Once again, Delaware has a pro sports champion.
For the Delaware Blue Coats, their NBA G League title Thursday night was especially gratifying and hard-earned.
The Blue Coats avenged a 2022 series loss in a sweep by returning the favor against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in Edinburg, Texas, at Bert Ogden Arena.
They prevailed 114-110 in Game 2 of the best-of-three championship series in what was certainly a group effort. Five Blue Coats scored in double figures led by NBA slam-dunk champ Mac McClung‘s 30 points.
The Blue Coats won Game 1 on Tuesday night at Wilmington’s Chase Fieldhouse 134-120 as Jaden Springer scored 42 points and McClung had 35, the 77 points the most by a twosome in G League finals history.
Springer was named Finals MVP after scoring 21 points Thursday.
“They got us last year. We bounced back, got the ‘dub,’ ” Springer, the 76ers’ first-round draft pick in 2021, said on ESPNews’ telecast in the postgame celebration. “Now we gotta go celebrate.”
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Big late block is key
Louis King’s 25-footer at the buzzer gave the Blue Coats a 28-26 lead as the first quarter closed. King played for the Vipers earlier this season before being signed by the 76ers in December,
The Blue Coats led 60-57 at halftime but then pulled away in the third quarter, which ended with them ahead 90-74.That lead grew to 19 in the fourth period.
But the Vipers, a Houston Rockets affiliate, rallied to within four and could have gotten within two when Trevor Hudgins swooped in for a fast-break layup with 13 seconds left. But King blocked the shot. Hudgins then missed a long jumper before the Blue Coats iced the win on Justin Smith’s two free throws.
“Louis King playing on a sprained ankle, making that play, is truly incredible.” second-year Blue Coats coach Coby Karl said. “I just got a text from my dad [former coach George Karl]. The only thing I saw was ‘Lou King’s chase-down block wow.’ “
Glad to be there
The Blue Coats are a 76ers affiliate and certainly their players would rather be on an NBA roster. All are striving to get to the next level.
But Karl said this team was united in its title pursuit and played like it, putting personal ambitions aside.
“We have high-character guys who play defense, who give great effort, who want to win, they want to play together,” Karl said. “At some point of the season there’s the realization you didn’t get the call-up and are still on the G League team . . .
“They made the choice that they wanted to pursue this and play as hard as they played. We beat three incredible teams and it was never easy and our guys enjoyed that challenge and having to rely on each other.”
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First State pro champs
The Blue Coats aren’t the first, just the latest, Delaware professional team to win a championship.
The Wilmington Blue Bombers, whose history and popularity was recently recognized by the Blue Coats, were Eastern Professional Basketball League members from 1963-71 and won back-to-back league titles in 1966 and 1967.
In baseball, the Wilmington Blue Rocks have two championship histories. They won four Class D Interstate League titles from 1942-51 and, after their second coming in 1993 in the Class A Carolina League, four more championships, the last in 2019.
There was also the Delaware Smash, a World Team Tennis franchise from 1996-2008 that was league champ in 2003
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How they got here
Delaware has had a team in the G League, the NBA’s minor-league feeder organization, since 2013-14 when the Delaware 87ers began play at the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center.
The team was renamed the Blue Coats before the 2018-19 season for its move to the new 76ers (now Chase) Fieldhouse in Wilmington, which opened in January of 2019.The Blue Coats were playing for the league title for the third straight year. They lost to the Lakeland Magic 97-78 in a single-game 2021 championship before being swept by Rio Grande Valley in a best-of-3 2022 title series.
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