Ball Stars hand BTE its first loss since June

Leonard Mitchell

Heading into last night, BTE hadn’t lost a game in the Summerlin Open League in 133 days. That was a 96-82 loss to the Villains in the spring championship game.

The last time they lost a regular season game (if you don’t count a forfeit loss they had in the Spring of 2019) was 476 days ago, when they fell 128-109 to the Villains in the Summer of 2018.

Those long streaks came to an end last night, as Ball Stars pulled off the upset in a thrilling 91-89 overtime victory.

“When we’re playing BTE, I’m cut up, I’m bruised up, but it’s a good, hard-fought victory,” Leonard Mitchell said in a post-game interview with L.C. Comine.

Mitchell was one of the most important players for Ball Stars, as he made a game-tying layup with four seconds left, sending the game to overtime. He would finish with 24 points on 9-16 shooting, adding seven assists.

Ball Stars came out and established a five-point lead in overtime that would prove to be enough of a cushion for them to seal the victory. BTE was given a chance to tie or win the game with eight seconds left, down 91-89. They worked the ball inside to Austin Fox, who had 30 points in the game, but he was stripped by Andreu Johnson and time expired.

Dominant teams establishing long win streaks can be boring at times, as it can get to a point where it feels like there’s no other teams that will be able to beat them. The one thing that makes their runs interesting is that they do eventually come to an end, and every game is a chance for an upset. It’s dominance like this that sets up a classic like X Over taking down Ball So Hard in the greatest game in UH history.

This game did not have the same stakes of a national tournament semifinal, but it’s great to see the competitiveness that exists in the Summerlin Open League to see a result like this take place. BTE is still the title favorite, the Villains are still favorites to play them for the title, but it feels much less certain that it has in seasons’ past.