Fall 2014: B Draft League Champs: CAC cLens

MMWAB Shoot The Lights Out Use Second Half Surge to Capture BDE Crown DILWORTH FINALS MVP
Something to Prove 65 Mad Man with a Box 84

Going into the much-anticipated BDraft East Finals, I had no idea who was going to win.  Something to Prove had not lost once.  Mad Man With a Box had suffered some bad losses earlier in the season, but they had been red hot down the stretch and in the first two rounds.

Mad Man’s hot streak continued, and in the end Something to Prove was dealt their first loss of the season at the worst possible time.  

This game was exactly what I thought it was going to be – a tightly contested battle that saw multiple lead changes and featured great play from the best players in the league.

The first half was pretty tense, despite having zero fans in attendance.  There were clock malfunctions (which, for the purposes of this writeup, were totally Mazzeo’s fault), a lot of fouls that were called, a lot of fouls that weren’t called, and a lot of whining by Hopp and Tibbs.  

Ribs looked great, and hit on a gorgeous up and under to put MMWAB up 8-5 early.  He didn’t command the ball a whole lot, but scored almost every time he caught it.  

In the first half, Tyrik carried the bulk of the scoring load for STP.  Tyrik had been nearly unstoppable down low all season long, but with a respectable defender (Tibbetts) on him, he had to settle for jump shots.  

No problem – he was 8-10 on shots that were further than 5 feet away.  When he’s shooting the ball like that, there’s not much you can do.  He finished with 32 points and 8 boards.  It was arguably his best offensive performance on the season.

Guscott contributed a great deal as well, grabbing a couple of key steals and a number of grown-man rebounds in traffic.  He also converted his only three point attempt of the night, at a time when his team really needed it.  MMWAB was pulling away early but Drew drilled a three to bring STP back to within one point.

The lead switched 6 times in the first half, and Eric Sustache gave STP the lead at the half with one of his patented moves – he stole a sloppy inbounds pass and converted the layup to put his team up 41-40 at the break.  Sustache finished with a solid 12 point-10 rebound-5 assist stat line.

Daryl Albert had been their leading scorer all season long, hitting threes from miles away.  Last night just wasn’t his best night.  He was by no means bad, but a lot of the threes he normally nails didn’t go down for him.  In the semi finals, I found out the hard way that he can put the ball on the deck and be equally effective.  But again, he didn’t get some of the layups to fall and he didn’t get some of the calls he got last week.  He fought hard, though, and had a great season.

Spencer Curry- 5 for 5 from downtown.  Not surprising.  I don’t know how you let this guy get open for even a second.  He shouldn’t be a secret at this point.

Slick Johnson was fouling people.  He was yelling at Kap.  But he was also converting a BIG TIME and-1 in the first half and a sweet lefty layup in the second.  I caught up with him after the game and he told me “This is the first time I’ve won anything in my life.”  It was just adorable.  Congrats buddy!

Christian Hopp was good – again.  After a lackluster first half of the year, he came on strong in recent weeks and hit a ton of key baskets.  None bigger than the three-point DAGGER as he caught the pass on the right wing, jumped and drifted right, and let the shot go.

Bang.  

Game over.

Well, not really, but pretty much – this basket put MMWAB up by 14 and there were only 5 minutes left.  STP is not built to put up points in a hurry, and they weren’t able to recover.

Dilworth was the MVP though.  He hit some impossible looking shots, many of which while absorbing fouls (most of which were called, others Kap couldn’t see).  He grabbed rebounds, played tough D on Sustache, and made all the shots his team needed to pull away in the second half.  

I can’t wait until Dilworth gets drafted in the top three and has to play with a team that’s not totally comprised of first round talent next season.  He’s due for a season like that, and he admitted as such on East Mode last week.

MMWAB gets the win, the title, the glory, and the groupies.  

Dilworth is the MVP.

Tyrik- MVP for the losing team

Unsung hero (but not really unsung if you’ve been paying attention) – Curry

Scores, Box Scores & Write-Ups

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