With the league in Montvale expanding to seven teams by the second week of the Spring season, there are more chances to see great UH basketball games each Wednesday night. The crazy ending of the game between the Wise Guys and GOATs certainly made up for the beatdowns that were laid out in the games before and after theirs.

In the first game of the night, a sloppy first half by the defending champion Ferrall Ballerz led to things being much tighter in their game with Uncle Chubby’s than most expected…at least until the second half. The Ballerz started with a strong opening 5 minutes where they built a 12-2 lead early on but after back to back baskets by Jeff Kreismer (9 pts, 8 reb, 3 ast) and David Yu (12 pts, 12 reb, 3 ast) preceded a Aaron Letscher (8 pts, 7 reb) basket plus the foul (and free throw), suddenly Chubby’s was only a bucket (12-10) down a quarter of the way through the game. The Ballerz kept trying to pull away but their attempts to get into their transition game kept getting thwarted by intercepted passes and Chubby’s kept clawing back with great hustle punctuated by Kreismer’s put back to get within two after grabbing 3 offensive rebounds on the same play and Letscher getting an offensive rebound put back of his own to tie the score at 22 just before they hit the break.

After the break Chubby’s actually took the early lead but Dan Bronstein (19 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast) nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 27 with 20 minutes left and then followed a Chubby’s basket with back to back layups and another 3-pointer to score to score 10 straight for the Ballerz and extend their lead to 36-29 with 18:30 left in the game. The transition game started to connect again for the Ballerz in the 2nd half with Vinnie Graff (10 pts, 7 ast, 2 st) and Justin Leon (11 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast) leading the charge to expand the lead by another 11 points (51-33) in the next 10 minutes. With tired legs, Uncle Chubby’s was unable to scratch and claw their way back as they did in the first half and fall 68-43.

In the best game of the night, the newly formed Wise Guys met up with the GOATs and both teams struggled to get the ball to fall early on as the only points in the first 7 minutes came off Skender Agic (15 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl) free throws. It wasn’t until Sebastian Stryker (7 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 2 blk) layed the ball in with 15 minutes left in the half, to make the score 4-2 in favor of the Wise Guys, that the game had its first field goal. They went back and forth from there trading baskets with Alex Brodsky’s (9 pts, 7 reb) driving basket giving the Wise Guys an 8-7 lead which was immediately answered by James Miccio (35 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl) for a 9-8 GOATs lead. Then Agic made a layup and came away with a steal on the next GOATs possession that he passed to Christopher Turrisi (12 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl) for a fastbreak layup that gave the Wise Guys a 13-9 lead. Another Stryker basket later on tied the game at 14 and the teams continued to trade scores until they went into the break tied at 23.

The seond half was somehow even more exciting as it was a back and forth affair which saw the Wise Guys try to cling small lead throughout the last 12 minutes of the game the GOATs just wouldn’t let them extend. Then Turrisi completed an And-1 with about 2 minutes left that seemed to seal things in the Wise Guys favor, until Miccio decided to put the GOATs on his back the rest of the way. He hit two 3-pointers to cut the lead to 4 and then hit a third to make it just a single point separating the teams with :15 left on the clock. The GOATs foul to put the Wise Guys on the free throw line and it paid off as a lane violation gave the GOATs the ball and set up another Miccio 3-point play to give the GOATs a lead with just four seconds to play. It looked like the game was going to close on an incredible buzzer beater when Agic nailed a shot with less than a second left, but the referees called a foul before the shot that negated the bucket and put him on the free throw line for a 1-and-1 instead and he was unable to convert, giving the GOATs the comeback 50-48 victory.

The third game was much less thrilling but still pretty unexpected as Justice League controlled the action from the tip against Old School. In what was a reverse of the situation for Old School, compared to last week, they found themselves down 8-0 early and then Brandon Danzinger (15 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl) and Justice League expanded it to 13-2. Old School had trouble finding the basket and only had six points with just 8 minutes left in the first half. Despite a good shooting from Thomas Alexiou (10 pts, 5 reb) Old School found themselves down big (28-12) at the break. It was a much tighter second half with Justin Michalek (10 pts, 6 reb) and Old School only being outscored by one but due to big lead Daniel Readie (9 pts, 6 ast) and the balanced scoring of Justice League put together, they could never close the gap and Justice League cruises to a 51-34 victory.

To see the rest of the highlights from Week 2’s games, check out our YouTube Page

Before the games got underway, Scott Ferrall talked to Ferrall Ballerz new addition Anthony Dandridge but for some reason kept getting him confused with someone else