The following LegalMatch basketball update was provided by Lance Burton.
Heading into the final week before next week’s playoffs, every team in the Rooftop 2004 Tournament had a chance to put themselves in position to “be a contenda’.” The Playoff picture is starting to jell. 4 teams will vie for the Championship game and a shot at the vaulted Founders’ Cup.
For Crouching Tiger Hidden Edmund it would be important to win the last two games on their schedule to have a shot at the fourth spot. They needed to beat a tough Affirmative Action team looking to clinch its spot in the post season. In spite of a big series from Tigers Doug Ott 10 points and 15 boards Affirmative Action wasted little time in spanking Crouching Tiger 2 games to none. 9 points and 21 rebounds from Action’s Peter Reis and a solid performance from Alex Karzag with 8 points, 7 rebounds along with a ton of assist gave Affirmative Action the victory.
In Wednesday’s game, Patricia Rae did not play, and it showed. The Nerds had trouble getting the rhythm needed to handle Supreme Courts’ all around depth and athleticism. Supreme Court had decided early on to stay away from the Nerds first round draft pick Neil Fradkin by shooting all its shot from the perimeter. It paid off. As balanced scoring from the Nerds’ Ben Wells 5 points 5 rebounds, Rob Devereaux 4 points and 6 rebounds, and Fradkin with 2 points and 6 rebounds, gave Supreme Court a scare. But the outside shooting strategy started to work as Jian “outside” Ouyang led the way with 9 points, Kurt Jerdon with 6 and Mike Gutman with 4 fired from all angles of the Garden to pull off a 2-0 series win and clinch its place in the post season.
In the best game of the week, Kill Ball Vol.1 facing the possibility of falling into a must win scenario in its final game needed to beat the favored Rejection Sustained to have any chance of making the playoffs. It didn’t look good for Kill Ball from the start as Lesley Murray’s Rejection buried Kill Ball 10 – 0 in the first game. Matt Griffin, Randy Wells and Augie Chun scored at will inside and outside. It looked like Rejection was just too quick for Kill Ball. Captain Diane Tran looked concerned as she gathered her team together to plot out how to get something going and prevent an early exit from any chance at the playoff. Whatever she said it worked as Kill Ball picked up the intensity on defense and went on to capture both the tightly played second and third games of the series. Richard “Jet Li” Fianza (8 points, 9 rebounds) and David “give me the ball” Merritt (10 points, 13 rebounds) came alive in games 2 & 3 to prevail.
Both teams had key players missing as Kill Ball played without Frank Perkins and Sustained missed the services of Ken LaMance. Should these two teams meet in the playoffs next week, both at full strength, who knows what may happen.
Games this week include: 10/5 Affirmative Action v. Kill Ball, 10/6 Crouching Tiger v. Supreme Court, 10/7 Nerds v. Rejection Sustained and in the last game of the season, next Tuesday, October 12th Affirmative Action v. Supreme Court.
The playoff begin next Wednesday the 13th when the 2nd place takes on 3rd place, then on Thursday the 14th 1st place takes on the 4th place team. The two winners of the series meet in the Championship game on Wednesday the 20th. As I understand it, there is a barbeque party scheduled for that afternoon into the evening.
League Standings
Supreme Court 3–0
Rejection Sustained 2–2
Kill Ball Vol. 1 2–2
Affirmative Action 2–1
Crouching Tigers 1–3
Revenge of the Nerds 0-4