They say all good things must come to an end and that was true for the Ferrall Ballerz unbeaten regular season streak as Justice League win a double OT thriller to dethrone the champs. The win gives the young stars on Justice League the seat at the top of the standings while there are now 3 teams (Ballerz, Bergen Tropics, Old School) who all sit ½ a game behind them halfway through the season.

It was an epic battle to start the night, with both teams only having enough to fill the starting lineups and the Ferrall Ballerz coming in not having been on the losing end of a game in 2 of their last 40 contests, one that would take not one but two extra periods to decide. Justice League took an early took an early 8-2 lead three minutes in after hitting some outside jumpers against the Ballerz zone. The Ballerz came back and kept trying to take the lead but Brandon Danziger’s (28 pts, 6 reb, 3 blks, 3 ast, 2 stl) early 10 points and 3 blocks kept Justice League ahead. The Ballerz finally came back to take the lead after a 9-0 run was capped by a Vinny Graff (23 pts, 7 reb, 4 ast) 3-pointer left the score at 30-25 with 5 minutes left to play. After Scott Ferrall (12 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast) and Danziger traded post-up baskets the Ballerz held a slim 34-32 halftime advantage.

After the break, Justice League came out hot and used an 8-0 run after hitting 2 technical foul free-throws and two 3-pointers by Dillon Rice (17 pts, 3 ast) to go up 45-38 with 15 minutes left in the 2nd half. The lead would go back and forth after a Graff 3 tied the game at 45, then Justice League went on a 7-2 run to take a 52-47 lead with 11:15 left in the 2nd half. Another Graff 3-pointer gave the Ballerz a 54-53 advantage before Rice hit another 3 for a 57-53 Justice League lead and a Dan Bronstein (18 pts, 7 reb, 9 ast) drive tied things at 57 with just over 5 minutes left in regulation. The Ballerz held a small advantage going into the final minute of the 2nd half before Rice hit a short jumper to tie the game with 34 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

There wasn’t too much scoring in the first overtime except a few free throws by the Ballerz but once again with time winding down Justice League came through as Evan Schumer (18 pts, 10 ast, 4 reb) nailed a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left and the game continued again. In the second overtime, Justice League used a Schumer jumper and Danziger free throws to take a 70-66 lead. The Ballerz would come back with back to back layups by Brian Mistretta and a Graff offensive rebound and putback with 50 seconds left in the game. After the Ballerz used a fouling strategy during the last minute to keep the ball out of the big 3's hands, Justice League had Antoine Lash drain 2 free throws with :43 seconds left to give them an advantage and that would prove to be the difference in a 72-70 Justice League victory.

The first game going so late caused the players for the Wise Guys and Uncle Chubby’s to wait around for a while and then have an abbreviated warm-up, which led to offenses taking time to get going. The Wise Guys took a 6-4 lead with 12:30 left in the first half on a Skender Agic (25 pts, 9 reb, 6 ast) jumper in the lane and the Wise Guys never gave control of the game back from there. A Jeff Kreismer (14 pts, 10 reb, 3 ast, 3 blk) layup with 9:17 left in the half tightened the lead to 1 point but unfortunately Uncle Chubby’s would never be that close again. Both teams started to loosen up more on the offensive end in the final 5 minutes of the half, but the Wise Guys converted a bit more and held a 31-17 advantage at the break.

In the 2nd half, Benny Ortiz (15 pts) led a reinvigorated Uncle Chubby’s offensive attack despite the team missing some of their top players and Uncle Chubby’s increased their scoring from the 1st half. Unfortunately, Christopher Turrisi (18 pts, 5 reb) and the Wise Guys were able to take advantage of Chubby’s defense and still outscored Chubby’s to never give up any ground. Uncle Chubby’s tried to use the deep ball to get back into the game, taking 25 3-pointers, but unfortunately they could not hit them with enough consistency to make a dent in the lead and Wise Guys cruise to an easy 67-43 victory.

In the nightcap of Week 4 there was a tight game between the GOATs and Bergen Tropics that became a game of anything you can do I can do better between a pair of players on each side. In early stages of the game James Kopfensteiner (15 pts, 4 ast) hit back to back to back 3-pointers in order to get the Bergen Tropics off to a nice start. The rest of the half, Dan Gashi (24 pts, 8 reb) was able to get easy baskets in the paint and help extend the Tropics advantage. The GOATs tried to match Kopfensteiner’s success from the outside, but the arc was not their friend as they only hit 5 of 25 (20%) attempts throughout the night and found themselves down by 10 (27-17) when the horn signaled the end of the 1st half.

The Tropics still found themselves in control in the early stages of the 2nd half, but a technical foul on Dan Gashi helped to give them the kick start they needed. After missing last week, James Miccio (24 pts, 11 reb, 4 ast) tried to duplicate his performance from earlier in the season and take the game over and carry his team to victory with the help of Sebastian Stryker (9 pts, 7 reb). The GOATs climbed back into the game, even outscoring the Tropics 27-22 in the 2nd half, and after the Tropics missed the front end of 1-and-1’s twice they had a golden opportunity to tie in the closing seconds of the game. Unfortunately, there would not be a second contest that took extra time to decide as the GOATs ended up turning the ball over on their final possession and Jason Fond put in the wide open layup to give the final score in the 49-44 Tropics win.

With the Tropics win and Ballerz loss, the standings halfway through the Spring 2016 season now have Justice League on top at 3-1 with the Bergen Tropics, Old School and Ferrall Ballerz all right behind them at 2-1. It’ll be interesting during the 2nd half of the season to see who ends up where as the playoffs approach or if the GOATs, Uncle Chubby’s or Wise Guys can make a push to get into that group of four that make the postseason.

To see all the highlights from Week 4 of the Spring 2016 season, check out our YouTube Page

Before the night started, Scott Ferrall introduced us to Evan Schumer and Brandon Danziger, two of the new stars of Justice League