Winter 2014: Franchise Draft League Champs: Jerk Store

Rebels Literally Draw First Blood. Jerk Store Figuratively Does So
Jerk Store 69 Runnin' Rebels 57

I wrote the headline and then as I was reading my notes, I saw that I had written Joe assists to Hexx to draw first blood.  So, I suppose both teams figuratively drew first blood.  But, drawing first blood in the series is more important than doing so in the game.  There were some interesting matchups to start the game.  John started on Hexx.  Marc started on Joe.  Doug started over Billy and covered John which was the most interesting matchup.  Dealing with John was priority #1 for the Rebels, especially considering that Noah and his five fouls were on an airplane for Game 1.  I suppose the thought was that John was going to have an advantage regardless of who covered him, so the Rebels defense focus shifted to shutting down the rest of the team, and being able to help and recover on JMul.  Well, in the early going, the helping was not doing much as John was a monster in the first half.  He put up a 17-5-6 line before intermission, but the rest of Jerk Store managed only 22 on their way to a 39-36 halftime lead, so maybe the recovering part was working.  John’s effectiveness would decrease in the second half, which begs the question, why didn’t Hexx plan a gruesome midair collision with John earlier in the game?  Two minutes into the second period, Kap lobbed a ball for John which Hexx went after, and I swear a cartoon cloud rose up blocking me from seeing the gruesomeness, because when the game stopped because of blood, I really had no idea whose it was.  I could have believed Hexx cracked the back of his head open.  John’s elbow had received the brunt of the blow with the wall apparently, and he was able to continue playing, so I think (and hope) the effects of the injury will not linger.  But, the game needed to continue, and Jerk Store had a slim 42-40 lead and was looking at potentially having to pull out the win without their most important player.  It turned out that they only needed to survive 2.5 minutes without him, but it should be noted that they failed to score during that time.  So, if there were any doubt, which I doubt there was, John remains the key to this series.  His return helped Jerk Store turn up the defensive intensity that was not quite present in the first half and the Rebels would manage only an additional 14 points in the 15.5 minutes after John’s return.  The most interesting thing that happened to close out the game was the fact that every Rebel except Doug ended the game with 5 fouls.  Doug managed to go the entire game without being whistled for 1 foul.  Especially impressive considering that he was banging on the interior for much of the game.

Jerk Store

Runnin’ Rebels

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