Hoompas Loompas Lose the Game and Two Players

We closed the night we Sauce Castillo vs the Hoompa Loompas. Sauce Castillo would be playing without Jacob Miller and Hoompa Loompas would be playing without Ben Brown. Sauce Castillo jumped out to an early 5-2 lead via a banked 3 pointer from Aidan Chaney. This prompted Chris Jenco (Hoompa Loompas) to claim that was a lucky shot. More on that later. Michael Brady was putting in work early as well nailing a couple push shots outside the paint and helping Sauce Castillo extend the lead out 11-5. Chaney continued to shoot but on his next miss Jenco assured him “that will not go in, I watched you shoot last game”. Most of the first half was the Michael Brady show. He was aggressive looking for his shot near the basket scoring 14 points in the first half. On the Loompas side 100% of the scoring came between Jenco, Kyle Miller and Angelo Cerbone. Cerbone in particular looked really strong making moves in the post and some jumpers just inside the arc. A couple highlights were a monster block from Jenco, a slick offensive tip in from Miller and some nice big to big feeds from Michael Brady to Dan Buckley. The teams were tied up at 24 with 3 minutes left in the half. Sauce Castillo close on an 8-0 run capped by a three pointer from Aidan Chaney with just seconds left. “I guess I’m getting lucky” -Chaney.

Chaney opened the second half with another “lucky 3” and Castillo was up 35-26. Miller tried to shoot the Loompas back into the game but was really struggling to find his shot. Castillo was able to keep the lead via some nice drives by Taha Jennings and Kevin Gilooly. Another three pointer from Chaney pushed the lead out to 46-33. “I am crazy lucky”. A scary moment happened late in the second half when Cerbone landed hard on his leg and immediately grabbed his knee and made his way to sideline. Done for the night. The Loompas started to chip away at the lead when Kyle Miller hurt his ankle going for a block. He also immediately went to the sideline, done for the night. There was momentary discussion about calling the game given there was only about 4 minutes left and the Loompas were down. But, we continued on and a 7-0 run from Chris Jenco got the score as close as 56-48. But they never got closer than that. A 59-48 win for Sauce Castillo gave them their second win on the night.

For Sauce Castillo this is the team they should have been all season. Fast paced, jacking up threes and letting Michael Brady initiate a bunch of the offense. Likely too little too late for their playoff chances but nice to see this team is there. For Hoompas Loompas you could see they missed Ben Brown even before the injuries but all that matters now for them is getting healthy. If Miller AND Cerbone miss the playoffs, that makes any sort of run look basically impossible.

A Low Scoring Affair, Advantage Castillo

Sauce Castillo opened the first of their back to back with a matchup against Breen Bang. Two goofy things happened to start the game. First, two of the shortest guys on the court, Andy Sealund and Kevin Gilooly, took the opening tip. Also, Jameson Lukas was legitimately wearing a turtle neck under his jersey. The early scoring come from Devin Peck (smooth fade away), Gilooly (three point splashing) and Andy Sealund (a three). Shoutouts to Gilooly and Sealund for taking the opening tip AND hitting threes. Jameson Lukas, turtle neck and all, earned himself a tech with his team already down 24-13. Nike Sulaveldize carried the scoring load for Breen Bang in the first half as the only player to score multiple field goals in the first half. Gilooly was the story hitting four threes in the first half and looking a lot more confident with his release. Ben Jerome did damage for Breen Bang from the free throw line but Sauce Castillo took a 29-17 lead into half with Michael Brady snagging a steal and an assist to Dan Buckley as time expired.

Breen Bang came out much better in the second half. They cut the lead to 29-22 after a Peck jumper and then 29-25 after Jerome hit one of two free throws and then scored on a nice drive. That’s when Taha Jennings took over scoring on a pull up in the paint and then had a great drive and dish to Michael Brady. Dan Barry made a couple threes for Sauce Castillo and they successfully staved off the early push from Breen Bang. The game got as close as 41-35 but never any closer and Sauce Castillo took home a 45-35 victory. 

Barbour led CBMACM Cuts It Close But Gives Sauce Castillo a Playoff Fade

We closed the night with a matchup between Sauce Castillo and Country Billy Makes a Couple Milly. Or, at least we thought we were. Initially it was just a matchup between Taha Jennings and Brian Horton. First possession, Jennings missed a 3. Second possession, Horton made a 3. Third possession, Jennings hit two free throws. Fourth possession, Horton missed a 3. After that they decided to let everyone else play. Well, mostly just Dan Barbour who scored 9 of the next 11 CBMACM points and along with a nice drive by Brad Myatt helped CBMACM open up a 14-7 lead. Along with scoring, CBMACM was also doing a decent bit of fouling. So much so that Sauce Castillo was already in the one and one bonus with 9 minutes left in the first half. A quick 7-0 run by Sauce Castillo knotted things up at 14 (a three from Jacob Miller, and jumper from Dan Buckley and two Miller free throws). Another Horton three gave the lead back to CBMACM but two free throws from Buckley and another 3 from Miller gave Sauce Castillo their first lead of the game at 19-17. Barbour had seen enough, hitting three more threes from that point on til the end of the half, sparking a CBMACM to close the half out with a 16-7 run and carry a lead of 33-26 into the half, punctuated by a quick inbounds with four seconds left to Isaac Julien. 

Every member of CBMACM came out flat in the second half except Myatt. Through the first six minutes of the half Myatt was the ONLY CBMACM player to score. A three, a drive, and a free throw. Myatt checked out at the 14 minute mark. Hopefully someone else would be able to handle the scoring load. On the Sauce Castillo side, Miller nearly monopolized as much of their scoring. Castillo slowly chipped away at the halftime lead, tying it up at 40 after a nice drive by Miller and grabbing the lead 42-40 after a drive by Kevin Gilooly. Once again, with the momentum swinging to Sauce Castillo, Barbour went to work. He converted an and-1 to take the lead back 43-42, he then found a cutting Carlos Carmona who was fouled and made two FTs. Barbour then hit another three. 50-46 CBMACM. Jennings score for Sauce Castillo and Michael Brady converted an offensive rebound to a bucket to tie the game up at 50. Miller converted a nice drive to give the lead back to Sauce Castillo and cap a nice 6-0 run with about 2 minutes left and claim a 52-50 lead. RIVETING!!!! The pressure was on now and CBMACM could only turn to one man to make a play. Dan Barbour. Barbour made a move to the basket and attracted the attention of several Castillos. He moved the ball to Horton who nailed an open three. 53-52 CBMACM. Castillo couldn’t score on their next possession and that’s when Barbour pushed the lead out to 55-52 with a smooth little move to the hoop. Brady got Castillo back within one with a drive of his own. Time was ticking down though and Sauce Castillo was forced to foul Isaac Julien. One and one situation for Julien up one. INFINITE PRESSURE!!! Julien calmly knocked down the first. Smooth. He stepped up for the second one. Even smoother. Three point lead for CBMACM! Jennings drove to the basket and got fouled. He only converted one free throw. Myatt got the inbounds pass and was fouled immediately. INFINITE PRESSURE!!! Myatt calmly knocked down the first. Smooth. He stepped up for the second one. Even smoother. After an empty possession for Castillo they fouled Barbour. Slightly less pressure but the free throws were just as smooth. 61-55 CBMACM. Gilooly hit a meaningless three as time ran out to shrink the loss but CBMACM won a hard fought, fun game 61-58. 

CBMACM got this win without Sam Davis behind a 30+ point output from Barbour and some great shooting from Horton. A fully loaded CBMACM team is going to be a problem in the playoffs. Barbour is likely the best offensive player in the league and I wouldn’t put Davis too far behind him. They still have issues rebounding (as you can see from MIchael Brady’s rebounding numbers) but that hasn’t come back to bite them yet. They sit #2 in the standings right now and I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished #1. For Sauce Castillo this loss was their fourth in a row and eliminates them from playoff contention. At best they can finish 5-5 (if they win out) and Shoot First Moran (the 4th place team now) could finish 5-5 (if they lose out) but Shoot First Moran has the head to head tiebreaker. They’ll look back at this one and the five point loss 2 weeks ago to Shoot First Moran as the ones that got away. Sauce Castillo gets a double header next week against Breen Bang and Hoompas Loompas. CBMACM plays the Wise Shots in a potential first round preview.

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Two Runs Gets it Done

We kicked off this matchup between Sauce Castillo and Wise Shots with Aidan Chaney and Dainis Klavins trading 3. That was followed by a nice pick-n-roll where Andrew Yuen set a screen for Drew Debari  who found Yuen rolling who then passed to Shawn Wise for an easy layup when the defense rotated to Yuen. 5-3 Wise Shots. Klavins hit another three to push the lead to 8-3 before Kevin Gilooly made a three. One thing that jumped out immediately in the first half was how much more aggressive Michael Brady was playing. Snatching defensive rebounds and pushing the ball to the other end of the floor, altering shots, limiting Wise Shots to 3 total offensive rebounds in the first half. WIth that said, Klavins shooting kept Sauce Castillo at bay, hitting three 3s in the first half. Chaney was called for a foul around half way through the half that prompted him to say to the ref “Don’t call it just cuz he said it” after it seemed like Wise Shots called their own foul there. Luckily Klavins traveled on Wise Shots next possession and gave the ball right back. Gilooly was clearly liking the new gym this week hitting three 3s in the first half. The game stayed close throughout the first half with some highlights including a really pretty pass through traffic from Tyrone Mulings to Klavins, a hockey assist from Yuen to Mulings to Shawn Wise. In fact, there was a lot of Muling to close out the half. One moment we were tied at 33 and the halftime score was 42-33. The 9-0 run to close the half was mostly Mulings assisting or driving to the hoop. All the momentum was with Wise Shots at that point.

Any concern that Wise Shots was going to run away with this evaporated quickly as Sauce Castillo opened the half with a 13-4 run to tie the game at 46. The baskets for Sauce Castillo were a Gilooly drive for 2, a Taha Jennings drive for 2, a Chaney 3, a Brady 3, and a Dan Barry 3. The teams stayed even from the next chunk of the half with Klavins doing most of the scoring work for Wise Shots. A Mulings steal and coast to coast take gave Wise Shots a 54-51 lead. That’s when Wise Shots really started to pour it on. Klavins couldn’t miss, Debari added a couple threes, Shawn Wise had a couple nice offensive rebounds that turned into points, Joe Maalouf hit a 3. Out of nowhere it was 66-55. Wise Shots ran up the score to 79-64 to walk away with the win.

In the battle for the 4th seed and the last playoff spot this was one Sauce Castillo had to have. They played even with Wise Shots except for that run to close the first half and that run late in the second half. They just couldn’t stop the bleeding fast enough or get key buckets on the other end. For Wise Shots this was an impressive showing. Klavins had a huge impact on this game and his quick shooting put constant pressure on Sauce Castillo. Mulings has also been on a roll lately and is ability to get into the paint whenever he wants is causing problems for other teams. With those two and Shawn Wise rolling, they didn’t need much from Debari. Which should be scary for other potential playoff teams.