HOOPA LOOMPAS NEARLY PULL OFF THE UPSET BEHIND JENCO AND BROWN SCORING BARRAGE

Our first semifinal game featured Wise Shots and Hoopa Loompas. Injuries reared their ugly head again coming into this one. Hoopa Loompas would be without Kyle Miller and Angelo Cerbone due to injuries. They’d also be without Thomas Skates (unsure the reason). Three pretty key pieces for the Loompas and they’d need other guys to step up in a major way. 

Chris Jenco started doing just that. He opened the game shooting two threes (making one). His running mate for the evening, Ben Brown, also hit an early three. For Wise Shots they got an early three from Klavins but Wise Shots overall didn’t look as sharp as usual. Debari had a nice three quarters court pass that bounced off of Shawn Wise’s hands. Wise had a great size advantage in this game prompting one of the Wise Shot’s players to tell Debari “keep feeding Shawn” to which Debari rebutted “he has to catch it”. The Loompas capitalized on this sloppiness, specifically Dylan Russell and Othniel St-Ulme. They were disrupting passing lanes, getting deflections, picking pockets. Wise Shots honestly looked a little rattled. On offense the Loompas just gave the ball to either Jenco or Brown and let them cook. The only other player to score for the Loompas in the first half was Tyler Pontes who had a nice pump fake on a corner three and drove into the basket to score. 

That score gave the Loompas a 22-15 lead with about 7 minutes left in the half. Something clicked for Wise Shots at that point and they finally started playing like we know they’re capable of. Tyrone Mullings scored off a feed from Debari, Patrick Aspell had a tough take against the hounding defense of Ben Brown for two, Mullings then took a defensive rebound coast to coast for two and Debari drove hard off a Mullings screen to hit a layup. A quick 8-0 by Wise Shots gave them a 23-22 lead. Now it was the Loompas who looked a little rattled. On the next Loompas possession, Jenco found himself trapped against the sideline after giving up his dribble. He attempted to bounce the ball hard off the defenders legs but he missed the defenders legs. The force of the throw thrusted the ball into the air where it fell right into Brown’s hands at the basket who scored. Fun way to stop a run, and we had to give Jenco the assist for that! The team’s traded baskets the rest of the half with the lead changing four times and getting tied up once at 27 following a great pass from Mullings to Andrew Yuen. There were some sloppy passes along the way to this 27 all tie and Debari yelled out “Stop being fucking cute and go up strong to the rim”. Well at least one person listened, Corey Fein. Fein made a nice impact at this point, shutting off a drive by Ben Brown to the basket that ended with a tough shot from Jenco that he missed. Then Fein grabbed an offensive rebound on the other end and put it back for a 29-27 Wise Shots lead. Jenco, a little frustrated at himself for the bad shot on the previous possession, converted an and-1 to take the lead back. He also made one of two free throws the next possession. Debari missed a 3 point heave at the buzzer and the Loompas, down three key players, went into half up 31-29. 

Dainis Klavins opened up the second half scoring with a three to give Wise Shots a 32-31 lead. He also had a nice feed to Yuen to push the lead to 34-31. Jenco didn’t want to see the lead grow any further than that and got his own offensive rebound for a putback. After the teams traded some baskets including a Ben Brown drive, an assist from Debari to Yuen and a singular Debari free throw it was 37-35 Wise Shots. For about two minutes after that the ball just couldn’t find the net. So many shots rimmed in and out. Yuen finally helped break the seal on the basket throwing a no look backwards over his head pass to Debari who finished at the rim. 39-35 Wise Shots. Wise Shots held a slight lead that got pushed as far out as 47-42 following two Mulling free throws. That’s when Jenco and Russell went on a 7-0 run for the Loompas. A three from Jenco, a two from Jenco and a steal then put back from Russell. Debari put back his own miss to tie the game at 49 with 6 minutes left. Ben Brown took a drive to the hoop to take a 51-49 lead for the Loompas. Klavins hit two free throws to tie the game at 51. Ben Brown his a HUGE three to make it 54-51 Loompas. Debari then drove to the basket to cut the lead to 54-53. Klavins got fouled on an offensive rebound and hit two free throws to give the lead back to Wise Shots 55-54. We’re around a minute to go at this point. Ben Brown drove to the hole, whistle blows. CHARGE! DEBARI TOOK THE CHARGE! Wise Shots couldn’t add to their lead. And with about 30 seconds left, the Loompas had the ball. Othniel St-Ulme lined up a three and missed it. Debari grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He nailed both free throws. Ben Brown ended up with the ball and got off a tough look over two defenders to tie that he couldn’t hit. Game over 57-54 Wise Shots.

Incredibly gutsy performance from Hoopa Loompas. Jenco and Brown really played their hearts out, as did Russel, St-Ulme and Pontes. Down three players they nearly pulled of the upset. Nothing to be ashamed of here, great season and went out in style.

For Wise Shots, they show they can win in close games again. Debari took over when it mattered. They’ll have their hands full next week in the championship against Shoot First Moran and will need Klavins and Mullings to find their offensive flow to have a shot. Should be a great one!

Barbour Drops 40 But CBMACM Drops the Game

Wise Shots faced Country Billy Made a Couple Milly in a game with significant playoff seeding implications. Winner could have control of the one seed. Right off the opening tip Dan Barbour pulled up for three (he missed but this would set the tone for his aggression the rest of the game). Sloppy start to the game on both sides. Which we’ve seen three weeks in a row now in these 6 o’clock starts. The first points didn’t come until three minutes into the game via a jumper from Corey Fein. 2-0 Wise Shots. Even our referee, KD, made note of the lack of offense during a free throw sequence from Andrew Yuen. KD said politely “I’m going to need more offense gentlemen”. Yuen missed the free throw. Eventually the teams found their rhythm and Wise Shots had an early 9-2 lead following a drive by Drew Debari and a fadeaway from Yuen. Barbour had seen enough and almost single-handedly went on a 9-2 run capped off by him stealing the ball and going coast to coast by himself for a finish. All tied up at 11. Wise Shots got their legs back under them mostly through the offense of Dainis Klavins. On one possession, Brad Myatt was guarding Klavins and was sagging off of him to far. Klavins pulled up for three. Myatt said “that’s on me guys” before the ball even hit the net. You can’t give Klavins space. Another three from Klavins shortly thereafter pushed the Wise Shots lead to 23-15 and a behind the back feed from Klavins to Yuen made it 25-15. Barbour started aggressively hunting for his shot, hitting a number of threes at the end of the first half. Wise Shots was still scoring, just not at the pace that Barbour was. In fact, only three first half field goals from CBMACM were scored by someone other than Barbour (two shots from Myatt and a three from Brian Horton). This highlighted by a possession where Isaac Julien grabbed an offensive rebound, swung it to Carlos Carmona who immediately swung it to Barbour who hit a three. 33-29 Wise Shots. About a minute later with Wise Shots up 33-31, Barbour had the ball and pulled up for a three with 2 seconds left. He was fouled AND hit the three. Barbour converted the free throw and that four point play gave CBMACM a 35-33 lead going into the second half.

We opened the second half the same way we opened the first. No scoring. Yuen finally broke the scoring ice with a nice little post move and Barbour responded with a layup of his own. Brian Horton had a great play where he chased down a defensive rebound and tapped it up ahead to Barbour for an easy two. CBMACM was up 41-40 when Wise Shots flipped the switch. A three pointer from Klavins, a three pointer from Debari (off a nice feed from Yuen), a couple of two pointers from Klavins that prompted KD to say “he’s bustin you guys ass”, and a nice drive from Debari added up to a 12-0 Wise Shots run and a 52-41 Wise Shots lead. Myatt tried to swing momentum back to CBMACM with a pass through traffic that got knocked out of bound “that pass was not open at all” he said immediately. Excellent self-awareness tonight by Myatt. Barbour and Carmona went on a little scoring run together that did cut the lead down to 55-48 but an offensive rebound put back from Shawn Wise and then Debari hitting three free throws after getting fouled by Carmona on a three point attempt pushed the lead to it’s largest of the night 60-48. CBMACM tried to claw back but struggled to get the game ever within one possession. Carmona had a nice steal that turned into an and-1 for him, Barbour was still scoring as much as he could but Wise Shots kept their composure behind the smart game management from Debari, a couple of offensive rebounds from Fein and good team ball movement. CBMACM’s best chance was when they were down 65-60 and Barbour got fouled shooting a three but he only made one of three foul shots. A couple free throws both ways to close out the game and Wise Shots got a well earned 69-61 win.

The Wise Shots wins propels them to the one seed and with a bye next week they’ll likely stay there. The team looks ready for the playoffs. They didn’t even have Tyron Mullings tonight who can be the best player on the floor sometimes. Assuming the team is at full strength for the playoffs, there’s not a ton of weaknesses here. For CBMACM they got 40 points from Babour in this game but it wasn’t enough. Without Sam Davis there’s not a ton of other offensive threats. Assuming Davis is good to go for the playoffs he and Barbour are the best 1-2 punch in the league and can beat anyone. Horton is normally an additional scorer for CBMACM, especially from 3 but he just couldn’t get his shot going tonight. I’d love to see these two teams, with full rosters, play again in the playoffs.

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Wise Shots? More Like Wet Shots

Playing on the back end of a back-to-back, the Wise Shots lined up to play the 5-2 Shoot First Moran. Tyrone Mulings was aggressive looking for his shot early hitting two threes to start the game. Couple that with a bucket from Alex Yuen and the Wise Shots had an early 8-2 lead. Instead of that waking up SFM, it mostly just gave an already warmed up Wise Shots seemingly insurmountable momentum. Everyone started scoring. Yuen scored on a drive to the hoop. Mulings turned a block into a coast to coast layup, Dainis Klavins hit back to back threes. Corey Fein was grabbing offensive rebounds, Drew Debari was racking up assists and hit a three of his own. The Wise Shots scoring avalanche gave them a massive 22-5 lead. Charles Bansoro and Joe Epperson tried to get SFM going with a couple buckets but an And-1 from Shawn Wise and ANOTHER three from Mulings kept the lead at 17, 28-11. Klavins hit ANOTHER three. My god the shooting from Wise Shots. They hit eight of their first twelve three point attempts. The lead got as large as 33-13 following a Wise putback with about 7 minutes still left in the half. SFM finally started to settle in a little bit at this point and played Wise Shots even the rest of the way and got a little momentum when Luke Altobelli hit a deep three at the buzzer to cut the lead to 44-27. 

Jamil Ball came out super aggressive for SFM to start the second half earning a couple trips to the FT line and hitting an early three. He even stepped up his intensity on defense admitting he “got all arm” on a block attempt. Despite his aggression SFM just couldn’t get stops. Klavins took his scoring from outside the arc to inside the arc and Shawn Wise was scoring on offensive putbacks. Scoring continued to be a non-issue for SFM though with Ball distributing the ball well leading the 3s from Mason Gloudemans and Altobelli and some easy buckets for Joe Epperson and Joe Martin. But without any defensive stops the closest that SFM got the rest of the way was 55-42 after Debari fouled Ball shooting a three pointer who made all three free throws. The teams casually shot open shots the rest of the way and the game ended with a 79-60 win for Wise Shots.

For Wise Shots they clearly were warmed up from the front end of their back-to-back and while they have plenty of shooting on their team knocking down eight of their first twelve threes is well above expectation and once that shooting regressed the game played even. But, we did see what we’ve seen all year from Wise Shots. They get contributions from everyone. All of their players are scoring threats, they rebound collectively and they move the ball unselfishly. The shooting may not be as hot as it was tonight but all the rest of that will remain true. Of all the projected playoff teams, this is the one that I’ve seen play the most united most frequently. For Shoot First Moran, this is a throw away game. They didn’t have Scott Moran or Chris Whitney and Ball wasn’t ready at tip-off. Wise Shots were nice and warmed up from their previous game and Altobelli was uncharacteristically cold from deep. They should bounce back.

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Breen Gets Banged

Wise Shots were on the back-to-back tonight and started that with this matchup against Breen Bang. The first thing you noticed in this game is the fresh haircut from Kevin Maynard. Maybe we should all get haircuts because he opened the scoring with a three pointer. A couple of Dainis Klavins FTs. After a steal by Devin Peck (one of three on the night) we saw a great drive from Ben Jerome. But the early story was not the scoring, it was the fouls that Wise Shots was racking up. Including three early ones from Drew Debari. Debari vehemently disagreed with his third foul call which was called a charge when he drove into the paint that was defended by Jameson Luks. Debari claimed he landed and then Luks fell down, the ref saw it differently. Luks quietly made his way back down the court, no need to try to change the refs mind when it’s already in your favor. Shortly after the charge call, we had our seemingly weekly shoulder pop out from Alex Biskelonis, which was once again reset by Mark (our referee). Back to the game. We found ourselves tied up at 13 when Brock Mickley and Debari traded three pointers. Fresh-cut Maynard then had a really slick assist to Biskelonis to give Breen Bang an 18-16 lead. That’s when Debari took over. He had back to back threes and a steal to close the half. With some ancillary points Wise Shots went into half up 23-20. 

Debari’s heater continued as he hit a jumper to start the second half. Mickley punched back with a fastbreak layup. Seconds later Debari picked up his fourth foul when guarding Jerome. Jerome made one of two free throws and then Wise Shots locked in. Debari hit a floater, Klavins hit a three off a feed from Tyrone Mulings, and Alex Yuen hit a fadeaway. Boom 36-26 just like that. Maynard hit a two but Debari hit a bankshot three pointer and Klavins hit ANOTHER three that pushed the lead out to 42-28. We had a scary moment in the second half with Biskelonis popping his shoulder out again which forced him to sit the rest of the game. Once we go goint again the ball movement was crisp from Wise Shots with them encouraging each other to shoot “great shots only”. A great shot for Wise Shots is an open three for Klavins, which they found and he hit. The lead looked like it had gotten prohibitively large at 56-41. Breen Bang continued to fight with Jerome and-1, a Maynard steal that led to some free throws but they never truly threatened and Wise Shots opened their double header with a 59-45 victory. 

Classic Wise Shots game with contributions across the board but they get an extra bit of scoring output from Drew Debari who seemingly did whatever he wanted on offense. The shooting from Klavins really opens things up for the entire Wise Shots team on offense. On defense they rarely give up second chance opportunities with Shawn Wise grabbing so many defensive rebounds. A really strong team. For Breen Bang they add another loss to their season but never for lack of effort. Not having a healthy Biseklonis and missing Nika Sulavelidze capped their offensive upside tonight. Wise Shots gets Country Billy Makes a Couple Milly next week and Breen Bang faces Sauce Castillo.

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