Week 5 recaps
As we wind down towards the playoffs, the play has stepped up a notch to be a little more competitive with several close games the past couple weeks. We're going through our own March Madness here with comebacks and last-second shots...
Team Grey-49
Team Black- 38
You knew that after a tough defeat last week, team grey would bounce back this week with a stronger effort. But this time it wasn't only the Hank and Stan show but it was the Hank, Kevin, and Stan show. I call them Run HKS. This trio combined for 39 out of the 49 points. That's 80% of the points for you mathematicians out there. Stan almost had the first recorded triple-double in Cornerstone friendship league history by getting 12 rebounds and 8 steals to go along with 14 points. The "minivan" was back to his usual form by grabbing 8 rebounds and Jeff Hua made sure he didn't hurt his 80% 2pt % by not taking any 2pt shots. On the other side of the ball, team black had a balanced scoring attack with 5 players scoring 6 or more points but no one was in double digits. Poor shooting plagued team black throughout the game with "Terrell" Brandon and Adam shooting a combined 3/21. Adam did come through with 15 rebounds and Butch had 5 steals but this was not enough to offset the 18 turnovers they had. Not even the season debut of Brian could rally them to a win although he did dish out 3 assists but had 1 controversial (according to Brian) turnover. This just proves that once you get married, you can continue to play ball if you plead and beg and offer to take her to a nice dinner.
Team Blue- 51
Team White- 45
So what will George Mason do this week against another top opponent? I could have predicted a letdown from last week and that's probably what happened in the first half. Team blue ran out to a quick double-digit lead as we had trouble holding onto the ball during the 1st 5 minutes of the half by averaging 1 turnover every minute. Before we knew it, we were down 14 points in the first half with Col-daddy and Tim going to the basket for easy buckets. 2nd half, we started with more energy on defense and offensively got it going with Sherman finding his shooting touch to hit a couple jumpers. The lead was down cut down to 1 point but every time we had a chance to take the lead, we would turn the ball over on a fast break or the one-man full-court press that is Col-daddy caused some errant passes. Kevin made a couple clutch outside shots at the end and finished with 10 points and Donald made a couple FTs as he also finished with 10 points to go along with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. League-leading scorer Sherman nearly had a double-double with 17 points and 8 rebounds but not nearly enough to offset Tim's 13 points and Col-daddy's 12 points. Old age is beginning to catch-up to our team now with a couple injures to Mel and JC which may keep them out for a little bit. But look for the Willis Reed like comebacks during the playoffs to inspire us to victory.
Team Orange- 37
Team Red- 36
Watching part of the 2nd half of the game, you could tell this was going down to wire. Sherman #2 had a breakout game with 20 points on very efficient shooting of 8/11. His improbable drives to the bucket were creating havoc for the guards. Red was keeping pace by crashing the offensive glass with Andrew, Darryl, and Ryan grabbing 7 rebounds each. They were also helped by Greg's excellent hacking abilities as he fouled out of the game with 4 minutes left. I believe he is the first (and maybe only) Cornerstone team member that has fouled out of a friendship league game. Maybe it was because he was playing 35 minutes and 51 seconds of the game up till that point. So it came down to 1 second left on the clock with team red down by 1 point and inbounding along the baseline. Anyone have Derek Fisher's number? Team orange knew they were going to look for Ryan first so they decided to deny him the ball with a couple defenders. But team red was merely using him as a decoy to draw defenders away from the basket which left Andrew alone underneath the bucket with a single defender. Darryl threw a perfect lob pass to Andrew with the defender's back turned but the one-handed tip attempt came off the backboard a little too hard. That's March Madness!
Player of the week: Sherman Low 20 pts, 8/11 2pts, 4/7 FTs, 3 rebounds, 1 assist
Team Rankings
1) Team Grey 3-1: Final Four bound
2) Team Blue 3-1: Facing team grey for a spot in the championship
3) Team Red 2-2: Could complicate playoffs by winning
4) Team Orange 2-2: Facing George Mason is no easy task but have won 2 in a row
5) Team Black 1-3: Surprising to see 3 losses
6) Team White 1-3: George Mason looking to upset the Oranges
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