Welcome to another addition of As the Basic Ball Bounces-the Blog for the Basic Ball Men's League sponsored by Ballers4Life
Last week's games (week 3) were skipped due to circumstances beyond our control. Sorry to our readers for the inconvenience.
10/11/11
Game 1 Orange vs Blue
This week’s Monday night games were
played on Tuesday because of Columbus Day. Boy, what a difference a day makes.
In this 1st
match up between Orange and Blue both teams struggled to shake off the rust
created from the extra day of rest. We painfully watched as these two
teams missed easy shots, made numerous turnovers and air balled (credit the air
balls to Basir "Beeg" Crandall who air balled 3 shots in the 1st half) their way to
half time. In the end it was Orange on top of Blue 71-56. With this lost Royal
Blue dropped to 1-4. A royally dismal start to the season.
Blue who were without their leading
scorer Al “Hollywood’ Cole got behind early and Orange managed to take an 11
point lead into halftime at 33-22 lead by Antoine "Doo Dirt" Brown
and Xaiver Williams.
By the beginning of the 2nd half the
Orange team seemed to loosen up, while Blue continued to struggle. Orange
started the 2nd
half off on a 6-0 run to take a 39-22 lead. This was due in part to the
fundamentally sound play of James "Jim Bob" Pope who finished with
18 points off the bench.
The Blue team started to get into gear
and tried to go on a run lead by their very young back court, Sherman
Williams and the lighting fast Hanif Edwards. Both of whom are what we call
JPP’s (Just-Pass-Puberty). In the middle of the 2nd half, Hanif who we
affectionately nicknamed “Sonic” got the ball on a quick outlet pass and zipped
down the court to a waiting Doo Dirt Brown who couldn’t “Doo” much as
Hanif blew by him for a lay-up. The two “Baby Blue”guards combined for 30 of
the team’s 56 points. Blue tried to muster up a comeback but only on the
offensive side and just as you can't fly a plane with one wing, you can't win a game one side.
Every time Blue tried to make a run Doo
Dirt and the Orange gang turned up the intensity to keep them at bay. Orange
was lead by their talented three; Antoine “Doo Dirt” Brown who had an all
around game and finished with 16 points, 11 boards, 7 assists and 5 steals.
Xavier Williams who finished with 20 points and Jim Bob also added to the
blue teams woes as he finished with 18 points off the bench. Orange improved to 3-2
with this win to move into 3rd place in the league.
Game 2 Black vs Teal
What can be said about the Black team
that hasn’t already been said about Afghanistan, they were bombed, depleted and
had a lack of resources. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Black team
was blown out and skidded to 1-4 in their 80-50 lost. Teal however improved to
3-2.
Getting beat that bad by a team wearing
Teal is worse than getting robbed by a guy wearing skinny jeans!
Black never led and despite Teal
starting off with a little “rust” of their own, they were able to take an early
8-2 lead forcing Black to use their 1st time-out. The time-out didn’t seem to help them much
as Teal went on a 9-0 run which was finally ended by a sweet spin move and
lay-up by Kenny Freeman who finished with a season high 12 points and 7 boards.
But that only seemed to anger Teal as they scored another 5 unanswered points
for a 16-2 run. By the end of the 1st half Teal was up 39-24 .
In the 2nd half it was all Teal
and they seemed to enjoy it. A mid-air between the leg pass late in the game by
Charles "Chew" Bostic showed us this much.
Teal’s Isaiah Russell lead all scorers
with 24 and Lamarr Singletary dropped in 22 of his own while Ron McGee lead the
team in assists with 6 and added 11 points.
Despite Black’s dismal performance, we
love their heart and passion (at least in the 1st half). Black clearly
felt they could win and they tried their best. Black was led by Marcus Spence
who finished with 16 points and Kenny Orange who finished with a double-double,
12 points, and 10 rebounds
Game 3 Purple vs Yellow
Yellow picked up a few new players
which added some much needed scoring power. But that didn’t seem to matter much
this game as Purple topped Yellow 78-64. Purple was led by their big man Tim
“Chip” Rawls, no relation to the late Lou Rawls, but just as smooth. He
finished with a league high 40 points giving Purple the 2nd best record in the
league at 4-1.
Yellow’s notable “pick-ups” were the
Franklin brothers Chaz and Taron. These two speedy and sharp shooting guards
were a much needed addition. They compliment Yellow’s linky swing man, Jermain
Higgins fast pace game. While Yellow seemed to have the elements of a good team, their 1st half was marked by
turnovers and missed shots as they struggled to find a collective rhythm to
compete. At the half, Purple was comfortably out front 39-16.
Yellow’s leading scorer, Jermain
Higgins played with an apparent elbow injury that clearly effected his game, he
scored just 2 points in the 1st half
10/12/11
Game 1 Orange vs Yellow
The 1st game of Wednesday’s
triple header featured Doo Dirt Brown’s Orange team vs Jermain Higgins and the
rest of the Yellow gang.
This game started out slow for both
teams and despite Orange’s several 1st half turnovers, they managed to get the W and move to 4-2
with a 83-77 win over Yellow.
Taron Frankin of the Yellow team scored
an impressive 36 points in this up and down, hard fought game. And he did it in
a barrage of ways, from “behind the arc” in transition and by good ol’ fashion
grown man moves to the basket. Yellow had the top performer in every
category, points (Taron with 36) Rebounds (Jermain with 13) assist (Chaz with
6) , steals (several tied with 3) and blocks (Jermaine with 2) Despite this
solid effort Yellow could not come out on top.
How could Yellow lead in every stat but still drop the game?
Because of the team effort put forth by Orange. Four players were in double
digits and two more players were just 2 shy with 8 points. Orange responded to
pressure well, as a result they were able to hold off a late run by Yellow to
get the win. They were lead by Xavier Williams who scored 19 points and
pulled down 10 boards on his way to a double-double. Orange also got a solid
performance from Basir "Beeg" Crandall who made up for Tuesday
night’s air balls by scoring 17.
Game 2 Red vs Grey
The 2nd game of the night
put the undefeated, red hot Red team against the tough and talented Grey team.
Red had been on a roll beating teams by
an average of 24 ponits. Most of their games were over in the 1st half with them well
out front. But Wednesday night Grey tried their best to hand Red its 1st lost but to no
avail. Red squeaked by in a 79-71 victory to move to 5-0 and keep their
title of the only undefeated team in the league.
Red jumped out to a 8-0 lead with 2
quick 3’s by John Ashmore. But Grey answered with a run of their own to tie it
at 8. Red’s Dre Frazier thunderest 1st half dunk ignited the crowd and sparked a small run. But
Reggie Strickland and the rest of the Grey team met this challenge to finish
the 1st
half only down by 7 points at 43-36 despite Red hitting 7 threes in the 1st half.
Grey continued their aggressive play
into the 2nd
half and Red struggled to maintain the lead. It was not John Ashmore’s
night. He’s usually good for about 5 3’s a game, but Wednesday night he
struggled behind the arc and finished with only 9 points, well shy of his
league average 22 points. However, he had a game high 12 boards.
Grey brought the game within 2 at the
11 min mark in the 2nd
half due to two straight 3’s by Donte Goodman for 6 of his 17 points. But
Maurice Wood seemed to be determined as he played like a man on a mission. The
mission: not to lose and destroy his team’s undefeated record. He was all
over the court on both sides of the ball and even putting his team on his back
at times when others struggled. He finished with a game high 25 points, and
added 2 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals.
Although Grey never led, they kept it
close throughout, but they seem to lose their steam and will at the 2 minute
mark and let this game slip away. They dropped to 1-4 after this lost.Although Grey got stellar play out of
Shawon Watson who scored 19 points, Reggie Strickland who scored 18 points and
7 boards and Donte Goodman who scored 17 points, that’s not the only reason
they almost won.
The Red team overall did not have a
good game in the 2nd
half. This however is what makes this team so good and very tough to beat. When
one player is off, the others step up. Red have at least three players; Maurice
Wood, Dre Frazier and John Ashmore that can be the game’s leading scorer on any
given night. Plus, they play hard for 40 minutes each and every game no matter
if they’re up 30 or down 10. They give each game a strong effort. They
will be back in action on Monday 10/17 at 8:15 against Royal Blue. If Royal
Blue’s entire roaster shows up, this should be a good game.
Game 3 Purple vs Green
The last game of the night featured
Purple minus Tim “Chip” Rawls and Green who only had 5 players. Purple
didn’t start out too strong, they missed lay-ups played poor “D” and was out
muscled. Despite this, Purple was only down 2 at the half 36-34. But Green loss
their steam in the 2nd
half as the lack of rest by this 5 man team took its toll and they lost 72-52.
Green’s David Taylor caused problems for
purple early with several 2nd chance buckets and some strong moves inside. He finished
with 17 points and 8 boards. He was tied for a game high in points with Bobby
Bouknigh who also scored 17.
Green didn’t play good “D” in the 2nd half and Taylor
started to wear down. Purple went on the offensive and exploited Green’s
fatigue, they finished with 5 players in double digits. Purple’s Keean Rand and
Raymond Strickland were tied for a team high 15 points. Raymond also had a game
high 11 rebounds to grab his 2nd double-double of the season. Purple fast and
tenacious guard, B-Money also played a solid game on both sides of the
ball and finished with 14 points and 7 boards.
Green dropped to 3-2 with this lost and
Purple maintained their 2nd place status at 5-1.
That’s All for Now, until next time deuces
Written by Ballers4Life
We
Got Now, Next and Forever
No comments:
Post a Comment