However, a solid shooting performance from Most Valuable Player Brian Katz and a clutch outing in the fourth quarter by Roland Davis allowed Rob Pavinelli's team to claim a 63-60 victory in a game played inside the beautiful gym of Hofstra University.

For the first two quarters it was the Byron Freeman show for St. Mary's. The junior guard delivered three three-pointers and helped his team to a 35-27 advantage with a total of 16 first-half points.

If it were not for the shooting skills of Katz, a junior guard from Woodbury, it would have been much worse for the Bayhawks. Katz' perimeter shooting kept the game within reach for St. Dominic's. He had 12 points in the first 16 minutes of play.

St. Mary's did stretch the lead to 11 points at one point during the second half. But St. Dominic's battled hard and Katz kept delivering. St. Mary's held a 47-41 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Eventually the Bayhawks caught the Gaels. A Davis (pictured in story) three-pointer near the top of the key gave St. Dominic's a 58-56 lead as the game clock showed around a minute to play in the fourth quarter.

The teams exchanged free throws and when Freeman knocked down two clutch foul shots with 15 seconds left, St. Mary's trailed 61-60. Markeys Deans was fouled with 12.8 seconds left.

However, Deans missed the front end of the one-and-one. But the game's biggest play then occurred. T.J. Thomas swooped in and grabbed the rebound. Davis was then fouled and he promptly buried the two free throws.

A last second shot by Marcos Tamares of St. Mary's bounced off the rim and St. Dominic players and fans stormed the court in celebration.

This was a classic title game. Each team had great spurts and some explosive moments of joy. Unfortunately, in the game of basketball, someone had to lose. But, in reality, no team lost last night at Hofstra. There were two winners that just happened to had to settle a championship game. Each team was a champion last night.

Katz, the MVP, finished the game with 26 points. Davis scored 19 points while Deans added eight and Thomas provided six points of support.