MONTVALE, NJ: A High-Scoring Shootout Highlights Week 3

An early favorite has emerged in the Montvale Winter League, and it’s hardly a secret. Actually, it is. In their second game of the season, the newly named Victorious Secret squad appeared unstoppable against the struggling Team Randy, which has now lost its third game in as many tries. By exploding to a 30-4 lead and dropping 60 first half points, Victorious Secret built a lead that was way too big to overcome. Too many easy baskets early on made things very difficult for Team Randy.

While it appeared the game would get out of hand in the second half, Team Randy did its best with a furious rally in which they put up 54 points of their own. Randy’s Alex Benisatto led the charge by putting up 32 points and making half of his field goal attempts. Still, it wasn’t nearly enough, as VS’s Oliver Svoboda and Adrian Woodard combined for nearly 60 points and almost outrebounded Team Randy on their own. The 96-75 final was by far the highest-scoring game of the season thus far.

It will be very interesting to see if any team can keep up with Victorious Secret’s explosive offense, especially considering how low scoring the other two games of the night were. Old School took down Team Bryan 42-30 in a game where Bryan scored just 11 first half points and trailed the whole way. Poor shooting and too many turnovers did them in. While there were no standout performances for Old School, it was a balanced attack all the way, with five guys scoring between six and nine points.

The Ball Hogs defeated Just the Tip in a very similar-looking contest. Just the Tip scored 11 points in the first half, and while they nearly doubled that total in the second, they could never get over the hump, falling 40-31. While neither team shot it well, the difference was made by some aggressive Ball Hog play, including a rebound advantage of +9. Alexis Drullunsky proved to be a big difference-maker with 11 points and 9 rebounds, both game highs.