Cue the Queen

Didn't mean to keep folks in suspense, it's just been one of those weeks, but without further delay here is the final report from the Balance Gym Co-Ed Spring League:

The Hoops Sagrado Knights (8-0 regular season) Co-ed League season came to a dramatic conclusion as the Knights held on to beat Full Court Press (7-1 regular seasons) 82 to 76.

Things were tense from the very beginning and threatened to boil over at several points, but fortunately, there were no technicals, even for the bench.

Despite the final score, this was probably not the Knights' best game simply because there was a battle for each ball and just some dirty plays and bad calls.

Everyone contributed in some way though, whether with points, stats or emotional support and it was the Knights who got to cut down the nets at the end of the game.

Championship Game Stats*
Bryan: 5 points/4 assists/ 1 half assist/ 2 rebounds
Dario: 20 points/ 3 assists/ 15 rebounds/ 4 steals-blocks
Stan: 7 points/ 1 half assist/ 4 rebounds/ 1 steal-block
Aniekan: 6 points/ 2 assists/ 7 rebounds/ 1 steal-block
Jerrod: 34 points/ 5 rebounds/ 3 steals-blocks
Jordyn: 10 points
Tyler: 1 rebound

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for posts from Guatemala which will start in just about week (whew!). Stat Girl has a brand new notebook and is ready to go....VAMOS!

*Stat girl apologizes that she was a bit distracted at moments during the game so while all the points are there, everyone probably had more assists, rebounds and steals-blocks than what are listed.

If David Stern played in the NBA

Where does Stat Girl start about today's playoff game against Flight of the Airballs?

Does she start with the fact that game started 20 minutes late because the other team was waiting on their girl? Does she start with the fact that #2 and #20 for the opposing team were total jerks(there is a better word to describe them, but this is a family publication). Or does she start with the one common denominator in both of the previous issues?

You see, the guy who organizes the league plays for Flight of the Airballs (he's #2) and it's amazing how different the rules are (and the calls are) when the Commish is playing in the game. (BTW Commish, if you want to borrow Stat Girl's pen, a please and thank you would have sufficed).

But the Knights went into the gaming knowing that in some respects the odds were against them and needless to say, the game was close and pretty darn intense.

Although the Knights lead throughout most of the game, in the second half Flight of the Airballs went on a 12-0 run and got the game to within one point.

As Bryan described it, playing against the Commish's team is like playing every team in Guatemala. We are never going to get the calls and you just need to keep your head about you. And kudos really to all of our players who understood that they weren't going to get many calls.

Cooler heads prevailed and although a couple of folks got in foul trouble, no one fouled out and no one threw any punches (although a rush order of Zoloft before the championship game may be in order).

Ultimately the Knights were able to pull of their closest margin of victory all season by beating Flight of the Airballs 63 to 53.

Playoff Game #2 Stats:
Bryan: 9 points/ 6 assists/ 1 half assist/ 3 rebounds/ 2 steals
Sam: 4 assists/ 1 half assist/ 6 rebounds/ 2 steals
Jerrod: 26 points/ 2 assists/ 2 half assists/ 4 rebounds/ 5 steals
Aniekan: 10 points/ 2 half assists/ 1 rebound
Dario: 14 points/ 2 assists/ 15 rebounds/ 1 steal
Jordyn: 2 points/ 1 rebound
Tyler: 2 points/ 1 assist/ 1 steal
Shaq: 3 rebounds

The championship game is on Saturday at 12 p.m. vs. Full Court Press. Hoops beat Full Court Press 73-58 in the third week of the league. But don't let the final score fool you. Hoops (8-0 regular season) were down to Full Court (7-1 regular season) the entire game until they finally tied it up with 9 minutes left to go and went ahead with 7:28 to go in the game.

Playoffs?! Who said anything about playoffs?!

It was like deja vu all over again this week for the Knights as they once again took on the SAIS Ballers in the first round of the playoffs.

The Knights went up immediately and never really looked back. Although some of our previous games with the SAIS Ballers had been quite physical, this was a more civilized affair. Now don't get Stat Girl wrong, this wasn't a love-fest by any stretch of the means, but folks were definitely on much better behavior on both sides.

Bryan got things off on the right foot in the second half by having a Rick Berry moment with a nice two-handed finger roll for two points that sort of had everyone on both teams shaking their heads.

There was a bit of rough going at the beginning of the second half, but everyone quickly pulled it together and the momentum was on to try and score 100....

It was a true team effort today with everyone making the stat line in each category. And although the Knights didn't quite make it to triple digits but they came close.

The final score was 93-51.

Playoff Game #1 Stats
Bryan: 10 points/ 11 assists/ 4 half assists/4 rebounds
Jordyn: 24 points/ 4 assists/ 1 rebound
Sam: 4 points/ 5 assists/ 4 half assists/ 12 rebounds
Dario: 17 points/ 2 assists/ 15 rebounds
Jerrod: 27 points/ 6 assists/ 1 half assist/ 3 rebounds
Anikean: 8 points/ 1 half assit/ 4 rebounds

Playoff game two is Sunday at 11:30 a.m. Not sure who we will play, but from the looks of things it will be Flight of the Airballs who we beat in week 7 by a score of 78 to 56. They looked tough though in what we saw of their playoff game, so laces tied and fingers crossed.

Undefeated

Week eight of the Balance Co-Ed League--the last week of regular season play--saw a rematch of the Knights vs. the SAIS Ballers. The Knights beat the Ballers 60-46 in a very chippy game in the second week of the league.

With our fearless leader off celebrating his high school reunion, the Knights really needed to step up against the SAIS Ballers, who despite their losing record (0 and 7) play tough ball (some might consider it a bit dirty).

Things immediately got off on the right foot (besides the fact that everyone was actually early for the game) when Dario got the tip that went right to Jordyn which she took down court for the first bucket of the game.

Perhaps it was in honor of emotional rock Bryan, or maybe everyone just shared a couple of Zoloft in the parking lot before the game, but the Knights were on their best behaviour throughout the entire 40 minutes. It never ceases to amaze Stat Girl that the meanest, dirtiest player for the SAIS Ballers is a teacher!!! Fortunately Hoops is able to counter-balance that bad impression of teachers by having Sam Levy on the team.

All-in-all it was a great outing by the Knights and everyone stepped up to help the Knights remain undefeated with a 73 to 51 victory.

A special shout-out to Jeff Owens who joined us for the last regular season game of the year as a warm up for Guatemala. He is also the recepient of this week's Dario Paul Poor Sportsmanship Award by allowing the clock to run down till its final seconds and shooting a two.

This Week's Stats:
Aniekan: 12 points/ 5 rebounds
Jerrod: 20 points/ 6 assists/ 2 rebounds
Sam: 2 points/ 6 assists/ 2 rebounds
Stan: 4 points/ 1 assist/ 1 rebound
Dario: 7 points/ 3 assists/ 12 rebounds
Jordyn: 9 points/ 3 1/2 assists/ 3 rebounds
Mehalic: 2 points/ 1-1/2 assist/ 5 rebounds
Bell: 9 points/ 1 assist/ 3 rebounds
Shaq: 4 points/ 10 rebounds
Jeff O.: 4 points

The playoffs are Saturday and Sunday, but we don't know yet what time and who we will play, so please be sure to check back.

Also, please keep Keith Gatling and his family in your prayers this week.

A win-win situation

The Hoops Sagrado Knights played two games this weekend and made sure they remained undefeated by the time Monday morning rolled around:

Saturday's Game:

Saturday saw the Knights take on Stacey's Team who are much better than what their record and the final score would indicate. Once again, the pace was frenetic but that wasn't necessarily reflected in the scoring as the half-time score was only 36 to 24.

Although he did his own fair share of talking, Jerrod proved that with each passing game he is working on maintaining his composure in the face of adversity and instead of getting a technical, he showed his opponent the what-for by scoring against him.

On Saturday the Knights were joined by Hoops alumn George Samuel Mehalic as well as frequent Guatemala visitor Jeff Bell...

Hoops 81
Stacey's Team 57

Saturday's Game
Bryan: 15 points*/ 8 assists/ 1 rebound
Dario: 14 points/ 2.5 assists/ 16 rebounds
Jordyn: 5 points/ 3.5 assists
Aniekan: 8 points/ 2 assists
Jerrod: 9 points/ .5 assist/ 1 rebound
Sam Mehalic: 4 points/ 8 assists
Jeff Bell: 12 points/ 4 assists/ 4 rebounds
Tyler: 10 points/ 3 rebounds
Stan: 6 points/ 4 assists/ 3 rebounds

*This week's Dario Paul bad sportsmanship award goes to Bryan who let the clock run down, and talked smack to Stacey, who was guarding him, only to pull up as time was running out and shoot a three....

Sunday's Game:

On Sunday, the first-place Knights took on the fourth-place Flight of the Airballs...

All but one player on the squad made the state sheet in all three columns with at least a half an assist, two points and a rebound.

Defensively Hoops had a great game with Dario having at least four steals (Stat Girl is still working on that) and probably twice as many blocks.

Tyler and Jordyn both continue to make valuable contributions to the team effort and prove that no matter how rough and tumble some of the opposing players may be, that they can hang in there with the "boys" with no troubles.

Hoops Sagrado 78
Flight of the Airballs 56

Sunday's Game
Bryan: 11 points/ 9.5 assists/ 1 rebound
Tyler: 4 points/ 2 assists/ 1 rebound
Sam: 7 points/ 2 assists/ 2 rebounds
Sam Mehalic: 2 points/ 3 rebounds
Stan: 17 points/ 4 assists/ 2 rebounds
Jerrod: 7 points/ 3.5 assists/ 2 rebounds
Aniekan: 8 points/ 1.5 assists/ 4 rebounds
Dario: 13 points/ 4 assists/ 9 rebounds
Jordyn: 9 points/ .5 assists/ 1 rebound

As we move into the final week of league play before the playoffs begin and as our trip to Guatemala looms, questions still remain about the cohesiveness of the team. Some players still seem to think that basketball is an individual sport and not a team effort. Let's hope this week, that the team spirit that is Hoops Sagrado comes through.

Coming up next week is the final week of regular season play and rematch of the much disliked SAIS Ballers....Game time is 2 p.m. for anyone who a) is playing and b) wants to come and cheer the Knights on to an undefeated season.