Spring 2009: C League Champs: Silk Nasties

Commentary by Five Hard Fouls...

Tribe 70  Genzyme 54

Tribe Dismantle G-Unit with Balanced Attack

Talk about a nice warmup for next week. Lead by four different teammates in double figures, the Tribe dominated from start to finish to rout a competitive Genzyme squad by the final score of 70-54. Franklin Salvadore put on a phenomenal show for the second week in a row as he scored a game-high 28 points. Throw in two excellent individual performances from Jerry Altidor (a 12-11-4-5) and Danny Teixeira (14-4-4-4) and the matchup problems were simply overpowering for G-Unit against the Tribe. Not to mention, 'Broadway' Joe Andrade had another great game, leading his troops with a nice basket and key assist (as he added 14 points as well) to start the game off right. Genzyme hung around for awhile as Dave Bierut had a very good first half as he hit the glass hard (18 boards are impressive!) and made easy buckets. Also, good to see David Lee a.k.a. The Asian Sensation line up for G-Unit because this guy is a solid overall player. DLee can create his own shot and he had a few great moves to get his shot off. Add another solid Nate Bachtell perfomance, very deft at getting to the line like a true scorer knows how to, and Genzyme definitely hung around for awhile. Still, Genzyme is having attendance issues (the core issue with 0-to-1 subs) and other guys like Krukowski and Van need to find their sea legs when they get open shots. Regardless, the main theme in this game was the Tribe offense. The team speed and blazing quicks on defense have been too much to handle for any team so far this year. Then add the awesome shooting prowess of Andrade, V-Teix, D-Teix, Jerry, Franklin, Cunha, Figgy, and E-Rod, forget it. As of right now, the Tribe are at 4-0 and next week they will face the other undefeated team, Silk Nasties, in the 7 p.m. game next Monday night.

HotSteppers 40  Silk Nasties 77

Silk Nasties Eat HotSteppers Like Hostess Cupcakes.

This recap is brought you by the C Leagueís Game of the Week: Monday June 15, 2009:

Tribe vs. Silk Nasties, 7:00 p.m. King School. You wouldnít want to miss it.

And onto this monstrosity of a game. Silk Nasties murdered their opposition like Method Man talked about feeding you and feeding you with sewing utensils in the building. Harsh, perhaps? But the poor HotSteppers were sliced, diced, and boxed like Rice-A-Roni as they lost 77-40. You had the line cook, Jerome Layman a.k.a. Jay-Lay, do that Yayo dance as he hit three big three-pointers early to have eleven points in the first fourteen minutes of action. There was the preparer of taquitos, Jason Gellar, who was hitting threes like they were running out of hot sauce at Annaís (better than Boca Grande, for serious). Steve Taylor was like a badass Iron Chef out there as he was Grandmaster Hibachi to the tune of 20 points as he now leads the player-rater for the league. Hell, the twin towers of Rob Taylor and Brian Kimball were the dudes on that Fox show that no one watched, but were good that only a true savant like FHF would appreciate their filleting of the opposition 12 points apiece and many rebounds). Silk Nasties just pouring Tabasco all over those HotSteppers (Sully had another monster game, but sorry no one else gets any love with that performanceÖthough the Hall/Sully pick-and-roll may be the most unstoppable play in the league. The two-man game works for stretches, but for whole games? Questionable. Bad shooting night, okay. But 77 points? Yikes to the atrocious defense). And speaking of segues, next week #1 tangles with #1-A as Silk Nasties face the Tribe to see who the best team in the C Leagueís non-corporate division really is.

Hi Haters 61  Team Dynasty 48

One Cannot Beat Five, Hi-Haters Move Up

This game had that Kanye versus Jay-Z feel to it. Friendly rivals and big sellers (lots of parallels with the attendance for both of these squads), but a little bit of tension to make this contest interesting. The Hi-Haters definitely showcased that they had more weapons in the tank, especially those Chason brothers, as they notched a big 61-48 victory over their likable rivals, Team Dynasty. Ryan Chason has no fear. Itís pretty evident watching this cat play basketball. Especially when he dropped eight points in the first eight minutes with a certain swagger. Heís the motivating engine on this team as he provides the spark with his inside game. But the other brother, Danny Chason, is no slouch either. In fact, this guyís an outside shooter and heís one hell of a facilitator. Twelve points, eight rebounds, and five assists screams of a complete game even if he hasnít regained that magical outside touch from early in the season. Even facilitators need guys to give the ball to and Hi-Haters have plenty of guys that can play hoops. Like Mike Santos (7 points, clutch boards) or Shelton Winspeare (7 boards, 3 assists) or Nick Souza (8 points) or the other Nick Souza a.k.a. Baby Scal (some really nice passes that go under the radar, this guy is unselfish and make his teammates better). Justin Blackman also proved to be a Freeway-smooth force as he proved he can score when on the floor the last two games and Jimmy DaSilvaís a hustler that the Roc-A-Fella would be proud. Itís no shock that Hi-Haters won this game as they led comfortably for over forty minutes. Still, the star of the show was Scott Nascimento. Watching this guy ball was like watching Pierce in Game 7 last year against LeBron. In terms of a sheer volume scorer, there may not be a better guy in the league than Nascimento. Some of the plays were just silly out there. Weíre talking steals on breaks, some sick moves to the basket, and then a couple of long-range bombs (including a called glass shot on his last one). 39 points later (out of 48 for his team probably isnít the best thing...Manny was quiet but only figuratively, Matt Souza provided a nice lift on the glass, but everyone else was quiet. This team needs a second scorer. Is it Manny? Harrington? Who knows?) and we had our individual performance of the season. Most important thing: in spite of Scottís ridiculous game, Hi-Haters lockdown the #3 seed at the midway point with a huge team victory

XJV 52  Grand Nationals 51

XJV's Last-Second Miracle Earns Win #1

This game was wild. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. After reading the stat sheet and my accompanying notes, my first thought was ìHow the hell did XJV win this game?!?î They trailed 47-40 after Mike Beintum and Christian Hartjes of the Grand Nationals hit seeming dagger three-pointers with just 5:30 left to go. Other guys for the Stevie Strasburgs that hit big shots were Pierre-Loic Assayao and Joey Breton in the second half to help pad that lead against XJV. The defending champions started out the season 0-3 and the chips were certainly thrown all over them in this game. But, like any great champion, they simply stood up and kept coming back for more. Steve Barbuto, last yearís MVP, finally got untracked as he hit for a couple of huge buckets. Suddenly, we had a 47-44 game with 2:00 to go. Then the Kopp brothers delivered big time as James hit a two-pointer and John hit a huge three as XJV led 49-47. Next possession down the floor and WHAM! Kidney-punch by the Grand Nationals as Breton bangs home an open three off great ball movement to give his team a 50-49 lead with about 1:15 left. XJV flipped it right back as John Kopp hit another three to give his team a 2-point lead. Pierre comes right back as he gets fouled on a smart drive. Makes the first, misses the second. Lead is 52-51 with :30 to go. Grand Nats had to waste a lot of fouls so they didnít actually get this to one-on-one with :07 to go. Benelli missed the front end so we had the Grand Nats come screaming down as Pierre got a semi-contested 16-footer off (a tough but definitely makeable shot, definitely a good look in that situation) that bricked. XJV escapes. They are out of the cellar to climb up to 1-3 where they have their sights set on getting back to the top.