MINNESOTA REC: Rebels Win the Summer 2011 Championship

"It takes a big man to admit his mistake. And I am that big man."
- Michael Scott

Okay, I was wrong. Way wrong. I thought the Celtics would defeat the Rebels to win the Summer 2011 Minnesota Rec Championship. I knew the Rebels had a great defense, but I didn't think it would be good enough to stop all of the Celtics' offensive weapons.

Way wrong.

Instead, the Rebels played a very impressive game on Thursday night and won the Gold Cup with a 65-50 victory. The Rebels led from start to finish and began the game with a 13-3 run. Although the Celtics cut the lead to three at the break, they ended up getting outscored in the 2nd half by 12 and failed to repeat as UH rec champions.

It was easy to see that this was a special game by looking at some of the people who were watching in the crowd. It was a packed house with a who's who of Minnesota Ultimate Hoops basketball, including Matt Krebs, Scott Nelson, Eugene Phelps, Andrew Klobe, Johnny Ball, Erik Bohn and many others.

Joe Neuenfeldt flew back to Minnesota from Las Vegas in order to coach his Rebels in the championship game.

The Rebels played well for their coach, who according to sources close to the situation, had sent his team detailed scouting reports on the Celtics in the days leading up to the game. Their defensive schemes held the Celtics to only 37% shooting from the floor (and only 24% from three), along with 10 turnovers. The Rebels also outrebounded the Celtics 35-20. The Celtics were only able to keep the game as close as they did due to 14 points from the foul line.

Marcus Marshall, surprisingly, only took two shots all game. Credit the defense of Ryan Jansen, who denied Marshall good looks and played him physical the entire way. Johnny Webb was able to get 14 shots off, but many of those shots were well contested, and Webb only connected on 3 of them.

Garland Sanchez (4-of-7 for 13 points and 7 rebounds), Ryan Samuelson (4-of-8 for 10 points and 2 assists) and Noe Mendez (3-of-3 for 7 points and 4 rebounds) played well, but not enough to overcome the rest of the Celtics' shooting woes.

For the Rebels, they had five players score in double figures, led by Justin Montzka with 15. Dustin Dupont had an impressive 11-point, 10-rebound, 5-assist, 3-steal performance and Joe Thomas came off of the bench for 11 points and 4 steals.

The MVP of the Championship game went to Paul Ferber, however, who had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. While his stats were impressive, it was the way that Ferber commanded the middle that won him the award. The stat sheet only shows 3 blocks, but well-contested shots are just as effective, and Ferber was doing that to Celtic players all night long in the paint.

Congratulations to Mr. Ferber and the rest of the Rebels for winning the 2011 Summer Minnesota Rec Championship.

The Celtics also deserve a hearty congratulations for a great season. I know second place won't satisfy J. Moore and many of the players on his team, but they still have a great team and accomplished a lot this season.

While the Rebels will certainly take time to savor the victory, they will have to start their title defense in less than a week, when the Fall 2011 season starts on October 5th.

I'm going to work on improving my predictions.