Photos and videos to come.
NJ Championship - live!
Set to go from Old Bridge High School; stay here on this blog for live updates
First match is Black vs Purple at 5:30
Black inbounds and the ball goes straight down the court and scores. Two defensive stops for black after a landing call and it's 1-0 black.
5 minutes played at black gave the point to purple. 3-2 Purple.
Barracato scores for black on a 45 degree power smash and its 5-4/ Now 5-5 as Mike Decker evens it up.
Black has turned it over twice and gave a point away by RG and Purple leads 11-9.
Black had a nice end to the period and rallied to take the lead into halftime 16-15.
Purple's defense is stout and it has a 24-20 lead right now. 6:36 to play in the match.
And it's tied at 24!! 5 mins to go.
Black's two point lead has been restored with 2 to play. 29-27 black.
BLACK DEFEATS PURPLE 32-29
Next match is Purple v Orange.
Purple is up on orange 11-8 to start based on some superior shooting from Mike Decker and Andrew Sabo.
Decker has been red hot from the right on both the side shot and the 45 as purple is up on orange 20-14 at the end of the first half.
J-war Singh seems to have picked up a knock but Purple is positively rolling now up 31-19.
This game has lost its steam as the clock winds to its conclusion with Purple up 41-23
PURPLE DEFEATS ORANGE 42-24
Orange starts up on black early in the final preliminary game. 4-2. But this could be one of Black's typical slow starts.
8-8 with 5 minutes to go in the first as Gary Anderson scores on a quick release no jump.
13-10 Black at the half.
Orange is still hanging in this, but a missed given shot is scored for black. It's 19-16 black. The last prelim game is coming to a close and black has widened its lead on Orange 26-20 now.
BLACK DEFEATS ORANGE 29-21
Black ends preliminary round 2-0 and will advance to the final.
In the semi's PURPLE DEFEATS ORANGE 49-29 and we are heading to a rematch of the first game of the day, which was also the closest game, Black vs. Purple.
Sorry to our loyal readers but refereeing the final kept me from posting updates but we have a bit of an upset tonight as New Jersey Purple has defeated New Jersey Black 54-45. Congrats to New Jersey Purple for winning the first state championship.
Previewing Today's NJ Championship
Today's NJ Championship will be the first USTBA match for NJ Orange, Coach Rich Torok's new team is a collection of veterans returning to the Tchoukball arena combined with a mix of wily athletic newcomers. Kayla Torok comes back and is likely to anchor the center pivot position.
I'm interested to see how Orange tries to handle Black's numerous offensive weapons, including Ray Gasavage's quickness, Matt Scaglioni's devastating left wing wide attack and Brandon Berasain's overall versatility in shooting low and fast from both sides. Rich Torok can only play one forward pivot position so how will Orange defend on the alternate side and where will Black try to concentrate its attack if Rich moves back and forth?
It will also be a new look for Purple picking up some players from White but I assume I'll still recognize the hallmarks of any team by Jorawar Singh, namely, a team that is hard to score on and that won't give up.
Cant wait to see how it plays out. The preliminary round begins tonight at 5:30 and by 9 pm New Jersey will know its inaugural champion.
New Jersey State Championship is tomorrow
Hi Tchoukball World! It's Steve Abreu. Tomorrow I am traveling from Boston to Old Bridge to visit my friends from Tchoukball NJ and watch their first ever state championship. The winner of tomorrow's tournament will take valuable momentum into next Sunday's fifth annual USTBA National Championship.
This will be the first USTBA tournament that I'm not also playing in so I hope to have time to take pictures and post scores online as they come in.
I will also be overseeing the development of our USTBA referee program and I'm excited to share with the tchoukball world our new crop of USTBA referees once they are certified at the end of the USTBA championship season.