MAYBE THE FINALS weren’t finished after all.
Omari Corbin surely didn’t act like it.
They didn’t retain basketball’s Premier League title, so Lumber Company Lakers settled for the Champion Of Champions trophy instead, getting a game-high 25 points from Corbin in a rather worthless 82-71 victory over newly crowned champs Warrens on Saturday at the Wildey Gym.
It was the most meaningless of consolatory wins for a Lakers side that had earlier won the knockout cup but were just four days removed from humbly surrendering the coveted league crown to their St Michael rivals.
And the pointless nature of the contest was evident from the opening tip, with Lakers barely fielding the minimum five players to start the night while Warrens did just enough not to get blown out in a matchup that everyone coasted through.
Well, everyone but Corbin.
Better late than never, the oft-overlooked big man finally turned up for the matchup, even if it was one game after the fact, notching a season-high tally that well surpassed his 16-point total from the entire four-game finals.
But if there was a decisive Game 5, then Corbin would’ve had the performance of the series, having scored the last 12 of Lakers’ points and 14 overall in a fourth-quarter spell where all Warrens didn’t do was lie down on the floor and play dead.
Consider the championship hangover well underway in Warrens.
The Premier League champs never led in this one – nor did they ever seem interested in doing such – after Finals MVP Peter Alleyne continually settled for long three-point attempts while Lakers jumped out of the gate to a 26-12 lead.
And this was even before Corbin got in on the act with successive drives, a reverse layup and a long jumper to put Lakers ahead 38-23 in the ensuing second quarter.
Warrens did manage some resistance, though minimal at best, with Dario Cumberbatch getting some layups before a Greig Springer-led rally got them within single digits (52-45) midway through the third.
However, Adrian Allman sank a pair of long jumpers, including a timely triple, to reopen the double-digit cushion (61-50) and Keefe Birkett added a trey on the other side of the break before Corbin put away the contest.
Birkett and Ricardo Jemmott scored 15 points apiece while Alleyne led Warrens with 12.