COLORADO SPRINGS, CO: Week 1 Recap | Hawks rookie Adrian Mallet puts league on notice.

“A True Leader Doesn’t Lead To Gain Power. They Lead To Empower And Give Power Away.” - Unknown

Hello from the other s-i-i-i-i-de/I must have called a thousand times…okay my bad I was having a moment. Week one is in the record books and if this is an indication of how the season is going to go the fans are in for a lot of excitement. No game was decided by more than six points and every game went down to the final minute to decide the winner. I’m not going to give everything away, so I’ll just get started doing what I do when I do what I do oh so well…It’s The Recap Baby!

(1-0) Hawks 65 - (0-1) Timeout 62 Box Score
On paper this game had no chance of being close given the talent and battle tested veterans on Timeout’s roster. Well I guess every team has a defining moment and for the Hawks it came in week 1.

Timeout came out with a little rust, but there wasn’t enough for the Hawks to really take advantage of in the first half. Rookie Trey White (5pts, 2stls & 6tos) would get them going starting his career off with a baseline finish while sharing floor general duties alongside veteran Terell Oliver (8pts & 6rebs) with some solid ball moving resulting in some easy buckets for their teammates as they combined for 6 assist (3 apiece) cruising to a comfortable lead. The Hawks also struggled for most of the half as they tried to find some chemistry with their new additions. It was a rough go for the added veterans Brian Smith (8rebs & 4asst) and Willie Jenkins (6rebs) as they combined for 3-17 shooting from the field for only 10 points. Richie Ceballes (5-5fg, 3rebs & 3tos) and Devon Venn (50%fg & 5rebs) would wind up carrying the load to keep the team within striking distance scoring 16 of there combined 27 points to go into the half down by only 7 points (32-52).

The second half would start off pretty good for Timeout as they pushed their lead to 15 points holding on to a double digit lead for most of the half. I’m sure people are going to get tired of me saying this, but the hardest thing to do in this league is to play with a lead as most teams start to get complacent and leave the door open for the other team. Maurice Gale (80%ft) and Marco Clark (78%fg, 80%ft & 6rebs) tried their best to put the team on their back by being aggressive going 12-15 from the charity stripe scoring 19 of the teams 30 second half points. The struggle for Timeout would be the miscommunication on the defensive end. One thing you can’t associate with the Hawks is quitting and that showed in the play of rookie Adrian Mallet who struggled to find his shot in the first half shooting 2-7 from the field. The second half was a different story after he become more aggressive and in a sense put the team on his back finishing the game scoring 18 of his game high 23 points in the second half. Check the recap video below to see how this game would end.

(1-0) The Conglomerate 64 - (0-1) Thunder 58 Box Score
Over the past three season’s The Conglomerate has been more of a destination for players who didn’t want to be on a Free Agent team, but it didn’t serve them any better as they never proved to be a threat. Looks like this season may be a little different. The Thunder were hoping to make their debut to the league a good one and start off on the right track with a group of non established players.

It was a rocky start for The Conglomerate after finding themselves down 9-4 early on trying to find some chemistry on both ends of the court. Veteran Chuck McKenzie (7pts, 50%fg & 4rebs) lit the fire after driving baseline exploding for a dunk attempt he was fouled on. Even though he didn’t go in it was the show of aggressiveness that helped motivate his teammates. Following suit was Richard Jones (57%fg) who was cleaning up on the glass with 8 rebounds resulting in some easy bunnies on the offensive end as he scored 6 of his 8 points in the first to help spark a key run to make this game competitive. The Thunder would be lead throughout the first half by GM and floor general Tyler Bram (57%fg, 4rebs, 2stls & 4tos) who made it look effortless cutting through the soft defense displayed by The Conglomerate. It didn’t hurt that they were able to get some early offense from Branden Works (2asst & 2stls) with his 6 points while cleaning up on the glass with 4 of his 6 rebounds to go along with his 20 point victory prediction.

The intensity would increase for The Conglomerate after they found themselves down 33-29 to start the second half. Emanuel Salas (75%ft, 8rebs, 5asst & 3stls) would put the team on his back as he created 6 of 12 free throw attempts while drawing fouls behind the three point line that sparked a huge momentum shift in the game resulting in several lead changes. The Thunder would rely heavily on the play of Matt Edmonds (18pts, 9rebs & 1blk) on both ends of the court as he drew a couple of charges that turned into some scoring opportunities with one resulting a thunderous dunk. Now the Thunder would have plenty of opportunities to close this one out, but their 9-20 free throw shooting would prevent that from happening. Click the recap video below to see how this game would end.

(0-1) Arsenal 55 - (1-0) Team Slap 59 Box Score
The struggle was real on both teams in this game and some of it had to do with trying to build chemistry. The other side of that in my opinion could be not having certain players to help carry the load. Oh so what are you trying to say Stat Man?

A record was set Thursday night and I’m pretty sure it’s not a record either team wants to be associated with in the future. After 14 minutes of play neither team had cracked the double digit mark with a 9-7 score. It would be fair if it were just Arsenal as they are playing together for the first time with their key go to players returning after a 7 season hiatus. That would actually be accurate as Joshua Bevans (69%fg, 7rebs, 3asst & 3stls) and Monte Murdock combined for 8 turnovers (4 apiece), but didn’t turn into much from Team Slap as they weren’t able to turn any of those into points. Could Team Slaps shortcomings be stemming from what Jonathan Davis (0-4fg, 1reb, 1asst & 1stl) was thinking when he said, “There are too many players on the team!”

Well after the atrocious half of what I think barely classifies as basketball both teams bounced back in the second half to turn things around. Team Slap would turn to one of their go to players Jonathan Carter (41%fg, basset & 3stls) to get things going as he was able to find some of his teammates for some easy buckets all the while scoring 12 of his 16 points in the half to take a comfortable lead. Providing that second half of the 1-2 punch was Lucian Pesoli (71%fg, 70%ft & 3asst) as he picked up where he left off last season looking to lead the league again in and one’s scoring 19 of his 27 game high points on 10-14 shooting from the field. It was rough night for the rest of the team as they combined for 6-16 from the field leaving room for Arsenal to steal a win from the defending champs. Arsenal wouldn’t fair much better in the team contribution area as they went a combined 12-22 (55%) from the charity stripe. Though a Kevin Fawcett (12pts, 44%fg, 44%ft & 2rebs) and one down the stretch gave them a chance pulling them within three points, but Team Slap’s defense would close this one out.