BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Perry Petty scored 21 points, hitting 8 of 11 shots from the field, to lead the Central Illinois Drive to a 101-80 victory and a 2-game sweep of Rochester to capture the Premier Basketball League title in their first year of existance.
The Drive snapped a 17-all tie when Nathan Fuqua tipped in a shot by Daniel Ruffin at the first quarter buzzer starting a 10-0 Central Illinois run that gave them the lead for good. Jemal Farmer finished with 18 points and Pekin native Todd Peterson registered a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Rochester, which had claimed the PBL title 3 of the last 4 years, was led by Jerice Crouch with 27.
The Drive opened a 14-point lead in the third quarter before evenutally winning by 21. They outshot the Razorsharks 54-percent to 44-percent and outrebounded them 39-27.
The sweep of the best-of-3 finals continued the dominance the Drive displayed during the regular season in which they won their first 15 games. They finish the season 22-1 coach A.J. Guyton, the former Peoria High School standout who played college basketball for Bobby Knight at Indiana University.
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