Rochester RazorSharks 2008, 2009, & 2011 PBL Champions!
The Rochester RazorSharks began operations in the spring of 2005 as brothers and co-owners, Dr. Severko Hrywnak and Orest Hrywnak, brought professional basketball back to their hometown of Rochester, NY. Led by Head Coach Rod Baker, the RazorSharks finished its first season with a 30-4 overall record while winning 17 straight at home with the final victory against the Southern California Legends, 117-114, winning the 2005-2006 Championship. Team and Playoff MVP, Chris Carrawell, led the way averaging 17.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 24 games
The ’06-’07 season began right where the team left off stretching their home win streak to 35 games. With an undefeated 18-0 home record, the RazorSharks finished the season 24-6 record. Despite the team’s success, the organization joined the Premier Basketball League.
The Premier Basketball League began its inaugural season in January 2008. Just like in the previous two years, the RazorSharks continued to be one of the top teams. The RazorSharks closed out the regular season with a league-best 18-2 record and clinched the #1 seed in the East Division, earning byes through the first 2 rounds. In the East Division Championship game, the Reading Railers came into town, but were quickly disposed of with a dominating 100-76 victory. In the 2008 PBL Championsip game, not even a shattered backboard could stop the RazorSharks. On the back of Playoff MVP, Keith Friel, and his career-high 35 points, the RazorSharks went on to defeat the Arkansas Impact 142-112 to win the 2008 PBL Championship.
It was a rough beginning for the reigning 2008 PBL Champions at the start of the 2009 season. After dropping their first home loss in 48 straight home games, and starting the season out with a 1-3 record, the team rebounded and finished off the season undefeated. The last game of the regular season was the most memorable for all RazorShark fans, the team posted a PBL record 176 points in a game against the Chicago Throwbacks. That same game saw the RazorSharks scored 101 points in the 1st half of play, which was also a PBL record.
Be seasons end, the top scorers were Keith Friel (22.1 ppg), Sammy Monroe (17.5 ppg), James “Mook” Reaves (17.1 ppg), and Jerice Crouch (13.6 ppg). Throughout the season the team continually played better and broke all kinds of PBL/franchise records. The season was full of spectacular play especially off the bench from players like Lincoln Smith (9.4 ppg 4.3 rpg), Xavier Morton (11.2 ppg 6.4 rpg), Steve Hailey (7.1 ppg 3.6 apg), Isiah Ewing, and Fred Durr. With the help of veteran leadership from Ron Rollerson, John Halas (43.2% 3FG), and Derik Hollyfield, the team played continually well. While the season ended with a bang the playoffs and championship game would follow with that same mentality.
Just like the beginning of the season there was one hiccup loss in a near perfect post-season that came against the Manchester Millrats, in the 2nd game of the playoffs. But just like the team had done at the beginning of the season they came back stronger from that loss and won their 2nd consecutive PBL Championship.
At the end of the season, Keith Friel won both the MVP of the league and was Co-MVP of the championship game along with Sammy Monroe. Coach Baker won Coach of the Year for the PBL, which has added to his already impressive track record in his career. The season couldn’t have ended better; the team finished with an overall record of 20-4 and took home their second straight PBL Championship, showing again why they have the best team in the PBL.
The team got off to a hot start in 2010 winning their first five games on their way to finishing with the second best record (16-4) in the league. After beating the Puerto Rico Capitanes in the first round playoff series, they went on to face the Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry in a best-of-three PBL Championship Series.
The ‘Sharks hosted Game 1 of the series and protected home court by beating the Cavalry in a “heated” game beforetraveling to Oklahoma for Games 2 and 3. Rochester dropped Game 2 and got banged up in the process when key reserve Derik Hollyfield went down after a hard foul with a broken wrist. Hollyfield played through the injury in Game 3 of the Finals, but it wasn’t enough as the Cavalry went on to beat the RazorSharks to capture the 2010 PBL Championship.
RazorSharks Guard, Melvin Council, was honored as the PBL Sixth Man of the Year and 2nd Team All-PBL. Other postseason honors included Lincoln Smith (1st Team All-PBL), Jerice Crouch (2nd Team All-PBL), Keith Friel (3rd Team All-PBL) and Marlin Johnson (PBL All-Defensive Team).
The 2011 RazorSharks season began with a sub-par start and a 2-6 record through their first eight games. The addition of Mike Williams and Sammy Monroe helped to spark the RazorSharks turnaround, winning ten out of the last 12 games in the regular season.
The RazorSharks entered the 2011 playoffs without any home court advantage and won both the playoff series vs. Quebec and the PBL Championship Series vs. Lawton Fort-Sill in the deciding third games.
By beating Lawton Fort-Sill, the RazorSharks captured their third PBL Championship and fourth overall championship as a franchise in six years.
The RazorSharks brought home league honors with Melvin Council winning the 2011 Playoff Most Valuable Player, along with Todd McCoy being named the PBL Rookie of the Year. Mike Williams was named All-League First Team and All-Defensive Team. Jared Carter was named All-League Second Team, All-Defensive Team, and All-Playoff Team. Sammy Monroe was named to All-League Third Team. Jerice Crouch was also named to All-Playoff team.