skip navigation

MPBA Semi-Finals tip off tonight

By Scott Beatty, Craig Fata, 04/09/15, 1:30AM CDT

Share

Winners advance to Championship game Friday

 

April 9, 2015

BLOOMINGTON, Illinois  -- To say the Gateway Steam and the St. Louis RiverSharks are very familiar with each other is a little bit of an understatement.

Throughout the inaugural MPBA season they faced each other four times while sharing the same home floor and practice facility. Plus, they matched up in their final two regular season games.

While St. Louis can boast that they swept the season series, Thursday night’s MPBA Semi-Final game is the only one that matters now.

The winner advances to the MPBA Championship game on Friday night to face the winner of the Bloomington/Champaign Semi-Final that follows on Thursday night.

The RiverSharks (16-4) enter the postseason as the number-one seed. They have the league’s top offense (113.5 ppg), and they outscored Gateway (5-15) by an average of 20.5 points in their four games. And while Gateway rebuilt their roster for the second half of the season, they squeaked into the playoffs as a number-four seed. St. Louis won the final two games, 130-121 and 119-99.

Gateway’s rebound came in large part from a tremendous midseason signing in stretch forward Tarvin Gaines, who averaged 28.6 points per game in the final nine regular season contests along with 9.2 rebounds. Guard Jake Anderson was the league’s top distributor with 91 assists (4.5 per game) while pouring in 15.6 points per game.

St. Louis’ attack is anchored by MVP-candidate Keith DeWitt, who was the league’s regular-season rebounding champ (10.8 rpg) along with an 18.1 scoring average. DeWitt teams with Marcus Goode (18.7 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 2.2 bpg) for a formidable frontcourt.

Guard Jerrold Brooks is the top scorer at 25.2 points per game. It may not be too much of a stretch to say he is in range the moment he steps on the court; he shot an eye-popping .483 percentage from three-point range (58-for-120).

The Semi-Final tips at 5 p.m. at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, Ill.

If the Bloomington Flex, meanwhile, are to advance to the Midwest Professional Basketball Association championship game Friday, they’ll have to beat their rivals from a couple counties over on I-74 for the fourth time in five tries this season.

The Flex and Champaign Swarm square off at 8:05 p.m. C.D.T. Thursday at U. S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington to earn the right to play for the inaugural MPBA Championship against the winner of the St. Louis RiverSharks/Gateway Steam semi-final, which takes place at 5:05 p.m. C.D.T., also at U. S. Cellular Coliseum.
 

(Click here for Swarm game notes.)

“With them being so close geographically, it’s turned into a great rivalry already,” said Carlnel Wiley, Jr., head coach of the Flex.  “They play an aggressive style of defense, so we’ll have to take care of the ball and execute when we get the opportunity.  It should be a great game,” Wiley said.

The Flex are paced by Justin Bocot, who led the league in scoring at 26.1 points per game, a Flex franchise single-season record.  Anthony Slack leads the team in rebounding at 10.3 per game, good for second in the league, and his 56 blocked shots was tops in the MPBA.  His front-court mate, Matt Salley, finished the season third in the league at 9.6 rebounds per game.  Fabyon Harris, who was key late in games down the stretch for the Flex, adds 18.3 points per game off the bench, and C.J. Hampton, second in the league with 57 three-pointers made, averages 18.2 a contest.

The Swarm boast a pair of 20-point scorers in starter Avery Smith (20.8), and Aaron Weaver (20.7), who typically comes off the bench for coach Chris Daleo.  Six Swarm players average scoring in double figures.  Champaign’s leading rebounder is Mark St. Fort, who pulls down 7.6 boards per game.  Recent addition Malcolm Griffin leads the team with 3.8 assists and 2.4 steals per game.

Tickets both semi-final games are available through the Coliseum box office, online at uscellularcoliseum.com, or by phone at (309) 434-2679.  Both games will be televised in free of charge and in high definition on the league live stream page, MPBA.tv.