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The moment has arrived! It has all come down to this—Tweezer Madness’ championship game on the hallowed grounds of Limestone, Maine. 66 versions started and only two remain—The Palace of Auburn Hills from December 6, 1997, and Nassau Coliseum from February 28, 2003. Arguably, the two most illustrious Tweezers in history will battle it out for the ultimate in cyberspace supremacy. But how did we get here? Let’s take a look back at the national semi-finals.
Final Four Recap
#1 Nassau 58 #3 Denver, CO 45
This semi-final matchup saw two opposing squads that hadn’t been challenged all tournament long. Denver had pulled huge upsets in the past two rounds, taking out Mud Island and Raleigh by surprisingly large margins, and Nassau had steamrolled everything in its path on its way to Limestone. But when the ball tipped, the mettle of each version was put to the test. Nassau threw it’s multi-stylistic offense at Denver, while Denver responded with a groove-centric onslaught. versions wouldn’t budge in a highly competitive affair. It was the proverbial immoveable object versus the unstoppable force—which would crack first? The two versions remained within a couple points of each other for the for the first half of the game, with neither able to build any separation. At the beginning of the second half, however, Nassau built a ten point lead that it maintained the rest of the way. In an incredible showing, Denver’s version—a jam that is not even the main highlight if its own show—went toe-to-toe with the post-hiatus behemoth in a quest to reach the title game. But the show-opening version ultimately fell short, as Nassau—an early favorite to reach the title game—moves on to compete for all the marbles.
#1 Auburn Hills 79 #2 Lake Tahoe 28
The other semi-final matchup proved to be the polar opposite of the first game, as Lake Tahoe was no competition for the top-seeded version from Auburn Hills. After staging a battle for the ages versus Magnaball in the Gorge regional final, Tahoe came out flat against the monster from the Palace, and never made the game competitive. Meanwhile, Auburn Hills, expecting its first real test of the tournament, took no prisoners and ran up the score without concern, toppling the 3.0 version by the gaudy score of 79-28. Auburn Hills was able to sit its starters for the last ten minutes of the game, a rarity in a contest of such magnitude, and a luxury that may behoove them in the tournament final. Tahoe’s cheerleaders tried to “Woo!” their team back into it, but their enthusiasm fell on deaf ears, as the squad folded down the stretch.
