Springfield no longer has to worry about being on the wrong side of playoff history -- or about facing Damion Anderson.
All they have to think about now is trying to win another AAU National Championship.
Chandler Dawes had 31 points and 15 rebounds and Springfield's defense keyed a gamechanging 18-4 third-quarter run, giving them enough of a cushion to hold off Anderson and Phoenix with a 101-95 victory in Game 5, that ended the Semi-Finals of the AAU National Playoffs in five games.
As thrilled as Springfield is about making the National Championship Series for the second time in three years, and third in seven, they're likely also relieved to be done with this series -- and Anderson.
Springfield led 3-0 before losing Game 4 and certainly didn't want this series stretching out to a Game 6.
The victory gives Dawes's aching ankles and Paul Hammond's bumps and bruises plenty of time to heal while Springfield waits to find out whether it will next face Miami or Detroit. Detroit and Miami are tied at 2-2 with Game 5 later this evening.
Anderson almost kept Phoenix's fabulous season alive by scoring 17 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter, several on the powerful slam dunks that have become his calling card.
His 37-point average in this series broke Lebron Jame's record for a Semi-Finals first timer and he set the club record for consecutive playoff games with at least 30 points, doing so in all five. Phoenix hadn't even had a player score 30 points in five straight regular-season games.
Anderson scored the final two points just before time expired, then congratulated Dawes after the buzzer, with the two-time AAU MVP offering congrats of his own.
"These guys are an incredible offensive team and they kept coming but we stuck with if," Dawes said. "These weren't the kind of scores we like to play in but we made it happen."
Phoenix came into this season never expecting to still be playing in Octoboer after winning just 29 games in 2019. But with an energetic offense, Phoenix ran off the most points and most wins in the AAU and charged through the first two rounds. This was only the second time in 15 postseason games they failed to score 100 points, the other was also against Springfield.
With big first halves from Anderson and league MVP Darius Williams, Phoenix was up by one at halftime. Springfield quickly changed that.
Trailing 52-51 a few possessions into the third quarter, a dunk by Charlie Dawes gave Springfield the lead, then began a 6:30 stretch that guaranteed they'd keep it the rest of the way. When it ended, Springfield was up 69-56.
Along the way, Phoenix had four turnovers (traveling by Williams, two lost balls by Anderson and a 30-second violation), Williams missed three shots, Anderson missed another and the flourish ended with Josiah Johnson getting blocked twice.
Springfield, meanwhile, had Conor McCaffrey find his groove by hitting one of his trademark teardrop jumpers and two straight 3-pointers. Chandler Dawes passed out of a double team to an open Jamison Jones III for a jumper, then -- perhaps the best sign of all for Springfield -- Chandler made two free throws.
Phoenix kept clawing and was within 93-90 on a 3-pointer by Jim Jackson with 2:45 left. However, Springfield has too many players with championship pedigree to fold down the stretch. Chandler tipped in his own miss on the next possession, then a steal by Charlie led to a layup by McCaffrey for a 97-90 lead with 50.3 secoonds to go.
Chandler Dawes was 14-of-24 from the field and 3-of-4 from the free throw line, missing only his first one. It barely made it to the front rim, an ugly reminder of his 3-for-12 performance from the line in Game 4.
Hammond had 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists. McCaffrey had 18, although he was 8-for-21.
Williams scored 21 points, but only had three in the second half. He also had 10 assists.
Johnson, whose big performance in Game 4 was Phoenix biggest hope for coming back in this series, cooled off by shooting just 6-for-17 for 14 points. Unlike the last game, his prescence didn't help open things up for Shawn Stevenson and TreQuavion Richardson. Stevenson had eight points and Richardson, who went down hard in the first half, was scoreless in 28 minutes.