THE Victory Valley Royals ended the fairytale run of Half Mile Bulls in the 20th anniversary basketball championship final with a commanding 73-54 win on Saturday night at the Mackenzie Sports Club Hard Court.

The Royals wasted little time in dominating their opponents after both sides had advanced to the final by topping their higher-ranked opponents in semifinal play the night before.
The Bulls, led by Inter-Guiana Games player Terron Welch, had earlier knocked out fourth-ranked Retrieve Raiders before stopping the top-ranked Kings in the semifinal with a 76-46 rout behind Welch’s 40-point game, but found themselves wanting against the third-rated Royals who had beaten second-rankled Amelia’s Ward Jets with a 52-51 win in their other semifinal game on Friday night.
It meant then that Royals were facing the fifth-ranked Bulls and the crowd expected a matchup but petered out in an emphatic win in the end for the Royals.
In the other game of the night Jets defeated the Kings 46-43.
Royals were led by their excellent transition play and spread their effort to control the proceedings on the night as the Bulls never really looked the side which had edged the Raiders in their opening game and had a good run to enter the final.
In fact their main scorer remained Terron Welch but the Royals with such quality players like captain Chris Williams who hit in 17 points and was later named the Most Valuable Player of the final, received superb support from the cast which included former junior national Marlon Pollydore with 15, Orlando Glasgow with 14 and past national Alwyn Wilson 10 in securing the title.
The Royals were ahead at the end of the first quarter 14-12, at halftime 40-32 and ended the third quarter 65-42 before rallying to score the 73-54 victory and collect the first prize of $70 000 compliments of their founder Linden Alphonso, who now resides in the United States.
The other scorers for the Bulls all made single digit scores with Kevin Easton getting seven and Travin Dryden and Dennis Niles each with six points.