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Subscribe to our NewsletterWeek 4 is officially in the books and we are starting to see some teams make their move to the top of the standings while others move to the cellar. Coming into this week there were no undefeated teams (though there were three with just 1 loss) while Green remained the only winless team. I want to again take a moment to thank Matt Ceccarelli for all the time he puts in to provide the league with such extensive stats. Now let's get to the actual games:
Red 76 - Gold 61: Gold was hoping to bring their record back up to .500 but that would be no easy task against the 2015-6 Golden State Warriors (I mean Red) on the schedule. Red came into this game with a 4-1 record but would be without the services of Adam Hynes on this night. They found a way to get it done with just 3 superstars as they cruised to an easy victory. Colin Neff took it upon himself to pick up the slack (without Adam), leading the team with 31 points and 15 rebounds (including 11-16 shooting and 22 points/10 rebs in the first half). Big man Eric Sass added 19 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks while Ben Carr contibuted 13 points in the winning effort. For the second straight week, "The Dentist" Mike Smulewitz, drilled a three-pointer. Despite having a big lead, Red did not take their foot off the gas pedal and kept attacking en route to 76 points (though they amazingly only attempted 8 3-pointers and hit 4). Team spokesman Sensei John Kreese was overheard on the bench advising the team late in the contest:
In contrast to the mere 8 three-point attempts for Red, Gold attempted a whopping 41 threes and only made 9.
It was a very balanced scoring effort for Gold with 5 guys scoring between 9 and 16 points. Bryan Minasian led the team with 16 points and 11 rebounds followed by 13 apiece from Jason Narod and Michael "neighbor" Huberman. Jake Granoff and Steve Bachman rounded out the scoring with 10 and 9 points respecitvely. The win keeps Red atop the standings at 5-1 while Gold moved to 1-3 with another game coming two days later against Orange.
Red vs Gold Highlights 12/9/2024
Grey 68 - Blue 48: Grey came into this game with a 2-1 record while Blue was 1-2. Blue was again playing without Adam Driansky (Spoiler: he made his JCC debut last night) while Grey was missing Brandon Wendel. Grey came out scorching in this game and built an early 17-5 lead after the first 10 minutes. The lead grew to 26-10 at the 7:24 mark and was 33-17 at the half. There was no letting up early in the second half as Grey extended the lead to a very comfortable 52-21 lead and cruised the rest of the way. Matt Ceccarelli led Grey in scoring with 20 points (including 4/5 from three-point range) while also adding 12 rebounds. Shamar Mason added 13 points (most coming on drives and tough finishes in the lane) and 9 assists while the rest of the Grey squad all contibuted to the effort. Ed Seiden scored 9 points and had 7 rebs, Mike Korn added 8 points/7 rebs, Mike Hughes was all over the scoresheet with 6 points/6 rebs/4 assists and 3 blocks. Rounding out the scoring effort were Alex Stone with 7 points and Rick Auyeung with 5 points. For Blue, Phil Romero (14 points) and Brain Maier (10) were the only double digit socrers, followed by 9 from Zach Sicherman (to go with 11 rebounds) and 8 points from Jon Ackerman. One thing Blue did very well on this night was get 13 steals including 4 more from league leader David Kobishvili (plus 3 apiece from Phil and Jon). The win moves Grey to 3-1 while Blue falls to 1-3.
Grey vs Blue Highlights 12/9/2024
Orange 68 - Gold 53: Gold was back on the court on short rest hoping to put their loss to Red in the rear-view mirror (they would have to do so without Jake Granoff who missed the contest). Orange came into this game at 2-1 looking to get back in the win column on the heels of a heart-breaking loss to Red last week. Gold got off to a quick start, opening the game with an 8-0 run. Orange countered with an 8-0 run of their own to tie up the socre a few minutes later. The teams would trade baskets for a few minutes but Orange then built up a 38-27 lead with a minute left in the half. Neighbor went on a 4-0 run of his own, hitting a two-pointer followed by a steal and fast break layup to close out the half and hoping to give Gold some momentum heading into the second half. Unfortunately for Gold, Orange was unphased by the late run and came out strong and extended their lead to as many as 16 points with 13:00 left. Gold summoned the energy to make a 12-4 run to cut the lead to 58-50 with 5:30 remaining but the game would never get closer than the 8-point margin. Neighbor was the only player on Gold to score in double digits (24 points/8 rebs/3 steals) though they did get 9 points from both Bryan Minasian (9 points/10 rebs) and Steve Bachman (4/19 shooting). Jason Narod might have struggled shooting the ball (3/12) but he did his best John Stockton impression with 12 assists and also added 5 boards. When Gold is hitting their shots they are one of the more dangerous teams but when they are not it can look like a dysfunctional mess. Fortunately for Gold they will get a chance to right the ship before the holiday break with an upcoming game against Black. Orange was led by two of the most underrated players in the league (though they probably shouldn't be anymore) in Ben Huber and Rory Schulman. Ben scored 21 points (8/14 shhoting) and added 11 rebounds. And much like Jason Narod, Rory struggled shooting the ball (2/10 shooting) but put his stamp on the game by contributing 13 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 steals. Michael Gerstein scored 15 points and Jake Lillie put up 9 pts/8 rebs/5 assists. Jake seems reinvigorated this season surrounded by a group of guys that just go out and play winning ball. Orange moved to 3-1 with the win.
Black 61 - Green 54: Black was surprised to not see Blue on their schedule finally but rather the 0-4 Green squad trying desperately for their first win of the season. Green was again missing both Adam Bendik (foot issues) and Justin Chodos (broken hand) as well as Josh Goodhart (coming off his best game of the season) but were featuring Bendik-replacement Kabba (so badass he just goes by one name and I don't yet know his last name). Black was in control of this game throughout starting with some early steals leading to fast breaks by Siri Carpien and others. In fact, Black finsihed with 13 steals for the game (like the Blue team earlier this week). As usual, Black was paced by their big three of Siri Carpien (17 points/8 rebs/5 assists/3 steals), TJ Farrell (16 points/6 rebs and a very efficient 3/5 from deep) and Damian Jackson (10 points/11 rebs/3 steals). Also contibuting for Black were Gary Levine (7 points/3 steals and his usual relentless energy on d) and David Steinbruck (7 points including 2/4 fron three and bringing his 3-point percentage on the season up to 41%). For Green, most of the offense came thanks to offensive rebounds from Dan Amsellem and Kabba. Dan led the way with 16 points and 15 rebounds (including an insane 11 offensive boards). Dan has been a man amongst boys rebounding the ball this season, leading the league in rebounding and would be borderline top 10 if we only included his offensive rebounding stats. Quoting all-time rebounding legend Dennis Rodman, Dan was overhead saying, "I want to do for rebounds what Michael Jordan did for dunks" (well you're doing it big fella). Andrew Merel added 14 points followed by Kabba and Pete Strauss each contibuting 9 points (including 3 threes from Pete). Once Kabba gets acclimated to the league and his new teammates I think the Green team will be a handful (at least they were last night when they beat Grey's ass but lets not get ahead of ourselves). With time running out and the game in hand, the only question left to be answered was whether Alex Fisher would get off the Schneid and notch his first points of the season. Well here's your answer...
Oops I googled Alex Fisher buzzer beater and this is what came up. Now I realize this is Derek Fisher's buzzer beater. Here's the correct clip:
Come on Alex. I'm really pulling for you but until then...Fisher watch continues. The loss drops Green to 0-5 and moves Black to 3-1 on the season.
Reminder that after tonight's games there will be no games until January 6th. Hope everyone has a restful/enjoyable holiday season and a Happy New Year. I'm not going to include stat leaders this week because not all the stats are official yet.
