Andre Villaret had 18 points and Gary Clelan added 13 as Caesars defeated K-MTN, 53-41, to win the South Tahoe Parks and Recreation “B” League winter ball championship on Jan. 14 in South Lake Tahoe.

K-MTN was down by only five points with about two minutes to play, but a pair of technical fouls gave Caesars four points and secured the win.

“It was a hard-fought battle. It was physical and there was a lot of talking going on,” said Caesars’ Al Sandorff.

Villaret had a hot hand in the first half, hitting for 14 points on five jumpers and four trips to the line. Mike Derwin tossed in his six points as Caesars jumped out to a 27-19 advantage.

K-MTN mounted a rally in the second half as Ed Doughty’s four jumpers and one charity heave accounted for nine of his 11. But K-MTN could only get three other shots from the field to fall.

Meanwhile, Clelan connected on two three-balls while Eric Fahland dropped a trio of deuces for Caesars.

With two minutes to go, a mix-up on an inbound play caused K-MTN to question the referees. While the men in stripes reversed the call, KMTN’s argument resulted in a pair of technical fouls. Four points, two per call, were automatically awarded to Caesars, which padded the lead.

“We played a great first half, but they started coming back. They’re really competitive guys and wanted to win. So did we. I think we played better as a team and overcame their athleticism, which was really the difference,” Sandorff said.

Fahland finished with 10, while Mike Derwin had six and Al Sandorff three for Caesars.

Eric Smith had eight points in the loss. Seth Tagliareni and Nate Ackerman added seven each, with Mike Nielsen six and Gil Oliver two.