The Lakeland Royals, owned by the First and only FEMALE owner of an FBA team and the youngest owner of an FBA team, in their first year in the FBA have done the improbable. They have become the 2022 FBA Champions!!
The Royals had a hard fought finals. The teams split wins, each winning on the other teams home court. The final game was at the home court for the Central Florida Blazers. The game was extremely tight until the Royals went on a run to build a 16 point lead by halftime. They stretched that lead at the start of the third quarter to 20. However, the Blazzers were not done. The Blazzers began to chip away at the lead and with under a minute remaining chopped the lead down to 5. They then continued to fight hard and the Royals continued to battle as well. With under a minute to play the lead was only 3. Then fouls on both teams gave them free throws and both teams scored. With less than 15 seconds left the Blazzer got the game to one.
Then The Royals Ivan Smith and MVP Cyrus Barnes began to control the ball. After a quick foul by the blazers with under 3 seconds remaining the Royals made their free throws and lead by 2! The Royals then gave up a foul to the Blazzers with 1.5 seconds remaining in the game. The Blazzers missed the first free throw and tried to bounce the second off the rim. However, the Royals rebounded and time ran out. The Lakeland Royals are now FBA Champions in their first season of play.