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Subscribe to our NewsletterWe are two weeks into the 2024 Fall League and amazingly there is only one undefeated team remaining - Jake Lillie's Orange squad and also only one winless team - Pete Strauss' Green team (who it should be mentioned did finally comply with league uniform policy - looks like all it took was a little threat of Josh Tannenbaum's league discipline). Fortunately there were no officials falling this week but there were many bloopers that will make it into a blooper video at some point this season. I have changed the format slightly to make full use of the Sporfie app - every week there will be a highlight video for each game (with a YouTube link) so let's get started on the recapping:
Blue 52 - Green 47: This game featured two teams having lost their first game and both teams were motivated to get that first W. Green played with just 5 guys as they were without their two leading scorers, Adam Bendik and Dan Amsellem, as well as team captain and long range bomber Pete Strauss. Meanwhile Blue was happy to welcome Phil Romero and Jon Ackerman into the mix (though they were still without Adam Drainsky who is nursing a knee injury but will hopefully return to action soon). The game was low scoring but very competitive throughout, and was tied at 45-45 with just 1:15 remaining. Blue was powered by their duo of newcomers to the league, the aforementioned Phil Romero (13 points. 5 assists, 4 rebs amd 3 steals) and Jon Ackerman (15 points, 4 rebs and 3 steals). Brian Maier, still making up for lost time, launched another 13 shots and made 4 of them for 8 points. Zach Sicherman added another 10 rebounds and Erez Lieberman showed off his passing skills (who knew?) with 5 assists. Green was led by Andrew Merel (making his season debut and mazel to the Merel family for their daughter's recent Bat Mitzvah) who scored 15 points along with 4 rebounds and 4 steals and Jordan Perlmutter, who added 17 points on a combination of fast breaks, bank shots and pull-up jumpers. Rounding out the scoring for Green was Seth Nieesen with 9 points and Josh Goodhart added 6 (only 4 players scored for Green). So the game was tied at 45-45 and here was the sequence of plays to close it out:
- Merel is fouled and hits both fts (47-45 Green)
- Mike Pollack layup (47-47)
- Steal by Jon Ackerman, he gets intentionally fouled on the ensuing fast break and the refs correctly called a clear path (2 shots and the ball) (49-47 Blue)
- Phil Romero is fouled but his FT is an airball (aforementioned blooper reel)
- Green ball down by 2 points and Mike Pollack gets a steal, and with his league best locks flowing wildly, Pollack makes the layup (51-47 Blue)
Green vs Blue Highlights 11/18
Red 76 - Black 59: Black was at full strength for this game while Red was again playing without superstar and reigning league MVP Adam Hynes. The final score here is a little misleading because this was a really tight game until late. The story for this game is the continued emergence of Eric Sass (real league MVP is Jon Kanarek for convincing the captains that Sass was anything other than a 1 in this league). Sass finished with a very efficient 28 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals. My suggestion when facing Red is make sure you get back on defense after a missed basket because Sass (and also Colin and Ben) is like an oversized gazelle sprinting by the defense for fast break layup after fast break layup (I lost track at 6 fast break layups for him). Colin Neff did what he does and put up another double-double (ho-hum) with 16 points, 10 rebonds and 5 steals and freight train in human form, Ben Carr, had a great all around game as well with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 6 asissts. Gabe Berkowitz added 9 points and Jon Kanarek had 6 to close out the scoring (still waiting on that first Smuly basket). Black had their big 3 all post double digits with Siri Carpien leading the way with 16 points, 6 rebs and 4 steals, followed by Damian Jackson (who had a brief injury scare but fortunately returned to the game) who notched 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks (don't bring that weak shit Damian's way) and TJ Farrell added 13 points (including 3 more threes). This game went back and forth throughout with Red building a lead a few times only to be countered by a Black run (including one where TJ scored 8 straight points to tie the game up). The game was tied at 57-57 with 6:00 remaining but from that point on Red closed the game out on a 19-2 run. Red moved to 2-1 while Black now stands at 1-1.
Orange 54 - Grey 51: Grey was playing without Rick Auyeung (who was in Colombia hanging with the medellin cartel while also live streaming our game and giving text commentary in real time) while Orange was missing Dave Laub. Both teams came into this game hoping to be the last unbeaten team and sadly for the Grey team it would not be them. Going back to last season, Orange has found a way to successfully frustrate the Grey team, and on this night it was no different. Grey got out to an early lead thanks to Matt Ceccarelli and Mike Hughes (welcome back big fella). But Orange seemed to always have an answer. It was a very balanced scoring effort from Orange with 5 different players scoring 10 or 11 points. Michael Gerstein and Rory Schulman (8 rebs) each had 11 points while Graham Haskell (9 rebs), Ben Huber (8 rebs and 3 steals) and Jake Lillie each posted 10 points. Orange only made 16/50 shots (32%) but the real advantage came on the foul line where Orange made 17 of 31 attempts (as compared to just 12/19 from Grey). Matt Ceccarelli led Grey with 18 points, followed by Mike Hughes (14 points and 10 rebs), Shamar Mason added 8 points and 8 rebs (on an uncharacteristic off shooting night) and Ed Seiden had 7 points, 7 rebs and 4 assists. Graham Haskell had several clutch and-1s late to help build the lead. The score was 49-46 (Orange lead) with 1:09 remaining and here is how it played out:
- Shamar drives and draws foul - makes 1 of 2 FTs (49-47 Orange)
- Ben Huber gets fouled and hits both FTs (51-47 Orange)
- Hughes makes layup (51-49 Orange)
- Rory gets fouled but misses both FTs
- Grey ball down two - Ed Seiden finds Matt Ceccarelli open from three (Shamar yells game time - love the confidence) but Matt missed the three.
Orange moves to 2-0 while Grey drops to 1-1.
Grey vs Orange Highlights 11/20
Gold 86 - Green 61: This game was pretty one-sided from start to finish. Green was again playing without Adam Bendik, who is nursing an injury, as well as Justin Chodos. Gold had their entire roster for this game. Gold got out to a very quick start thanks in large part to the three point shooting of Michael "Neighbor" Huberman and Steve Bachman (the two combined for 10/19 from three point range). The 86 points put up by Gold is the highest total by any team this season and perhaps will lead to a little less complaining about teams from the Gold team going forward (one can only hope). Neighbor was on fire in this game, scoring 31 points (and flexing for the camera after a make) while adding 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Gold also got double digit scoring from Jason Narod (16 points, 8 rebs and 8 ssists), Bachman (12 points and 7 rebs) and Bryan Minasian (11 points and 7 rebs). Additionally, Gold got solid all around contibutions from newcomers Andre Lewis and Jake Granoff as well as Cory Rothbort. It was a very balanced scoring effort from Green, with 5 players scoring beteween 9-14 points. Seth Niessen led the team in scoring with 14 points (on an impressive 7/11 shooting) followed by 13 points from Jordan Perlmutter, the big man Dan Amsellem contributed 12 points while pulling down 18 boards, Pete Strauss scored 11 points and Josh Goodhart added 9 points of his own. But this game was truly a dominant perfromance with Gold winning the rebound battle (47-33), the assist total (22-10), long range shooting (13-3 3PM) and also accumulating 11 steals to just 5 for Green. The win moves Gold to 1-1 while Green is left searching for answers and their first win while sitting in the JCC basement at 0-3.
Gold vs Green highlights 11/20
Upcoming games:
Blue (1-1) vs Black (1-1) 12/2 7:15 pm
Orange (2-0) vs Red (2-1) 12/2 8:30 pm
Gold (1-1) vs Grey (1-1) 12/4 7:15 pm
Green (0-3) vs Red (2-1) 12/4 8:30 pm
Stat Leaders:
Points:
Eric Sass: 25.5 ppg
Adam Hynes: 25 ppg
Siri Carpien: 20.5 ppg
Assists:
Ben Carr: 6 apg
Jason Narod: 5 apg
Phil Romero: 5 apg
Rebounds:
Dan Amsellem: 16 rpg
Colin Neff: 14.3 rpg
Eric Sass: 14 rpg
Three-pointers made:
Michael Huberman/TJ Farrell: 7 3-pointers made
Steve Bachman/Michael Gerstein 6 3-pointers made
Steals:
David Kobiashvili: 4 spg
David Steinbruck/Andre Lewis: 3.5 spg
Blocks:
Damian Jackson: 2.5 bpg
Jon Ackerman/Adam Hynes: 2 bpg
Hope everyone enjoys their week off and wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving filled with lots of football, family and food. And to get you in that Thanksgiving mood please enjoy the musical stylings of William DeVaughn singing Be Thankful For What You've Got.
