BERGEN HOOPS WEEKLY

by dekae
photos by dan kim

Flipstars – 63
Street Seouljahz – 58

Englewood, NJ – The Bergen Hoops 2009-10 Winter championship game between Street Seouljahz (no. 1) and Flipstars (no. 2) seemed like a battle of two teams from different worlds, as if it were right out the pages of an epic tale. The Street Seouljahz are a team quickly slapped together with some of Bergen’s top talents in the Jersey Korean circuit, that individually brought their games as well as their egos. On the flip side, the Flipstars looked like an aged, well-oiled machine with each player completely understanding their roles to perfection. To no surprise, it was a close bout between the 1st and 2nd seeds with Street Seouljahz closing the half with a 30 to 29 lead.

Early in the second half, sidelines got heated when Flipstars began to pull away making it look easy. The fire of Mike Kim (21 points), that is often mislead but also misunderstood, might have been just what was needed for the Seouljahz to rally back to make it a one possession game with only a minute left. Unfortunately, the Seouljahz’ late push fell just short as Flipstars managed to hold their lead to become Bergen Hoop’s inaugural champions led by Ivan Leonardo’s 27 points.

As Bergen Hoops wraps up its debut season, the league wants to congratulate Flipstars and send sincere thanks to all nine teams that participated and helped the league get the ball rolling. There will hopefully be new faces and skills as well as improvements to the league as we enter season 2.

Notable Mentions:

James Chu (Street Seouljahz): 19 points
JR Bautista (Flipstars): 17 points
Rich Kim (Street Seouljahz): 14 points