BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Bellingham Slam ended a 61-year professional basketball title drought for the city as they shook off a poor start to upset the Elkhart Express, 118-111, in the International Basketball League championship game in front of a sold-out Whatcom Pavilion on Friday.
It appeared as if the two-time defending champion Express were going to easily cruise to a third title, as they jumped out to 9-0 and 22-8 leads early in the first quarter. But guard Paul Hafford came off the bench to provide a much-needed spark, hitting a trio of three-pointers late in the quarter, with his third coming with 13 seconds left to give the Slam a 30-28 advantage. Elkhart opened up the quarter with 22 points in the first six minutes to build their early lead, but the Slam defense held them to just six points in the last six minutes as the Slam offense mounted a comeback.
Their early jitters over with, the Slam used solid all-around play from Hafford and forward Tyler Amaya to build on their lead in the second quarter. Bellingham went into halftime with a nine-point lead, at 62-53, after center Brian Dennis converted a put-back as time expired for his only points in the game.
In the third quarter, the Slam’s lead reached as high as 11 with 2:03 gone before Elkhart scored 13 of the game’s next 16 points to re-take the lead at 72-71 with under four minutes left in the period. Ryan Diggs stopped the Express run by scoring Bellingham’s next seven points and the Slam maintained a two-point lead, at 83-81, going into the final quarter.
The Slam knew Elkhart was fully capable of mounting a fourth-quarter comeback, and protected their lead by coming through with some of their finest basketball of the season. Forward Lukas Henne opened the quarter with one of his signature step-back three-pointers and the Slam didn’t look back after that. Bellingham held Elkhart to just 33 percent field goal shooting in the quarter to stymie their comeback attempt. A Ryan Diggs jumper off a Hafford pass gave the Slam their biggest lead of the game at twelve with 5:27 left to play, but Elkhart was able to trim the lead down to five, at 110-105, with 1:19 left on a Lincoln Glass three-pointer. But the Slam used perfect three-throw shooting in the final minute to preserve the victory and send the Whatcom Pavilion fans into a confetti-launching frenzy as time expired.
Hafford and Amaya shared the game’s Most Valuable Player honors thanks to their gritty efforts. Hafford finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds while Amaya contributed with 20 points and 13 boards. Guard Jacob Stevenson also had a strong title game for the Slam, scoring 24 points.
The Express were led by guard Cedric Moodie, who scored 20 points despite a 2-for-14 performance from beyond the arc. Forward Coleco Buie scored 17 points while Glass added 15. Despite their size advantage, Elkhart lost the battle of the boards to Bellingham, 59-48.
The championship is the city’s first in pro basketball since the Fircrests won the Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League title in 1947.