Prime Time wins 5th consecutive league title
When Chris Thomas looks back on the fifth consecutive minor league basketball championship he has led the Prime Time Players to, this one seems a little sweeter.
The team has dominated the two leagues it has competed in, winning three Tobacco Road Basketball League titles before claiming each of the past two East Coast Basketball League crowns, the latest was a 119-100 win over the Fayetteville Crossover on June 25.
“Throughout the five years we’ve kept the same core of guys, which I’m really proud of,” said Thomas, who serves as coach and general manager.
“This year we had some injuries, we played shorthanded and took a couple of losses early on but we still stuck with it the whole season. We beat the top four teams our last four games of the year. We beat all of them pretty good in the playoffs, which is a big accomplishment. Usually we’ve had some of the worst teams early, but this year we had to work to win the championship.”
In a rematch of last year’s final, the Players got up early, taking a quick 10-0 lead. They led by 15 after the first quarter and by 32 points at halftime, but Fayetteville wasn’t done.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Crossover cut the lead to 11 points. That’s when Thomas called a timeout that would secure the outcome.
“They did get it down to 11 because I think we got a little complacent, but we called a timeout and said, ‘Hey, let’s buckle down and put these guys away,’ ” he said.
Prime Time responded, going on a 19-11 run to close the game and earn the 2016 title.
Terell Smith led five players in double figures, posting a game-high 34 points to go with six rebounds and four assists for Prime Time. League scoring champion Chris Moore had 24 points, eight rebounds and four assists, Brian Mobley recorded 21 points and six rebounds, Danny Sanders had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds and Pierre Stines contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The balanced scoring is nothing new as the team had four of the league’s top eight regular season scorers including Moore (32.5 per game, first), Smith (26.1, fourth), Lewis Sims (24.4, seventh) and Jamie Vaughn (24.0, eighth) although Vaughn was limited to two games.
But the perseverance his team showed through injury and missed games is what makes this year that much more special for Thomas, he said. Mobley, a 2015 All-Star and starter, missed most of the year, moving Victor Street into the starting lineup.
“We always can score, but this year we might have been down a little bit due to some of the injuries,” he said. “We’ve had games in the 180s, but this year we had a bunched where we topped 130.
“Not having Mobley hurt us a little, but Victor played well and that opened things up for Danny Sanders. He was our sixth man, but ended up making it to the all-star game this year and averaged 19.1 points per game, so everyone did their part.”
The Prime Time Players closed their season with a 13-2 record – they’ve gone 68-5, including 40-0 at home, during the five year run – but still have more basketball to play.
For the second straight year they competed in The Basketball Tournament at the Grady Cole Center in Charlotte. The tournament is played in multiple cities and the eventual winner takes home a $2 million prize. Despite leading early, The Players lost in the first round of the tournament, 87-82.
That didn’t spoil the season as far as Thomas is concerned.
“There are a lot of teams that talk about their success, but we’ve won five straight titles and not a lot of teams can say that,” Thomas said. “That’s a huge accomplishment especially since we’ve stayed together and now we’re going to get the biggest one yet on our largest stage.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 1:06 PM with the headline "Prime Time wins 5th consecutive league title."