Week 6 10/24 & 10/26

Game 1 Black vs Grey

Marcus Spence made 
winning
basket, scored 20 pts

 Just when we were ready to pull the plug for the Black team and start making funeral arrangements, they were revived  by some new additions to their roster and by better play from old players. It was a hard fought game on Monday night and despite Donte Goodman making it “rain” with his excellent 3 point shooting, Black pulled together and snapped a 3 game losing streak and got their 2^nd win of the season with a 71-70  victory. With this win Black improved to 2-4  while Grey dropped to 1-5.  After only losing to the best team in the league, (the Red team) by 7 last week,  Grey found themselves only up 1 at the half against the 1-4 Black team. Grey started out strong and were up  by 10 early.  Marcus Spence, Black's floor general came a little late but once he got in the game, Black started to get it together to pull within 1 by half time at 33-32

In the 2^nd half  Grey tried to go on a run lead by their sharp shooting guard Donte Goodman, and the solid play of Shawon Watson. But Black stayed close, and these 2 teams traded buckets and exchanged the lead several times throughout the 2^nd half . Donte Goodman hit 2 3’s in a row early in the 2^nd half for 6 of his game high 22 points to make Grey go up 52-46.  But Black wisely did not get too anxious, they took their time and players like Kenny Freeman stepped up, who finished with a season best  17 points.  

This game came down to a last second shot and Marcus Spence was more than happy to take it. He drove “coast to coast” to score 2 of  his game high 20 points to  give black their 2nd win of the season. Black newest pick up, Doug Strobel  added 15 points  to give them some much need scoring power.

Game 2  Orange vs Teal

 This was a “dirty” kind of night as Antoine “Doo Dirt” Brown had an all around game leading to the 1^st triple double by any player of the season. He finished with 11 points 11 assist 11 rebounds, 4 steals and 1 block. Teal never lead in this game and despite some small runs, they could not get past this Orange Team who was lead by James “Jim Bob” Pope and Antoine "Doo Dirt" Brown. Orange topped Teal  76-63 to move into 3rd place.

Antoine "Doo Dirt" Brown
had a triple double 

Lead all scorers with 21 points

Orange came out early and knocked down a 3 to take the lead 6-2.  Early hustle by Jim Bob Pope with his signature high arcing  shots extended Orange ‘s lead even greater. He got hot in the 1^st half  on is way to a double-double with a game high 21 points and 10 rebounds. Teal defense was lackluster at best in the 1^st half. And while Teal shot selection was pretty good, they missed several close range baskets.

Teal found themselves down 9 at the half (42-31) despite two straight 3’s by Charles “Chew” Bostic late in the 1^st half.

The 2^nd half started much like the 1^st; with big plays by Orange. Doo Dirt Brown got a steal to go up 44-31. Teal continued to play poor defense and Pope continue to exploit this fact. Doo Dirt Brown controlled the ball well and seemed to cruise to a triple-double with ease.

Teal was not happy with the officiating and they made that known, but it just wasn't a teal kind of night, Orange easily won this game and with this lost Teal dropped to 4-3.

Game 3 Red vs Blue

Ok the Red Team won, what else is new? But Blue did not go down without a fight. Both Sherman Malone and Al “Hollywood” Cole came late, and both are important factors for Blue. Hanif Edwards used his speed to blow by every one which caused match up problems and foul trouble for Red.  Al Cole came late in the middle of the 1^st half but he began making an immediate impact on the game.

While Red never trailed they had a slow start. Dre Fraizer struggled missing his 1^st 3 shots. But with a team average of 82 points/game Red has plenty scoring power. Players like Nicolas King and Maurice Wood stepped up. Red went up 15-6 to start the game. Blue’s 1^st 6 came from Hanif Edwards on 3 very fast lay-ups. Red seemed to struggle trying to keep up with him. Blue kept it close and was only down 5 (28-23) late in the 1^st half.  

After a timeout Red regrouped and began to converse on Hanif which seemed to be effective. At the half red was up 36-29.

Red clearly was upset with only a  7 point lead at the half. Red’s Dre Frazier said to his teammate “…in the 2^nd half we are going to do what we do”. And that they did…

Nick King scored
a game high 21 points

They came out aggressive and determined to not to let the speedy Hanif blow by them like he did in the 1^st half. But Blue has more weapons than Hanif and two straight 3’s by Sherman Malone (the other half of Blue’s backcourt) told us this much. With those 2 buckets, Blue brought the game within 5 at 40-45.

But all of sudden as if a light went off Red went on an unbelievable 22-2 run and put a new meaning to “red light special” in the process. Fast breaks, steals, 3’s, you name it the Red stared doing it. It was an impressive display of team chemistry and talent. The game was called at the 2 minute mark at 82-59. With this win Red moves to 7-0 and remain the only undefeated team in the league, while Blue fell to 1-6. Nicolas King had a great game and scored a team high 21 points  and a game high 11 boards to snag a double-double

 Wednesday Night

Game 1 Teal vs Blue

The last time these two teams met, Blue won in overtime in a hard fought battle. It looked like Blue was on their way to another win as they jumped out front early. But Teal who started the game with only 4 players had another idea. in the end Teal won this battle 57-56. 
Blue's Brandon Wicker got going early and helped Blue jump out to a 14 point 1st half lead- he finished with 18 points. But Teal started to go on a run lead by Ron McGee who hit several big shots to go into the half down by only 8. 

Lead his team in points and
to the "W"

The 2nd half of this was a close. Teal started to come back and a 3 by Shotty Bell at around the 5 minute mark brought Teal within 2 at 49-47- the closes the game had been since the beginning. Ron McGee who led his team in scoring with 15 had 2 turnovers late in the game and it looked like Blue was going to steal the game. But both teams committed turnovers and missed foul shots and neither team was able to pull out in front by any significant margin. Despite some poor plays near the end Teal made enough good plays because at the final whistle, they were up by 1 and got a "W" to add to their record. Blue's Al "Hollywood" Cole was visibly upset, when asked how they lost he pointed to turnovers, "turnovers killed us" he said. While both teams had their share of turnovers Blue missed 8 foul shots in the 2nd half alone. And It's hard to win games when you shoot so poorly from the line. So while turnovers did take thre toll on Blue, poor foul shooting can not be ignored.

Game 2 Green vs Yellow

Game 2 of Wednesday triple header feature Green and Yellow. Both teams are better than their record would suggest. We thought this game would be a lot closer but this isn’t the 1^st time we were wrong. (those who are advent readers of the blog remember that we picked the Green team to win it all. Wile that remainst to be seen, we kind of jumped off that band wagon). Green mopped the floor with Yellow in this 92-66 blow out of a game that was called at the 2 minute mark before anymore yellow blood was shed.

Yellow started out on a 7-2 run but green answered with a 9-0 run of its own to make it 11-7. This game was eventually tired at 11, then Green never looked back. From then on out they played exception ball and earned them the title Green machine.

Yellow’s point guard Chaz Franklin tried to get the team going early and with their new big Man, Lonny Perry, Yellow were still “in the game” by the middle of the 1at half. Lonny finished with 16 points and 11 boards for a doubdle –double debut. Although most of his points came in the 1^st half. Taron Fraklin, tbe other half of the  Fraklin brothers, was as hot as ice, missing shots that he normally makes. Jermaine Higgins, Yellows agile swing man was visibly upset with his lack of touches, at one point he stopped playing “D” and stayed down the offensive end of the court. This prompted a vociferous  heckle by the Blue team’s Al Cole who was still in pain after losing to Teal by 2.

Dawuad Morris had the
hot hand tonight, scored
game high 24 points

Green capitalize on this team discord and went on a run and put on a show lead by Dawuad Morris who hit 4 3’s in the frist half. By the end of the half Green was comfortably on top  by 19 at 55-34.

Green continued their basketball clinic in the 2^nd half. Morris continued to knock down 3’s  and fished with a  game high 24 points. Shaw King played an exception game also, he finished with 23 points, 7 boards, 5 assist and 3 steals. Yellow tried to get going, Chaz Franklin started to heat up a late in the 2^nd half although, not nearly enough, he finished with a team high 21 points. But the other half of the Frankling duo, Taron continued to struggle, even missing an easy lay-up- it just wasn’t his night as he finished the game with 7 points well below his 20 point plus average. Yellow defense seemed to take the  night off and David Taylor .who made a loud celebetory scream almost every time green scored in transition couldn’t be happier.

The  game was finally called and in the end yellow fell to 1-7 while green went to 4-2 in this 92-66 massacre.

Word to the wise, usually when teammates began to argue and players began to slack off for one reason of another, that spells trouble for them. And that’s what happen Wednesday night. At the point when Jermaine stop playing defense (the grown man version of a pouting) Yellow was only down 5  at 24-19 . After that incident they seemed to get to deflated and distracted. The focus became get Higgins the ball and into the game and not get the best shot. We still fell that Yellow has a good team, they just has to learn how to play together

Game 3 Purple vs Black

Fresh off a win the 2-4 Black team showed up with just 4 players to start the game against purple who has the 2^nd  best record and the league’s leading scorer, Tim Chip Rawls. I don’t think their was a person in the building that really thought Black would win and that’s including the Black team themselves. But the game began and nature took its course as Purple easily won this game 81-50.

Purple’s Reggie Strickland seem to enjoy they “exhibition” and tried to get a triple double. He finished just shy with 10 point 8 rebounds and 9 assist .

Greg "Just Greg" Corbin
scored 20 points in his
debut

Despite their clear miss match Black tied hard to beat the purple team. Greg Corbon known to many as “Just Greg” the poet put on a impressive display of shooting on his way to become Black’s game high scorer with 20 points in his Basic Ball debut. Greg admittedly have not played in a while and at times in looked it as he’s usual boyish grin turned to a fatigued frown. Despite his fatigue he contied to kock down shots throughout the game game as he proclaimed, “we’re not going down with out a fight!’”

Greg and Kenny Freeman were  the only two Black team players in double figures. Kenny is playing much better basketball and has averaged 14 points in Black last three outings, up from his 4 ppg average in their 1^st 4 games. But the one two punch of Greg and Kenny could not put a real dent in the armor of the Purple Team. They we’re lead by Bryon “B-Money” Abney who easily score 23 points in Purple’s route.  

Thats All for now deuces