Hoops I Did It Again (HIDIA) finished off a Cinderella story-type of run last night in MetroWest, defeating the 1-seed Black Widows 100-95 in the combined Boston championship.

In Week 6, HIDIA lost to Synergy 81-69 to drop their record to 1-5. They looked like they were far away from contending for a title, especially considering this season was a combined playoff with Westwood and Burlington.

That ended up being the last time they lost this season, as they went on a six-game win streak to close out the season and prove their supremacy over the rest of Boston. After closing out the regular season with two wins, they defeated the 7, 15, 11 and 1-seeds on their way to the title.

When I first saw HIDIA’s roster after the draft back in October, I figured they would be a tough out in the playoffs due to the duo of Tommy Hubbard and Keyon Armstrong. They are two of the best players in all of UH Boston, and the last time they teamed up in a draft league was in the winter season of this year, where they won the MetroWest title and beat the Westwood champs 84-54.

Last night’s game was a perfect example of how dangerous they can be. Hubbard and Armstrong combined to score 63 points on 22-34 (65%) shooting from the field and 4-8 (50%) from deep, adding a combined 15 rebounds, six assists and five steals. It wasn’t just Hubbard and Armstrong that lit it up, as HIDIA shot 62% from the field and 50% from deep.

This caps off a dominant year for Hubbard. He played in three complete seasons this year and won the title in all three. In 2019, Hubbard has played in 26 games in MetroWest, three in the New York National Tournament and two in Burlington. In those 31 games, he had a record of 22-9.

Armstrong has had a similar track record in his young UH career. He’s played in four seasons so far and has won three titles. When Hubbard and Armstrong have teamed up, they’re two for two. You’d imagine the rest of MetroWest will do their best to not let them team up in the future.

While last night built upon the legacies of Hubbard and Armstrong, it also brought Black Widows’ dominant season to a disappointing end. I am comfortable saying they were the best team in all of UH Boston this season, but their biggest downfall was their attendance. They finished the season with a 10-2 record, and they only had one game all season where they had all eight players in attendance, which included both of their losses.

Their first loss came against Team Classic in the regular season, a 69-68 loss that came without leading scorer, Sam Longwell, and team captain, Roland Millien. Millien was absent last night as well, as he had to coach a basketball game. You would imagine his 21.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game would’ve made a difference to the outcome, a five-point loss in overtime, but we’ll never know.

This may have been the end of Millien’s UH career as well, as he posted a live video onto the UH Boston Facebook group announcing that he will no longer play in Ultimate Hoops going forward. Hopefully he’ll be back at some point, but for now his career ends as the captain of arguably the best team in UH Boston not to win the title. They lost two games all season, one by one point, and one by five points in overtime. It was a great season for the Black Widows, but it came to an unfortunate end.