BSH – Alan Hogan 25, Gene Wolff 24, Adi Baybay 13
TTP – Matt Anza and Ali Jamal 13 each, Andre Anthony 7
TTP, led by Matthew Anza, has made a surprising turn around this season from their past entries into Vancouver Metro! They captured the #6 seed after not making the playoffs for literally their entire existence as Van Rain! A new name and new personnel made them the team they are today, and they looked to continue to “Shock the World”! The defending and reigning Vancouver Metro Champion Ball So Hard squad came in stoic and ready to defend their crown!
From the eye test, you wouldn’t see an obvious advantage in personnel, as both teams had plenty of “horses” to carry the load. The first half would see one of the most intense battles of the night, as both teams took “Haymaker Swings” at each other as the battled for every basket! Layups, long jumpers, and intense defense dominated the first half. Alan “Lebron James” Hogan took a mighty swing at a TTP short jump shot, and the force of that swing could be felt on the sideline! TTP would make that shot, but you could see where this game was going! Alan and Gene Wolf would be the inside/out attack that would push BSH to a 10 point lead at halftime.
The second half would start with a comparison of sorts. Both teams had a player that was a dangerous scorer, but were being judged on the basis of an “Ugly Sweater” contest! The names of the players will be omitted to protect the guilty! On one team you had a “Charles Barkley golf swing” type shot with a lot of hitches in it. On the other side you had a shooting stroke that resembled a small “Back Spasm”! Both players could score, and have made a good living with those strokes in the Vancouver Metro league over the years!
Getting back to the game, the championship pedigree began to come out regarding BSH! They would begin to pull away on the back of Alan Hogan, who had a Lebron James like stat line, as he would dominate on both ends of the floor. His and the team effort would lead to a 30 point victory, and have them primed for the next round.
The Party – San Felipe 17, Chris “Z-Bo” Loreth 16, Chris Lum 12
SKG – Will Chaing 21, Max Neuman 18, “Mad Man” Eddie Fan 11
The Party entered the playoffs with high hopes, and their best regular season finish in their Vancouver Metro history! Here and there, we see remnants of the old “Lemon Party” crew long since semi-retired. The “New” Party led by Ryan Shams, is almost a grand evolutionary story from the wild, technical foul filled play that fueled him in season’s past! Shams is more of the inspirational leader of this bunch, with the occasional “slip ups” of blind rage! Sofa King Good strolled in with the confidence that a multi time league champion should. The only problem for them is that they were missing even more of their core players for this crucial playoff game! Due to injuries, undisclosed injuries, and prior obligations, Sofa King Good was down to the “Gristle” of their squad!
The Party smelled blood in the water as they began to attack the depleted world famous “Palmer Zone” with quick ball movement, timely three pointers, and a big dose of “Z-Bo”! Chris “Z-Bo” Loreth had a big time battle up against Max Neuman! The height advantage that usually is neutralized by the Palmer Zone, was taken apart by the huge rebounding edge The Party had over SKG! They jumped all over SKG,and raced out to a 30 point lead at one point!
Coming out of the half down 21, SKG put together one of the most scrappy halves of basketball they could. Cutting the lead to 7 at one point, The Party would come back with timely three pointers to stick daggers in any SKG run. The Party would leave with a 9 point win, and complete one of the biggest upsets in Vancouver Metro history!
YM – Dru Creightney 23, Be Chow 12, Jack Ho 9
Agavaros – Sheldon 14, Oscar Salvador and Andrew Peterson 9 each
Initially there was confusion on who was eligible for the Agavaros at game time. After YM went over their options, that didn’t benefit them good or bad, they decided to continue with the game. On the tip, YM got off to a great start hitting a three pointer. On the ensuing in bound, one of the Agavaros players yelled out “Hey, they have 6 players on the court!” In a flash the entire gym looked down court to see that YM had 6 people on the court. A few things were interesting about these situations. One, the fact that YM walked out onto the court with 6 players. My first question was “who didn’t have a person to guard on the jumpball”? The 2nd one was why didn’t anyone attempt to run off the court when it was discovered that they had 1 extra man on the court???? After discovering that they would lose the 3 pointer and be hit with the Technical foul, one of the veteran YM players came over and said “we will take the win now”!
After that hilarious sequence of events, the game would go on! One of the concerns of YM was the height of Agavaros. The rebounding edge favored Agavaros on paper, but turned out to not be the factor it was believed to be. YM scrapped for every loose ball, and looked to have an advantage in speed. This would give YM an advantage, since the rebounding edge was almost even. Agavaros would prove to be a tough out with Oscar Salvador keeping Agavaros close. YM attacked from all areas on the court, but found little holes in the Agavaros defense. Possibly for the height in the paint, that made it look like 100+ year old trees in Stanley Park, but Dru Creightney would find mismatches and sacrifice his dead eye three point shooting for timely post up opportunities.
YM would hold a slim 9 point lead at half, but would gradually run the lead out. Agavaros made a few mini runs to make it a game, but in the end YM was too much on the speed and post up side of things. YM’s 17 point lead was hard fought and well earned!
The Title of this game is “How do you Forfeit…a forfeit”?
Sonic Boom has run into issues where they have faced adversity. Some bad, some so bad. This night would be a bad one for the fact that only 3 players showed up for the playoffs that were eligible. Without calling out any names, Sonic Boom had to forfeit this first round game.
The Stallions on the other hand, came early like they usually do once the playoffs start. Focused, the Stallions are usually ready to go. The good thing about this team is that they know not to under estimate the long tenured Sonic Boom team, especially when undermanned!
On the first play, things were heated on a hard foul at the basket. From there, that is when “The Circus came to town”! The up and down action was interrupted by rough play. Even with the foul count ticking up fast, the chippiness continued. 2 technical foul calls, and a few arguments later, the game was called and/or forfeited.
The Stallions scored 32 points in a short time led by Prince Carino. He had 15 in short order with 4 made three pointers. He may have been going for the new three point record set by Matt Madewan (19)! Unfortunately, we will never know. The Stallions will go on to face the next opponent in the Semis
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