WESTMINSTER, CO: Week 2 Recap | The Bad Boys make a statement

Week 1 in Westminster was full of highs and lows. While it was great to be back playing basketball, plenty of guys were shaking off the cobwebs from a longer than normal offseason. Luckily, week 2 provided some much better basketball games, with a couple of very dominating performances.

White Iversons - 78 FireSquad - 69

This was a matchup of, arguably, the two most athletic teams in Westminster. The White Iversons have a few current and former trainers on their roster, while FireSquad is the youngest team in Ultimate Hoops Westminster.

The first half was highly contested, with both teams making a lot of stops and not giving up many easy buckets. Derek Elliott was a force in the first half, scoring 13 of his 23 points as the White Iversons took a slim, two point lead in to the break.

The second half was more of the same, as FireSquad kept trying to creep in to the lead, but the White Iversons weren't having hit. Joseph McLain hit two clutch three pointers with under ten minutes to play as the White Iversons were able to hold off FireSquad, 78-69. Elliott grabbed 11 rebounds to go along with his 23 points; McLain also grabbed 11 boards while Richard Peterson led all scorers with 24 points in the game.

The Bad Boys - 80 The Kardashians - 49

The Bad Boys came in to this season with very high expectations. Their revamped roster is loaded with talent and could be the biggest team in recent UH Westminster memory. Week 1 didn't go as planned for this team after tempers flared and frustration got the best of them. They were up against a familiar foe in Ultimate Hoops, The Kardashians. The Kardashians were without a couple of their key players, who were most likely aiding the recovery of Lamar Odom, the estranged husband of the big Kardashian daughter.

The first half was very back and forth, with neither team able to generate a big lead. The Bad Boys put big man Reggie Jackson on the low block to take advantage of his 6'8" frame, and he was almost unstoppable. In spite of Jackson's dominating performance, The Bad Boys only had a two point lead in the waning seconds of the first half. That's when the play of the game occurred. Jackson hit a very deep three with five seconds left. Bad Boys GM then stole the inbounds pass and laid it up at the buzzer to go in to the half with a seven point lead. The ref even said, "that was the fastest five point swing I have ever seen." The game was over at that point.

The Kardashians couldn't recover from what happened at the end of the first half, as The Bad Boys poured it on after the break. The Bad Boys outscored the reality stars 40-16 in the second half, to win in commanding fashion. Jackson finished with 45 points and 14 rebounds on the night.

The Gladiators - 76 Eat, Sleep, Ball, Repeat - 71

The Gladiators are a team that have been playing Ultimate Hoops since the advent of sliced bread. They like to get out and run, play tough defense and will run through any pick in their way. ESBR are a new UH team, with some familiar faces. Going in to this game, I couldn't have picked a winner if you asked me to.

The Gladiators came out firing in the first half of this game. Unlike the 7:00 games, The Gladiators dominated the first half with their high pressure defense, which led to turnovers and fastbreak points. The Gladiators finished the first half with 51 points.

The second half was much different, as ESBR wouldn't go away and gave The Gladiators a taste of their own medicine, turning up their defensive intensity. ESBR made a game of it in the second half, giving themselves a chance with under a minute to play. In the end, free throws were the difference. The Gladiators may have only made 50% of their shots from the charity stripe, but when you shoot 24 and your opponent shoots eight, making half will do just fine. The Gladiators ended up squeezing out a five point victory. UH newcomer Parker Stephenson led all scorers with 29 points while Blake Mahler led ESBR with 21.

IMPACT Basketball - 132 The Tropics - 43

There isn't a whole lot to say about this game. It wasn't pretty from the start, but one thing that was great to see was everybody played their tails off until the final buzzer. Effort wasn't lacking in this game, despite the lopsided score.

Beau Barney and Rob Dobson both had big games for IMPACT, scoring 39 and 33 points, respectively.

Havoc - 65 Purple Cobras - 61

This game was a battle of two relatively new teams to Ultimate Hoops Westminster. Both teams have a familiar face or two, but neither team has seen their names in the standings until this season.

Havoc was creating a lot of their namesake in the first half against the Purple Cobras. They played a lot of unselfish basketball, making sure they made at least two or three passes on each offensive possession, which led to a lot of easy baskets. The Purple Cobras were playing solid basketball of their own, but they just struggled to put the ball in the bucket in the first half.

After the break, the lid seemed to be removed from the basket for the Purple Cobras, as they were able to knock down some shots to keep the score within single digits. In the end, Havoc's unselfish brand of basketball led them to victory, as four players scored in double digits. When a team has 17 assists and their opponent has seven, it's not tough to figure out why the unselfish team won the game.

FireSquad - 99 The Kardashians - 94

It was the second game of the night for both of these teams, as neither wanted to end the night 0-2. These two teams will definitely figure in to the playoff picture later in the season, but their focus was on each other in the final game of the night.

When teams are playing their second game of the night, you expect it to be fairly sloppy with a lot of turnovers, easy shots missed and flat-out laziness on both sides of the ball. This could not be further from the truth for these teams. Both teams came out of the gates playing solid basketball, hitting a lot of shots and executing on both sides of the ball. The first half was as back and forth as it gets, with The Kardashians taking a two point lead in to the break.

The second half of this game was even more entertaining than the first. Both teams had offensive outbursts in the final half, with FireSquad outscoring The Kardashians 57-50 after the break. When push came to shove, The Kardashians playing two games with only five players was too tough to overcome, as they took the five point defeat. Richard Peterson led FireSquad in scoring with 26 points and Chris Morgan led all scorers with 30.