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Subscribe to our NewsletterWeek 9 was a week of close games (a couple were closer than the scores actually indicate) and some big time individual performances. Last week the Orange team made a statement with a pair of close wins and this week the Black team followed suit letting the rest of the league know that they will be a team to be reckoned with. So without further ado, let's dive in to the week that was...
Grey 55 - Green 48: With the Kabbendik Era coming to a close it was time to see what Green could do with their original lineup finally fully intact. Adam Bendik has been working his way back into game shape and Green welcomed their big man, Dan Amsellem, back into the lineup fresh off the one game suspension. Grey was missing Alex Stone who was enjoying some sun and sand in Turks and Caicos. The last time these two teams met Green came away with a 57-48 victory so Grey had revenge on their minds. Green came out of the gates ready to play thanks in large part to the offensive exploits of Jordan Perlmutter. As has become a tradition in recent meetings between these two teams, Jordan has saved his best ball when facing the Grey squad (game high 22 points). And it's not just the points scored by Jordan in these games but the level of difficulty of the shots. Like a gymanst or diver trying a really high level of difficulty performance, Jordan was hitting turn-arounds, floaters and pretty much whatever he wanted leaving Matt Ceccarelli clearly exasperated despite his playing tight man defense. The first half went back and forth with both teams trading punches en route to a 21-21 halftime score. Josh Goodhart kept up his torrid three-point shooting pace nailing 2 threes in the first half. For Grey it wass a very balanced scoring effort with 5 guys scoring between 7-12 points. Mike Hughes led the way with 12 points and 10 rebounds followed by 11 for Shamar Mason, 9 apiece for Mike Korn and Matt Ceccarelli and 7 points for Ed Seiden. The second half started much like the first half played out with both teams trading baskets leading to a 28-28 tie with 13:30 remaining. However, over the next 10 minutes the Grey team went on a 26-7 run to build a 54-35 lead with 3:00 and seeming to wrap up the game. But not before one last run by Green cut the lead to just 6 points with 20.8 seconds remaining, fueled largely by the poor FT shooting by Grey, but especially yours truly. Ed Seiden (me) missed the front end of three straight 1-and-1s fueling the 13-point Green run (I guess I learned my lesson calling out Andre's FT shooting) but fortunately for Grey the lead never got below 6 points. Adam Bendik scored 12 points and added 8 rebounds for Green. The stat that jumped out from the boxscore was the rebounding edge for Grey, but specifically on the offensive glass (Grey outrebounded Green 20-6 on the offensive end leading to many addditional scoring opportunities). The win moved Grey to 7-2 and in second place while the loss dropped Green to 2-8 and in a three-way tie for last place.
Grey vs Green Highlights 1/27/2025
Black 63 - Gold 61: Gold was playing without two of their leading scorers for this contest, Michael Huberman (who is nursing an injury) and Jake Granoff (who was enjoying the warm Florida sun). This meant that there would be a lot of shots up for grabs for the remaining players...it was just a question of who would step up to fill the void:
The answer was Steve Bachman (24 points including 6 threes) along with his sidekicks Bryan Minasian (13 points/9 rebs), Andre Lewis (11 points) and Jason Narod (9 points and 6 assists which in Ceccarelli-years is like 15 assists). Steve came out firing and when he wasn't scoring himself he was finding Bryan Minasian or Cory Rothbort cutting to the hoop. Gold seemed to be having fun on the court which hasn't always been the case this season and it translated to the on-court performance as they opened up a 40-32 halftime lead. It was a very balanced scoring attack for Black who were led, as usual, by Siri Carpien (17 points/6 rebs/5 assists), TJ Farrell (15 points), Damian Jackson (12 points and 5 steals) and Gary Levine (11 points and 4 assists). Gold maintained their lead at 59-54 with 8:30 remaining. But that is when the offense for Gold went cold and Black took advantage. A minute later, thanks to a driving layup by Gary Levine and an and-1 by Damian Jackson, the game was all tied up at 59-59 (7:25 left). For the next 4 minutes neither team scored a basket until Bryan followed up a missed shot with a basket to give Gold a 61-59 lead. And that is when we got what is a strong contender for the play of the year. Black trailed by 2 points with 2:00 remaining when TJ took a long three. The shot missed but as often happens, Gary outhustled everyone on the court to grab the offensive rebound. As if that wasn't enough, Gary then found a cutting TJ with a behind the head no-look pass which resulted in a TJ layup and a tie score.
Here is how the game played out after this huge play:
- TJ got fouled with 1:10 left and hit both FTs (63-61 Black lead)
- Bachman give-and-go with Bryan down the lane and Bachman got fouled by David Steinbruck on an attempted strip. Fortunately for Black the ref said it was a non-shooting foul. Unfortunately for Black, Steinbruck really didn't like the call and let the ref know that he thought the call was "fucking horrible" and was hit with a technical foul. Unfortunately for Gold, Jason Narod missed both of the technical FTs. So the score remained 63-61 Black.
- Ensuing inbound play went to Bachman (already hit 6 threes on the night) who just barely missed a potential go-ahead three pointer and the ball went out of bounds
- Siri then got fouled and missed the front-end of a 1-and-1. In fact, Siri missed the rim altogether so it was a violation and Gold ball down 2 with 13 seconds remaining
- Inbound pass went to Bachman who dribbled down the court and passed to Andre in the corner with 5 seconds remaining. Andre drove the lane but lost the ball and it rolled out of bounds as the clock hit zero. Black escaped with a 2-point win
The win moved Black to 7-3 and the loss dropped Gold to 2-8.
Black vs Gold Highlights 1/27/2025
Red 67 - Blue 54: Red was missing the red-hot Gabe Berkowitz and Staten Island hoops legend Mike Borik while Blue welcomed back David Kobiahvili but was missing Erez Liebermann. As has been the case for most of the games for Red this season, they got out to a blistering start early in this contest. Adam Hynes, MVP front-runner, was hitting everything to pace the scoring for Red (25 points on 10/15 shooting/7 rebs) but he was certainly not alone. The Big 4 for Red shot an incredible 21/33 from 2-point range to go along with 3/5 from deep. Colin Neff had 16 pointss and 7 rebounds, Eric Sass had 13 points and 12 rebounds and Ben Carr added 10 points and 5 assists. Red built the lead up to as much as 15 points in the first half with the eventual halftime score sitting at 37-25. The second half started similarly to the first half with Red continuing to shoot the lights out and eventually building the lead to 44-27 with 19 minutes remaining. But the Blue team was not ready to roll over and quit despite the seemingly insurmountable lead. They slowly began cutting into the lead thanks to Blue's version of a Big Three, Phil Romero (18 points), Jon Ackerman (14 points) and Adam Driansky (13 points) leading the way offensively. With 12 minutes remaining Blue was able to cut the lead to 10 points but they weren't done there. They continued to show heart and resilience and eventually got the lead down to just 6 points. However, that was as close as they got as eventually Red had too much firepower to overcome. Red continues to sit atop the standings at 9-2 while Blue reamins in a three-way tie for last place with Gold and Green.
Red vs Blue Highlights 1/29/2025
Black 73 vs Orange 71: Black was back at it just two days after their dramatic 2 point win over Gold. Orange had their full squad while Black was missing only David Steinbruck, who while not present for the game was said to be cursing out the refs while following along on the stream. If you're a fan of good offense, and not much defense, then this first half was right up your alley. Black got out to a really quick start in this game because apparently Orange forgot that TJ Farrell (15 points and 8 rebs) likes to shoot three-pointers and he hit two uncontested threes in the first 30 seconds. Orange would eventually settle into the flow of the game and these two teams just traded baskets throughout the first half. In fact there must have been a dozen lead changes in what was shaping up to be an epic battle. Michael Gerstein led the way for Orange with 20 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Orange had 3 additional players notch double figure scoring including 15 from both Jake Lillie and Rory Schulman as well as 13 from Ben Huber. But the big story of this game offensively had to be the 36 points scored by Siri Carpien. Still playing with a black eye and stitches thanks to an inadvertent elbow in a Peak League game 4 days prior, Siri showed why he is a frontrunner for the MVP this season. Quick PSA before I go any further:
If you see this guy casually bringing the ball up the court as he slowly makes his way toward the three-point line at the wing, my advice is to get your hand up quickly, because if you dont than you will fall victim to this patented Siri shot. He has been doing it multiple times every week and if you don't make an effort to contest this shot he will just drill it all day long. Now I get that the other option is to get up close and contest and then watch him drive right by you as he slithers his way to the lane but I guess that's what makes him an MVP. Now back to the recap...
Second half, more of the same but with a little more defense being played by both squads. 2:10 remaining in the game and Orange is holding onto a 68-65 lead and here is how it all played out:
- Orange is killing some clock and the ball eventually ended up in Gerstein's hands and he attempted a three-pointer and missed but Alex Schosheim grabbed the offensive rebound. The ball eventually made its way to Ben Huber who was fouled.
- Huber hits the first FT but misses the second (69-65 Orange) with 1:48 left.
- Siri missed a mid range pull up in the lane which is rebounded by Alex and he is fouled with 1:38 left
- Alex missed both FTs, Siri grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Siri made both FTs (69-67 Orange)
- Orange again killing the clock and eventually Black fouled Graham Haskell with 1:07 left. Graham missed both and Damian grabbed the rebound and passed to Siri who then hit one of his patented walk up threes (70-69 Black with 1:00 left)
- Gerstein drove and made a grerat pass to Huber for a layup (71-70 Orange with 39.3 seconds left)
- Siri then made it look like he was going to again attempt one of his walk-up threes but instead dribbled toward the top of the key and then stepped back and drilled another three (73-71 Black with 28.5 seconds left)
- Gerstein got a clean look from three but missed and Drew Mandelbaum grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 16.2 left.
- Drew missed both FTs. Graham grabbed the rebound and passed ahead to Jake who called timeout and they drew up a play.
- In bound went to Gerstein who drove to the lane and his pass got deflected, ended up in Rory's hands who took a foul line jumper that just missed as time expired.
This might have been the most exciting game all season and was a true vintage performance by Siri. He carried his team to victory making clutch shot after clutch shot. Damian Jackson added 13 points and 6 rebounds in the winning effort for Black. The win keeps Black in third place in the standings at 8-3 while the loss moved Orange to 6-5 and in 4th place. This thrilling end to a game was nothing new for Orange who has now had 8 of their 11 games decided by 6 or fewer points.
Black vs Orange Highlights 1/29/2025
The week ahead:
Green vs Black 2/3
Grey vs Red 2/3 (Battle for first place)
Green vs Gold 2/5 (winner will move out of tie at bottom of standings)
Orange vs Blue
Stat leaders: (All games have now been updated and entered into the system)
Points:
Siri Carpien - 22.9 ppg
Adam Hynes - 20.2 ppg
Kabba - 17.4 ppg
Rebounds:
Dan Amsellem - 14.9 rpg
Eric Sass - 10.9 rpg
Bryan Minasian - 10.8 rpg
Assists:
Ben Carr/Jason Narod - 4 apg
Shamar Mason - 3.3 apg
Steals:
Colin Neff - 2.6 spg
Andre Lewis - 2.44 spg
Ben Huber - 2.36 spg
Blocks: (total)
Eric Sass - 16
Mike Hughes/Phil Romero - 11
Three-pointers made:
TJ Farrell -31
Siri Carpien/Michael Gerstein - 27
Good luck this week
