Great Eight Tournament

The Great Eight Tournament is the name of the 2006 American Basketball Association Championship Tournament.

These eight games were scheduled to be played at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York, due to the Razorsharks high attendance during the regular season.

Long Island beat Indy in a close upset, 128-126 on March 22, 2006. On the same day, SoCal beat Maryland, San Jose beat Bellingham and Rochester beat Atlanta. These last three games, which were back-to-back in that order, ended as predicted although Bellingham took an early lead in the game and the Maryland Nighthawks pulled within two at the buzzer.

On March 25th, Rochester defeated San Jose 106-103 in a final four game. On that same afternoon, the SoCal Legends defeated Long Island, advancing to the finals to face the Razorsharks the next day. In a very exciting end of regulation, Rochester tied the game with just under three minutes to go. The game went into overtime, where the Razorsharks defeated the Legends 117-114, which was played in the first three minutes of overtime. The ABA has a 3-10 and out rule for overtime, where the teams play three minutes and then if still tied the first team to score ten points wins. This finish with the first team to ten has only happened once during the 2005-2006 season. The Rochester Razorsharks won the championship at home in front of a crowd of over 6,300, taking home the 2005-2006 ABA championship. [http://www.podstrike.com/podcasts/wnsi/abalivetalk/index.php?page=4 Listen to the Game!]

Championship

*Date- March 26, 2006
*Rochester 117- SoCal 114
*Blue Cross Arena
*Attendance 6,377
*MVP- Chris Carrawell

ee also

*American Basketball Association (2000-) Playoff Results