 1991( NY came in second in 92 and 96).With only seven teams participating in this years game New York got a bye in the first round and did not play on Thursday. In other games that day Boston 'A' lost to Detroit, Philadelphia beat Chicago, Boston 'B' defeated Providence. Friday at 2pm New York faced Providence in what turned out to be an easy 81-39 victory.
The Providence team was made out of mostly players who were playing in the senior division for the first time(in 97 they won the junior championship). New York took the lead and never looked back, the score was 42-23 at half time. Second half was again dominated by New York which had held the height advantage and converted the rebounds into easy fast break points. Final score was 81-39, Scott Zakian had 28 points, Allan Babaian had 13, while Ari and Arek Papelians had 13 points each.
New York faced Boston 'A' in the semi-final game, both teams played in last year's championship game in Providence. Boston had defeated Philadelphia in the second round, while Detroit defeated Chicago and played Boston 'B' in the other semi-final game.
New York played the game at 6pm Friday, with only 2 hours of rest in between this and the Providence game. It was apparent from the start that New York had not rested enough, Boston quickly built an early lead. At times it seemed like NY was walking while Boston was running all over them and scoring easily. Boston's biggest lead was 16 points with 1:30 minutes remaining to the half. New York cut Boston's lead to 11 and trailed 31-20 at the half.
New York started the second half with a furry as Dennis Reziah scored on a 3-pointer, followed by a basket from Scott Zakian, a 3-pointer by Allan Babaian and within 72 seconds the score was 31-28 Boston. Both teams picked up the tempo and traded baskets as New York twice tied the score. New York finally took the lead up 4 points with 2 minutes remaining, but seemed to want to give it back to Boston. With the score New York 54, Boston 50 and 100 seconds remaining New York committed 4 turnovers which Boston could not convert into points. New York's defense held while it's offense self destructed.
The biggest play of the game was when Boston had the ball with 40 seconds remaining, as the teams came down one of the Boston players "dove" to the ground faking a push by Eddie Shamlian. The referee only saw the end result of this "oscar" deserving act and awarded Eddie a technical foul, Boston received 2 free throws and the ball. After the Boston player made the first shot New York called a time out, Boston missed the next shot and could not convert the techinal awarded posation into points.
New York was fouled with 6 seconds remaining, New York shot a horrible 11 for 21 from the line for the game, and thus missed the one and one opportunity. Boston had one last chance to tie the game. They attempted a full court pass which was succesfull, however the Boston player who got the ball drove to the basket and scored what he thought to be the tying basket (instead of taking a 3 pointer). The game clock expired and New York escaped with a 54-53 victory. Allan Babaian led NY with 18 points, Scott Zakian had 17, Eddie Shamlian added 7 along with Arek Papelian
New York faced Detroit in the Championship game played Saturday afternoon, Detroit had defeated Boston 'B' in the other semi-final game. Detroit players before the game started reminding New York how in 1997 New York escaped with a "lucky" two point victory in the first round game. Detoit had added height this year, with two young players who were over 6 foot 2, and had supprised everyone in reaching the finals.
Detroit scored the first basket of the game and had it's only lead of the game at 2-0. New York made the score 8-2 and Detroit took it's first time out. Detroit made the score 8-4, but then NY quickly made it 14-4, again Detroit called a time out. This time Detroit forced New York to call a time out after bringing the score to 14-11. However, New York came out of the time out with a 22-0 run and blew open the game. Detroit's zone defense was no match to the outside shooting of Scott Zakain and Allan Babaian, as each scored 3-pointers easily. The half time score was 54-28 New York
The second half started slow for New York as they played a soft defense and allowed Detroit to cut the New York lead down to only 15 points. Coach Vicken Shekookian used another time out to awaken his team, the team responded and built the lead to over 30 points and won 106-78 to capture their second consecutive title, and third in the last four years.
Scott Zakian led all scorers with 34 points, followed by Arek Papelian's 24, Ari Papelian had 15. There were two wonderful plays in the game, the first was Simon Bardizbanian's move during a 3 on 2 fast break. Simon faked the pass to the right and took the ball himself to the basket, the fake left the Detroit players dazed in their spots. The second was Hatch Seolymezian's reverse lefty lay up after missing two easy layups in the Providence game. Some other memories of the tournament were Dennis's 2 for 2 shooting from the 3 point line, Rich Manoulian's key assits and Serge Avakian's clutch baskets in the paint. New York is looking forward to next year's tournament which it will host, and a chance to three-peat.
The Homenetmen of New York soccer team once again came in second place in this year's regional games. New York has won the tournament twice and captured second four times, this being the second year in a row.
This year New York entered two teams in the tournament, this proved to be a mistake on the coaching staff's part. The first team 'A' had 16 players on the roster, however only 13 were able to go to Philadelphia. The second team "B" had 15 players on the roster and 14 were able to make the trip.
In the first round new York "A" palyed the strong Washington team and lost 2-1, the "B" team played Toronto and also lost 3-1. New York trailed 1-0 at half time in both games. Against Washington Harout Tamazian scored to equal the game, but Washington scored in the 80th minute to win. Ara Piramzadian scored in the Toronto game after trailing Toronto 0-2.
In the second round, the two New York teams played the reversed opponents, with a loss in this round a team would be eliminated from the tournament. New York "B" lost to Washington 7-2 (3-0 at half time), Ara Piramzadian scored to make it 5-1 on an assit by Simon Bardizbanian. Hatchig Oulanian scored to make it 5-2 in the 70th minute, however Washington scored twice again and moved on to the semifinals.
The "A" team defeated Toronto 4-1 (0-1 at half time). Toronto had scored in the 2nd minute of play. New York got goals from Ara Manookian (penalty kick) 50th minute, Harout Tamazian 60th min., and two goal by Dikran Arakellian.
The semifinals were held on Saturday, in one game Boston faced Washington, while in the other New York faced Montreal.
New York was leading at half time 1-0 on a goal by Ara Manookian at the 35th minute of play. In the second half New York built a 3-0 lead on goals from Dikran Arakellian and Harout Tamazian in the 60th and 68th minute of play. Montreal scored their first goal on a penalty shot at the 80th minute of the game; this gave Montral a needed lift. Five minutes later Montreal scored to make the game 3-2 on what appeared to be a missed play on the NY defense. The game ended 3-2 and New York advance to face Boston in the championship game on Sunday.
The Championship game was played in front of a big crowd which had gathered to see and be part of the closing ceremonies.
New York and Boston played a beautiful first half, with New York having the better chances for a goal, which did not happen. New York played the entire game with only 12 players available for the game. A player was suspended for this game by recieving a red card in the semi final game.
In the second half Boston took advantage of New York's tired team and scored a beautiful goal from a free kick 25 yards out at the 55th minute. In the 62th minute they again scored from a free kick. With New York trailing 2-0 the team pushed forward to attack and gave up playing defense. Again Boston capitilized by scoring two goals two minutes apart on breakaways to lead 4-0.
New York finally scored in the 80th minute on a penalty shot by Eddik Eskendarian; the younger brother of the former New York Cosmos famous Armenian player. Boston scored again with three minutes remaining to capture the championship.
