Guco Lier take home the TDM1 title!

What an amazing run it has been for Guco Lier in this TDM1 season. After finishing 8th in the regular season with a 12-14 record, no one really gave them any chance of making some noise in the Playoffs. No one, except for Guco themselves and they came out and proved it, again and again. First they got rid of Limburg United, winning the series 1-2, followed by a clean 0-2 sweep in the Semi-Finals against Lommel.

And they weren’t done yet. In a finals in which they saw themselves opposed to a club with several pro players and players with D1 experience in the Kortrijk Spurs, the Guco youngsters didn’t flinch and immediately grabbed them by the throat, winning the opening game in Kortrijk with the 83-88 final score, thanks to some heroic shooting in the clutch by 19 year old Cas Van Oosterwyck (7/8 from behind the arc).

With the pressure on Kortrijk now, Guco gave them a warm welcome in Game 2 in their fully-loaded Sportshal Stadspark this afternoon. In a close and intense game it was again the youngsters Vic Van Oosterwyck (14 pts, 6 rebs & 4 asts), Maxime Bilolo Katuala (15 pts, 5 rebs & 2 blks) and Matthijs Van Den Eynde (13 pts, 4 rebs, 5 asts & 4 stls) who led the way for Guco and managed to put them ahead by a maximum of 11 pts.

With their backs against the wall Kortrijk kept clawing back however and with a little over 2 minutes left to play Sade Aded Hussein (16 pts) gave them a 1 point lead (66-67). Sam Dewit (8 pts) immediately answered with a 3pt play but after a Kortrijk time-out was countered by Alex Laurent (11 pts) to make it 69-69 with 1 minute left. In that final minute it was eventually Matthijs Van Den Eynde who hit 1 of 2 FT’s to decide the game 70-69 and give Guco Lier their first TDM1 championship title.

Special mention for Vic Van Oosterwyck who completely erupted in the playoffs and in 7 games averaged 20.3 ppg on 51.1% FG shooting, along with 5.7 rpg, 4.4 apg & 2.4 spg. Way to step up Vic!

Congratulations Guco!!