Chloe Wells scored 11 points in the championship game for BWSL.
HAMPTON, Va. -- If the Boo Williams Invitational is any indicator, the summer of 2009 is going to hold a lot of competitive basketball.
From a strong couple rounds of pool play through an overtime championship game, the tournament gave a good preview of what is to come on the larger scale in July -- and it ended with a rematch of the 2008 Nike Nationals championship.
With significantly different looks than a year ago for both squads, the Tennessee Flight and the Boo Williams Summer League gave the fans and coaches who remained Sunday afternoon a physical battle that needed one three-minute overtime to provide a little vindication for a few BWSL players.
Behind a team-high 13 points from Elizabeth Williams, the 6-foot-3 2011 recruit from Virginia Beach, Va., the Boo Williams team won its own tournament, 51-48, against the Flight.
In the other divisions, Memphis Elite beat Ring City, 71-40, for the silver title and the New Orleans Dominos beat All Ohio Black, 51-42, in the bronze division.
Williams, also named the tournament MVP, is one of the key cogs for this summer's tough BWSL team, which features Jazmin Pitts and Ataira Franklin, two 2010 Virginia commits, as well as Chloe Wells, a California transplant at point guard who moved to Virginia last summer.
"We talked about defense and rebounding before the game as our main components for winning," Williams said. "We kind of wanted revenge for that Nike Nationals loss last year."
The Flight gave BWSL a tough go for the entire 35 minutes, taking a five-point edge early and leading by as much as seven in the second half, but Williams and her teammates weren't going to lose their own tournament. Wells, who finished with 11, and Williams pushed their team into the lead in the final four minutes, but the new-look Flight listened to their coach and believed.
"I just told the girls it was going to be tough, but that's part of it," Flight coach Tom Insell said. "During every timeout, I told them to believe."
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, the championship game's other 2011 superstar who led the Flight with 15, hit a game-tying three from the top of the key with 23 seconds on the clock in regulation, and neither team scored again, sending the game to overtime tied at 45.
During the extra three minutes, the BWSL defense held the Flight to three points, while Williams scored three of her team's six for the win.
"We knew we could pull out a win," Williams said. "I trusted my teammates and coaches and we didn't get discouraged when we were down or they made runs."
Stefanie Dolson, the Connecticut commit from Port Jervis, N.Y., and one of the Flight's three club-season transplants, added 12 for her team. Mosqueda-Lewis, from Anaheim, Calif., and Ronika Ransford, a 2010 prospect from Washington, D.C., are the others.
With most teams practicing for less than a month, if at all, some did experience a rocky going, but the Newport News 16 bracket -- the top bracket of the tournament was fairly solid from top to bottom. The Philly Belles, who lost 64-56 in one semifinal to BWSL, and DFW, who lost 63-55 to Flight in the other semifinal, both made strides toward spending the summer as a powerhouse, as did BWSL and the Flight, who met each other as teammates Thursday.
"Our team hasn't been together that long and we're going to go through some bumps and bruises before we get to the actual level of play that we're going to be at our highest," Mosqueda-Lewis said.
MVP: Elizabeth Williams, BWSL
Chloe Wells, BWSL
Samisha Powell, BWSL
Ronika Ransford, Tenn. Flight
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Tenn. Flight
Stefanie Dolson, Tenn. Flight
Maggie Lucas, Philly Belles
Haley Peters, Philly Belles
Odyssey Sims, DFW
Kelsi Baker, DFW
