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 News from Around Banderas Bay | May 2006 
Northwest Stars Defeat Team Aga
 Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | The new champions, the Northwest Stars, receive the championship trophy. | 
| | The U.S./Canadian Team Aga after a tough game and accepting the finalist trophy. |
Puerto Vallarta - The 13th Annual Puerto Vallarta Sports Classic came to a successful close Sunday evening with the traditional basketball final game played in the jam-packed Municipal Gym. The game was missing one traditional team; the Mexican team, who was defeated in the semifinal round, but still gave fans plenty to cheer about.
A week full of sports competitions, ranging from tennis, marathon aerobics on the Malecon, women's pro beach volleyball, bowling, softball, 5K run and the basketball tournament that originally started the Classic 13 years ago made this the best Classic thus far.
The finals in basketball was Team Aga, headed by ex-pro star Jerome Kersey and Howard Kelsey took on the Northwest Stars, a team of only five younger men, mostly from Utah. Darius Beard, huge center played in college and in the CBA, forward Kurtis Rice was a college star out of Salt Lake City, guard Eric Grey played college ball for Indiana State, and two other Utah stars made up a formidable opponent for the older Aga team.
Team Aga is a "who's who" in basketball, beginning with the popular Jerome Kersey, who played in the NBA for 17 seasons and owns a NBA championship ring. Lars Hansen also played in the NBA and was just named to the Canadian Hall of fame. Howard Kelsey was an ex-Olympian and pro basketball player in Mexico. Dan Meagher played college ball at Duke, and Berry Randle has played pro ball around the globe for years. The rest of the team owns many accolades as well.
The younger Northwest Stars utilized speed and jumping ability and ran off to a 32-23 first quarter lead, and things appeared grim for the over 40 Team Aga. Berry Randle canned a number of long range three pointers in the second quarter and the Aga defense stiffened as they out scored their younger opponents 34-20 to go into halftime with a 57-52 lead.
After the half, the teams traded baskets, keeping the game very tight throughout the third quarter. Forwards Dan Meagher and Bob Hietjes took over the scoring for Aga as they went to the final period tied at 76.
The fourth quarter was close until the Stars hit two three point bombs in a row to open up a lead and began to put on a slam dunk show in the hot gym as the game wound down. Aga closed to within six with two minutes remaining, but couldn't stop the younger Stars who closed out an exciting, competitive 103-92 victory.
Berry Randle scored 25 points, mostly in the first half to lead all scorers and both Meagher and Hietjes added 22, mostly picking up the slack in the second half. After the game, the teams embraced and the court became grounds for one big photo shoot. Awards were handed out for other events as well and the Classic ended at 8 PM, once again proving to be a huge success for Puerto Vallarta competitors and fans. |
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