BIG3: COACH NANCY LIEBERMAN, MVP COREY MAGGETTE LEAD POWER TO CHAMPIONSHIP

POWER MOVE: COACH NANCY LIEBERMAN, MVP COREY MAGGETTE LEAD POWER TO CHAMPIONSHIP

–  2018 BIG3 Season Goes Out with a Bang in Brooklyn

as Power Lifts Julius Erving Championship Trophy  –

– BIG3 MVP Corey Maggette Named BIG3 Championship MVP  –

– Power Co-Captain Cuttino Mobley Hits Game-Winner to Deliver 51-43 Victory –

– 3 Headed Monsters’ Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf Closed Third Place Game with Incredible 7-Point Run for Comeback Win –

"Let's break all these ceilings. Let's break all these barriers. A female can do anything in sports!" 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽#BIG3Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/57sQVVKXII

— BIG3 (@thebig3) August 25, 2018

Championship Moments

• Power becomes the second-ever BIG3 Champion (Trilogy, 2017) with a dominant performance that showcased why the team has been the class of the league in 2018. Power used contributions from each player on its deep roster to cap its season of dominance with hardware.

• Nancy Lieberman becomes the first female head coach to lead a professional men’s team to a Championship and Power’s Corey Maggette, Cuttino Mobley, Quentin Richardson, Ryan Gomes and Xavier Silas each won their first professional championship. With the win, Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis and Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen earned second professional championship ring.

• Power Co-Captain Cuttino Mobley sealed the victory with a jumper off a drive to set off the celebration and deliver the Julius Erving Championship Trophy to Power. League MVP Corey Maggette exploded for 27 points in a dominant performance to deliver the win and earn the Championship MVP award.

• 3’s Company raced out to an early lead to open the game, before a pivotal momentum-shifting on-court skirmish sparked by a confrontation between Power’s Corey Maggette and 3’s Company’s Dahntay Jones. After the benches cleared, Power rode a 16-3 run to take control of the game and never looked back.

• 3’s Company’s Andre Emmett poured in 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for a dominant game in the losing effort. Led by Emmett, 3’s Company cut a 49-34 deficit to 49-43, but the late run wasn’t enough to catch Power.

• As BIG3 Champions, Power will return its entire team roster when they begin their title defense in 2019.

• In the third place game, 3 Headed Monsters’ Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf drilled a three-pointer with the score tied at 49 to deliver the victory. Facing point game 47-44, Abdul-Rauf took over the game with a personal 7 point run when he dropped in a layup to close the gap to one, before hitting back-to-back threes. The three capped a run in which Abdul-Rauf took over the game with a layup to pull 3 Headed Monsters to within one at 47-44

• Abdul-Rauf poured in 28 points, including four three-pointers, and Qyntel Woods delivered 20 to carry the 3 Headed Monsters to the win. Tri-State’s Amar’e Stoudemire racked up 22, including 16 of his team’s first 20 points, and David Hawkins dropped 17 in defeat.

• BIG3 Co-Founder and Co-CEO Ice Cube thrilled the crowd with a special pre-game performance, featuring hits like “It Was a Good Day,” “Check Yo Self” and “You Can Do It.”

• On Thursday, adidas and BIG3 hosted the league’s Young3 community outreach initiative at the Manny Cantor Center in Manhattan’s lower east side. BIG3 co-founder Ice Cube, 3’s Company’s Drew Gooden and Dahntay Jones, and Tri-State’s Robert Hite were all on hand to spend time with the kids who were treated to day of skills clinics and three-on-three tournaments.

• New York’s own Nancy Lieberman and Young3 President Jerome ‘Junk Yard Dog’ Williams joined forces on Wednesday to re-open the refurbished Dream Court at the Long Beach Recreation Center. Following the ribbon-cutting, children participated in an open-court clinic conducted by the Young3.  

• Among the BIG3 Championship crowd were LL Cool J, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sway, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, Hall of Famer Tina Thompson, Fetty Luciano, Rod Strickland, and Brooklyn Nets players DeMarre Carroll, Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, Kenneth Faried, and Treveon Graham. Also in the house to support were fellow BIG3 stars whose teams didn’t advance to the Championship including Carlos Boozer, Chauncey Billups, Rashad McCants, Ricky Davis, and Charles Oakley.

• An amped up crowd of 13,504 fans filled Barclays Center early and stayed late to witness BIG3 history.

Championship Game

Power (51; 9-1) vs 3’s Company (43; 6-4)

The BIG3 returned to Brooklyn, site of its first-ever games in 2017, this time to crown the league’s 2018 champion. When the smoke cleared, top-seeded Power displayed the dominance it showed all season, disposing of 3’s Company, 51-43, to earn the Julius Erving Championship Trophy before a crowd of 13,504 at Barclays Center.

Power coach Nancy Lieberman, already making history as the first female to coach a men’s professional sports team, capped off her rookie season in the BIG3 with a title. Power captain Corey Maggette, who went down with a torn Achilles in Brooklyn during the BIG3’s very first week last year, came back to earn MVP of the regular season – and then he capped it off by being MVP of the championship game with a game-high 27.

Amazingly, 3’s Company opened the scoring with a Drew Gooden 3-pointer and Andre Emmett jumper to take a 5-0 lead. After a layup from Glen “Big Baby” Davis and a 3-pointer from league MVP Corey Maggette, the game was tied at 5. The game was tied again at 7 when Maggette made a jumper to make it 9-7.

That’s when the game was briefly interrupted by what nearly became fisticuffs. Dahntay Jones made contact with Maggette on the shot release and Maggette let him hear about it after the basket. The two got heated, and benches cleared.

After refs took control and got the players settled down, Power completely took over. They closed the half on a 12-0 run, going to halftime with a 25-13 lead. Maggette led all scorers in the half with 16.

Power continued to roll as the second half began, building the lead to as much as 20. With a commanding 35-15 lead, Lieberman was asked during a break what her team had to do to close it out.

“We’re just trying to play hard,” she said. “We’re playing our game…They can’t stop our guys.”

The lead was still 15 when Power made it to the brink with a 49-34 lead. But a brief Power outage made things a little interesting. Led by Emmett, as they have been most of the season, 3’s Company scored nine straight points to close within six at 49-43.

That’s when Cuttino Mobley took matters into his own hands with a mid-range jumper to clinch the win and the championship.

Maggette finished with 27 points and 6 rebounds. Davis had 10 points; Mobley had 9. Emmett led 3’s Company with 24.

3rd Place Game

3 Headed Monsters (52; 8-2) vs Tri-State (49; 5-5)

If the 3rd place game was actually for the championship, this game might have gone down as one of the greatest title games in any sport. Despite missing co-captain and BIG3 rebounding and double-double king Reggie Evans, the 3-Headed Monsters used a 10-2 run to take an 18-10 lead. But that’s when Tri-State’s Amar’e Stoudemire took over the half and the game was eventually tied at 24.

Stoudemire was a force driving to the basket and at one point he had 16 of Tri-State’s first 20 points. “He might be auditioning right now,” Jim Jackson said on the FOX broadcast. Perhaps the NBA scouts were watching.

The 3-Headed Monsters made the last basket of the half to take a 26-24 lead. Stoudemire led all scorers at that point with 16 (7-of-9), while Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf led the Monsters with 12.

David Hawkins, who had been a force all season for Tri-State, scored the first four points of the second half to grab the lead, but the Monsters got it right back with consecutive 3-pointers from Qyntel Woods and Abdul-Rauf. The game was back-and-forth the rest of the way, with multiple lead changes, until a Hawkins jumper gave Tri-State point game at 47-44.

That’s when Abdul-Rauf took over. His layup made it 47-46, then a 3-pointer gave the Monsters a 49-47 lead. Stoudemire made a layup to tie the game at 49. That’s when Abdul-Rauf sank his fourth 3-pointer of the game to clinch the victory.

Abdul-Rauf led all scorers with 28. Woods had a double-double (20, 12). Stoudemire finished with 22 points; Hawkins had 17.

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