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YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Far East Tournament MVP Jake Abramowitz dominated the paint in the third quarter, scoring 11 of his game-high 26 points as Seoul American pulled away from Nile C. Kinnick on Saturday to win its second straight Class AA boys title, 76-48.

“Jake killed us today,” said Kinnick coach Nathan Brewster, who led the Red Devils to their first championship game appearance in his first year with the team.

“It feels great, but I couldn’t have done it alone,” said Abramowitz, a senior transfer from Weston, Fla. “It was all 10. It was the best depth team in the tournament.”

The Falcons used to a unique game plan to shut down Kinnick’s big men, brothers Brenden and Leonard Lynce. Coach Steve Boyd went with a basic 2-3 zone to clog the interior and force the Red Devils to win from the perimeter.

The strategy worked flawlessly, but it was an unusual ploy for Boyd, who favors zone and man-to-man presses and zone traps.

“They play the 2-3 better than any team I’ve ever had in the Pacific,” Boyd said. “They ran it like I drew it up.”

That meant cutting off the baselines and fronting the Lynce brothers to prevent passes into the paint.

“That was the difference,” Boyd said.

Brenden Lynce, a senior, went scoreless in the first half and drew a technical foul for slamming the ball in frustration after a traveling call. He finished with 11 points and Leonard was held to eight.

“We were looking for ways to score inside, but they’re suffocating,” Brewster said. “We didn’t get a lot of open looks. They had a hand in our face on every shot. Their 2-3 covered the whole perimeter.”

Brenden Lynce described the experience as “completely frustrating.”

“They ran a zone defense perfectly,” Lynce said. “If you can’t get the inside game going, you’re not going to win.”

The outcome was far more lopsided than Friday’s 65-53 Falcons victory in the winner’s bracket final, when the Red Devils led by seven at halftime.

“It was like reverse roles,” Boyd said. “We were hitting and they weren’t. The third quarter has always been our quarter to put people away.”

Seoul led throughout, going up by as many as 33 down the stretch. Phillip Douglas chipped in 11 points for the Falcons, while Travis Ekmark hit three three-pointers for Kinnick and Kevin Logan added 10 points.

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Dave Ornauer has been employed by or assigned to Stars and Stripes Pacific almost continuously since March 5, 1981. He covers interservice and high school sports at DODEA-Pacific schools and manages the Pacific Storm Tracker.

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