MONTVALE, NJ: New Surprises and No More Undefeateds

With just a few weeks remaining in the Winter League’s regular season, a major shakeup took place that could ultimately affect who wins it all.

Former Victorious Secret member Adrian Woodard joined on with winless Team Randy for Week Five, and his presence paid immediate dividends. Woodard, the league’s leading scorer, again topped the 20-point mark as his new team entered the win column with a 55-46 triumph over Team Bryan.

While the teams had nearly identical shooting numbers, it was Woodard’s all-around performance that helped tip the scale in favor of Team Randy. His 10 rebounds helped provide a +9 differential overall. Along with that, his seven free throw attempts were a team high, as getting to the line proved to be a major advantage for Randy. As a team, they had over 20 attempts more than Team Bryan.

Despite a one-point lead at the half, Bryan was not able to stay on top for much longer, as Randy quickly jumped ahead by ten in the second session and never relinquished their advantage. Alex Benisatto joined Woodard in double-figures with 10, while Team Bryan had five players score between seven and nine points.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Victorious Secret, Woodard’s now-former team, suffered its first defeat of the season against a surging Team Justin. Justin’s squad led early on and held on to a double-digit advantage for most of the contest in their 71-54 win.

Overall, Team Justin dominated the stat sheet with decent advantages in team rebounds, assists and steals. A major reason for that was the play of Jesse Joudanin, who provided an efficient performance with 25 points on 67% shooting to go along with 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Justin Leon and Anthony Romano also chipped in with 12 and 15 points, respectively.

For Victorious Secret, Vinnie Graff did his best to keep his team close in the second half with seven threes for the game and 33 points in all, more than half of his team’s scoring output. The challenge for VS will now be to find a more balanced scoring attack with the absence of Woodard. Oliver Svoboda was the only other player on Victorious Secret with more than four points, as he chipped in 15 and grabbed 13 boards.

Not to be forgotten in the excitement of Week Five is Team Old School, who became the first to reach four victories on the season with their 33-27 win over the still winless Just the Tip. The low-scoring affair was not pretty, but Old School certainly doesn’t mind.

While they made fewer than a quarter of their shots, Old School did just enough to hang on, as they clung to a small lead most of the way. In the end they were forced to make their foul shots to seal the contest, and John Cotton did just that, hitting six of eight and leading his team with 13. In fact, Cotton was the lone double-figure scorer of the game.

For Just the Tip, it was another night of struggling from the field, as Rob Buonanno hit just one of his eight three-point tries and was the only player on his team to make more than one field goal. While both teams had their difficulties scoring, Just the Tip just couldn’t provide quite enough offense for the win.