The first game of the night was between two West End House teams: Grey vs. Red, which provided a solid atmosphere with lots of energy throughout the gym.
Down the stretch, the game was extremely close. With 90 seconds left in the 2nd half, Grey had the lead and couldn’t get the ball over half court. Two consecutive turnovers led to easy layups for Red, which gave them the lead with 30 seconds to go. Then, with 3.5 seconds remaining, Herlain Germain hit a big basket, allowing Grey to retake the lead. A technical foul was called on a Grey player immediately following the basket, putting Joel Morris on the line for two shots. The Red player missed both attempts, which ended the game. Grey went on to take a 64-61 W.
For Red, a late season edition of Devon Dietz proved to be a solid acquisition. He provided his squad with a calm demeanor on offense, and he has the ability to make shots and get to the rim. He may be the answer they are looking for.
Throughout the game, Grey needed to find Darai Bey more down on post. Although they came out with the win, it was a close game. Darai has proved to be a consistent force on offense throughout the season, and if Grey wants to continue winning, they should give him more looks.
In the second game of the night between Navy (Blue Hill Boys and Girls Club[The only undefeated team remaining]) and Black, Navy faced their toughest test of the season, and they finally came up short. Black was able to pull out a 58-53 victory, showing how dominant they can be.
Navy was able to stick around throughout the majority of game due to Black’s lack of ball movement on offense. A typical Black possession consisted of one player dribbling around, not passing the ball, and taking a shot. While this type of offense worked well at times, they did not reach the offensive ability we are accustomed to seeing.
However, I believe it was Black’s shot selection which deterred Navy from taking any lead or advantage. Black took the ball to rim quite a bit, passing on long range jump shots, which led to few fast break layups, Navy’s best offense in past weeks. For example, Broadway on Navy was unable to get into space and create good looks, something he was been able to do with ease in past weeks. Due to the small amount of long rebounds that were generated by Black, Navy was unable to get to the rim, score, and, ultimately, take the lead.
Overall, Navy didn’t have the offensive firepower to stay with Black. Black is an offensive juggernaut, that can essentially score at will, and Navy simply didn’t have the pieces to score at a high rate. Although it was a close game, when Black wanted to pull out the victory, they were able to with ease.
Play Hard or Go Home 