Fall 2012: 5v5 Draft League Champs: Hand Banana

Hand Banana champions MWW core goes Back to Back
SYNT 60 Hand Banana 62

Finals video located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L6VGj9xguw&feature=plcp

ASG stats / write up located here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AszpZvIPnvw6dDdFc2pZdlB3Tzk1aDNzMWVwamhpUUE#gid=0

Season awards located here: http://www.cacbasketball.com/forum/cac-league-discussion/5v5-draft-awards-and-lines-for-something/

Sign up for next season you bums! http://www.cacbasketball.com/signup/

Capt Cousins made it 2 straight 5v5 draft championships with a 62-60 victory over SYNT and MVP Sean Walsh. Cousins added Al Said to mostly the same supporting class from last year’s title team and it paid off. Said took home the Finals MVP award with 19 points, 7 assists, 5 boards and 4 swipes. Sean Walsh led SYNT with 34 points, 20 boards and 2 blocks but it was not quite enough.

Hand Banana definitely had the intensity edge early. They looked like they had be ready to play for the past week while SYNT seemed to be going through the motions. HB started the game with a full court press which seemed to disrupt SYNT’s flow offensively. Capt Cousins cashed in an O board then caught a press induced errant passed and kicked it to Luigi for an open 3 – HB led 19-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Loubins showed up late for SYNT, without a jersey. Al apparently had an extra that he loaned him, thereby depriving his team of 2 technical FTs. Great show of sportsmanship! Most likely would not have happened if the Rash had made it to the finals. In the 2^nd quarter scoring picked up even more. Notice the extremely low rebounding numbers? That is because every SYNT possession ended in a made basket or turnover. Sean Walsh was simply unstoppable down low, converting countless and-1s and picking up 2 fouls on HB’s big 3 (Al, CC and Luigi). Walsh accumulated 25 points in the first half and his efforts tied things up at 26. After Al and Loubins exchanged banked 3 pters (neither of them called it) HB went on a mini run of there own to close out the half. Matt A was left wide open for a buzzer beating 3 and HB led 41-36 at the break.

Given that the final score was 62-60 I think you can figure out what happened in the 2^nd frame. HB steamrolled their way to a 52-42 lead behind an 8-0 run featuring a couple tough lay-ins by Luigi and Walsh not touching the ball for SYNT. I say steamrolled because this 8-0 run moved extremely slowly. HB continued to inch ahead as SYNT developed a chronic turnover addiction and it was 58-45 at the end of the 3^rd quarter.

SYNT couldn’t even get shots up on offense and on defense they could not stop Said. He was getting into the paint, drawing Walsh to him and dishing to his teammates for easy buckets. Really took over the game for a good 10 minute stretch and it looked like HB would coast to the title. However, things got interesting. HB started to turn the ball over themselves and SYNT closed to within 4 at 2 minutes on a Turin layup. Then Monty came up with a huge steal which led to another lay in and it was a 2 point game with 30s left. HB turned the ball over AGAIN and SYNT had a chance to tie. Shocker coming up here: SYNT turned the ball over! Said swiped the ball away, got it to Matt A who got fouled. 62-60, 6s left. Matt misses the front end of the 1 and 1 and Sean Walsh grabbed the board. He takes off down the sideline, runs into 2 HB defenders and bodies go flying. Whistle Blows. Traveling violation on Walsh! I honestly had no idea what the ref was going to call (offensive foul, block, travel) but that call essentially iced the game. SYNT had 1 more hail-mary opportunity fittingly stolen away by Said and Hand Banana were champions.

Great season everyone! Make sure you sign up for next year ASAP (link at the top of the write up).

League scribe,

Ian Rubiano

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