Fall 2009: SML League Champs: Cold Blooded

Cold Blooded claims first Sunday Morning League title.....
Mini-Crushers 63 Cold Blooded 73

Itís the inaugural first championship of the Sunday Morning League and it wouldnít be a Cold Blooded game if we werenít waiting a couple of extra minutes for them to show up. Also adding to their troubles was the loss of Jason Chiverton in their line up for this one. And you know itís a championship atmosphere when you get Wolverine (whoís going to be joining us next season) as a second ref and CACís resident videographer (J-Rod) in attendance getting some pre-game interviews. There were a couple of great quotes that I hope make the highlight real. The first came from league MVP Bobby C, ìIím going for a quadruple double today.î Talk about some serious confidence, I guess when youíre MVP you can say things like that. I certainly wasnít going to argue with him. Of course Nim probably had my favorite, ìwinning the Tommy Award was probably my greatest achievement every,î seriously, how can anyone dispute that!!

Well we finally got the game going and I have to tell you it was pretty boring. In the first 5 minutes of the game, all we could muster for a score was 5-5. Jim B (29 pts, 12 reb) was the only one who could get things going for the Crushers and was exploiting his size down low. For CB, Wachtel (24 pts, 16 reb) was just a beast, as it seemed like he was grabbing every rebound and getting to the basket at will. But despite these two being the aggressor and setting the pace for each team, we were tied at 19 with 6 minutes to go. These are the two highest scoring teams in the league, whatís going on here? Well just as things were crawling along, JHend (25 pts) went off scoring 11 points in the next 6 minutes to help CB hold a 39-28 half time lead.

Early in the second half, things continued to roll for CB and they were able to increase their lead to as much as 16. It seemed as though CB could now cruise to the title but Bobby C (14 pts, 17 reb) finally woke up and decided to get going. Bobby was able to get a quick couple of buckets and this attention led to some wide open looks for his teammates. The main beneficiary of this was Cadman (20 pts) who nailed three straight 3ís to cut the CB lead to 7 with 6 minutes to go. That was about as close as the crushers were able to get, with CB hitting their free-throws late (14-23 -- 61%) but with about one minute to go, things could have gotten real interesting. CB was up 12 and Bobby C was fouled shooting the 3 ball. To compound that, the player fouling him already had 5 fouls, so as all you know, thatís a technical and the Crushers were getting the ball back. We could have seen a potential 8 point play that would have cut the lead to 4 with a minute to go, but the Crushers werenít able to convert all the FTís and missed the ensuing shot. That series of possessions sealed the deal and CB held on to win the championship.

It was a great year for the Crushers, who (ranked #2 in my pre-season poll) lived up to their press hype and represented quiet nicely this season. Bobby C and the boys are coming back next season and I expect them to come back strong. CB had a great season as well. They set a CAC single game scoring record (139 pts), played fantastic team ball, lived up to their #1 pre-season ranking and although Wacthel missed out on the league MVP, he was rewarded with the finals MVP. They too are coming back next season and have set the bar for the rest of us.

Congrats to everyone who participated in this seasonís SML, each and every one of you made it great. Weíre coming back next season better than ever and I look forward to seeing more of you, hungover, glossy eyed and reeking of alcohol. Weíre 27 days and counting from the next league, I canít wait!!!!

Scores, Box Scores & Write-Ups

Playoff: week 12

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Sunday Fall 2009 Basketball League