Bermuda's David Bascome yesterday narrowly missed being named the NPSL's Most Valuable Player, losing out to Harrisburg Heat team-mate Gino DiFlorio.

Bascome notched 54 points compared to 65 for DiFlorio in balloting conducted among head coaches and a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters from each of the league's 10 host cities.

Voters were asked to list three Most Valuable Player candidates, with first place votes counting for five points, three for second, and one for third.

Bascome received seven first place votes, compared to nine for DiFlorio, while former five-time winner Hector Marinaro was third with five first votes for a total of 50 points.

Despite not placing first, Bascome yesterday expressed delight in being viewed as one of the top two players in the indoor league, and saluted his team-mate and friend.

"It was alright. We've been talking for the last 10 days and only found out this (yesterday) morning before they had the press conference, which gave us time to deal with it,'' explained Bascome, coming off a career year that saw him record a team-leading 61 blocks, and also lead in three-point goals (nine), one-point goals (12) and total goals (53).

"It was good for him, and if it went my way it would have been good for me as well. But I'm happy for him because he's been playing in the league for 16 years and it's well deserved, he's done a lot of work.

"It's strange how we ended up one-two, and it hasn't really sunk in yet that we're the top two players in the league, and it's a good accomplishment. So at the end of the day the MVP is celebrated by all.

"It was very nice experience, the commissioner turned out, the owner of our teams, a lot of the press members and cameras and stuff, so it went across pretty good.'' The latest award for the Heat served to cushion the blow of having been knocked out of the play-offs in the first round, going down 2-0 to Philadelphia KiXX in the best-of-three match series.

After winning the American Conference and notching the best overall regular season record a championship run was expected to follow, however an injury to Bascome during the final regular season contest left them short in attack and they never recovered.

"It does soften the blow a bit,'' began Bascome. "I mean, we'd trade all of these things in to be a part of the championship picture, but looking at the whole scope we must appreciate what we have.

"Because last year we were 16-28, this year we ended up winning our division, having the best record in the league, receiving individual awards such as coach of the year and end up having two players as finalists for MVP.

"Those are big accomplishments and it's not often those things happen with one team, so we have to appreciate what has happened and try to build on them.'' The incident of going through the process of the press conference and the accompanying hype where both were lauded for their previous accomplishments caused Bascome to pause and momentarily reflect on a 10-year career that has seen him make three All-Star appearances.

"It was shocking when at the press conference they were announcing my accomplishments,'' said Bascome, who formed the most devastating attacking tandem in the league with DiFlorio.

"Those are things that don't go through my mind. I don't stop for those things, I just think of me having to develop, add to my game and do things to help my team out ... do things mentally and physically that are going to keep me on the straight and narrow.

"That's where my focus has been, and what happened last night and today, with it being repeated the things that I have accomplished brought a great feeling to me. But through it all this achievement can't stop me from moving forward, because I have to do better with my game and add things to my game, that's my concern, so all summer I'm focussing adding to my game in order that I might have another successful season.'' MVP poll figures -- page 26 Turning on the Heat: Harrisburg's David Bascome was edged out of the NPSL's MVP award by team-mate Gino DiFlorio.