MEN'S DIVISION 1
Academy 61 vs Men’s All Native 56
Academy – Geoff Pippus: 29 pts, Bret Macdonald: 11 pts
All Native – Gene Wolf: 22 pts, Sean Holland: 13 pts
This game was definitely a hard one to put odds on. All Native had a number of young players in the fold for this season, but also had League veterans like Richie and Gene Wolf with former league standout Sean Holland! The Academy looked to be built from a “rag-tag” group of men that party all night and sleep all day! With Bret Macdonald leading them on the floor, I knew it would be an interesting game.
With their Co-Captain sidelined due to a freakish basketball related accident, The Academy looked even more prepared to tackle the challenge! The story of this game was the shooting woes of Sean Holland! His performance was almost as bad as John Starks in game 7 of the 1994 NBA finals (LOOK IT UP)! This game may have looked a lot different if he shot even half as well as he had the last time he was in Metro league a handful of seasons ago. Holland was a 25 ppg scorer back then. Needless to say, The Academy took advantage of those shooting woes, to jump out to a double digit lead in the 2nd half.
UBC 110 vs Blues 63
UBC - Phil Jalapoor: 24 pts, Patrick Simon: 18 pts
Blues – Mo Karimirad: 16 pts, Niko Mottus: 12 pts
Fresh off of the National finals, UBC brought most of their team to the Oval to “relax”. They would go up against a young but formidable Blues team. The game was close in the first half, leading to the anticipation of a very close competitive game to the end.
UBC held an 11 point lead at the half, but exploded for 62 points in the 2nd half! Almost surgical was the operation UBC performed on the court in the 2nd half. A lot of weapons, a lot of talent, and still have a lot of youth. Teams are already game planning on how to stop this squad!!!!
SB Battle 96 vs Coquitlam Boys 36
SB Battle – Demetri Harris: 26 pts, Joey Haywood: 18 pts
Coquitlam Boys – Alex Klocck and Nikolay: 9 pts each
In the past few months, SB Battle has been one of the busiest teams in the lower mainland! They won the Metro League title in their first year in the league last season, they played against an ABA team out of Seattle, they are in three different men’s leagues (including Metro), and continue to branch out to play different talent in all forms. The Coquitlam Boys travelled a long way to be in Vancouver Metro for the first time. I hope they continue to come back!
Despite the Boys best effort, SB Battle laid down a massive display of talent and power throughout the game. It doesn’t help that the defending champions were able to “Fanangle” One of the best guards in the lower mainland in Joey Haywood! Even with weary legs, SB Battle steamrolled their way to a 59 point victory!
Stallions 96 vs Underwater Squad 86
Stallions - Elliot Mason: 28 pts, Jamie Madewan: 22 pts
Underwater Squad – Tommy Nixon: 39 pts, Warren Liang: 19 pts
This may have been the matchup of the night! The Stallions coming off of a disappointing loss in the title game last season, would face a young team that could well be the sleeper team of the season! Led by Tommy Nixon, Warren Liang, and James Lum, the Underwater Squad gave the Stallions everything they could handle! The Stallions looked to the Langara well once again this season, to help deepen the already deep squad, The Stallions have.
With a few players missing from the Stallions, Underwater jumped on the Stallions right away. Nixon and Liang put constant pressure on the Stallions defense, but the Brody Greig and Elliot Mason led Stallions answered every run with one of their own. Newly acquired Jamie Madewan dropped in 22 points for the Stallions (It should be noted that Jamie is the first player in his family to play for a contender in Div I Metro league)!
Underwater continued to put the pressure on late in the 2nd half until the Stallions experience and execution took over. They were able to erase a small lead and slowly make the plays to pull away from Underwater.
Great game, and it looks like these two teams will be in the top 5 all season.
Sonic Boom 62 – Toonsquad 63
Sonic Boom – Derrek Mooney 17, Stuart Wallensteen 13
Toonsquad – Mindy Minhas 22, Bryce Derton 13
Sonic Boom finally looked healthy to start a season for the first time in a long time! New young talent could be visibly seen on the bench, which usually sat empty for the lack of substitutions. Toonsquad was led by Blake Portiz and standout Mindy Minhas, who was all over the court in this game.
Sonic Boom’s league experience gave them a slight edge through most of the game, but they were not in complete sync with each other. The young Toonsquad put pressure on Sonic Boom with their up tempo attack, with Minhas at the head of it. Mindy would cap the 2nd half with five three pointers. The big game pose of Portiz helped his team pull off a small upset in this matchup! This will make for an interesting season to say the least!
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