PAOCBC Season 2009 Weekly Wrap-Ups

Intercol Wrap-up

Just cos I like you all so much I thought I would do a brief wrap-up of last night’s proceedings. This is a leap of faith on my part that you like my wrap-ups ... if you don’t, then it would seem like I don’t like you and this is cruel and unusual punishment.

I want to start by saying thanks to the guys who scored last night – Vods, Kobe, Lenny and Caldy – thanks guys, great work. Big thanks to Toddy for filming the games – it must be a lonely job. I also want to give big ups to our benevolent leader Liam who organised everything last night – great job.

C’s – 12 hours have passed ... 7 or 8 pints went down my throat ... I’m still can’t believe what I saw yesterday ... I mean have a look at this photo. As bad as that photo is – last night’s C’s game was worse. I will keep it brief because it hurts my soul to think about this game ... we were terrible. G, Yates and Palk went 0 of 25. We just couldn’t get things going – Phil, BB and Pez tried their hardest to keep us in it. We lost to a team that wanted it more – they were huge – we couldn’t get any boards and we couldn’t shoot to save our lives. They got every loose ball and every lucky bounce went to them ... just one of those nights. Lost 15 – 32. Toddy please delete the C’s game – or at least mark it “Never To Be Watched”.

B’s – As bad as the C’s game was to watch the B’s game was fantastic. Down 5 at half time the B’s pulled together to get the lead early in the 2nd half. Altmann and Darsow hit big 3’s in the 2nd half ... Lunny scored down low, Brad Daniel and Heath were crazy on the boards and in D. The game was back and forward – no team getting out to more than a 3 point lead in the 2nd half. Almost with regularity teams could go 2 or 3 minutes without scoring but as soon as one team scored the other team would come down the next play and hit a basket. With the clock winding down the scores were tied 32-32 – the B’s were looking for a good shot – SPOC closed out quickly on Darsow, Mike and Altmann – Heath got open and had a 3 but missed. Saints went down – jumper in the lane, missed – loose ball ... off PAOC with 1 second left on the clock. On the inbounds #24 sprang free threw up a shot and threw himself to the floor trying to draw a foul. Air ball ... and we have Overtime.

First OT: Not much happened – we had a few good looks but couldn’t knock them down. Saints B’s did what they do – threw up shot after shot and hit the glass. No team could score. With 5 seconds left Heath got a rebound and ran the length of the floor – threw up a 18 foot runner – just missed. We have a 2nd Overtime.

Second OT: With another 3 minutes added to the clock – PAOC had the line-up of Mike, Darsow, Altmann, Heath and Lunny. Mike drew a foul and made 1 or 2 FTs ... SPOC came down ... foul - made 1 of 2 FT. Tied at 33. Darsow scored low on an awesome spin – up 2. Saints came down and hit a jumper in the lane. The B’s had the ball on the final possession – Darsow took a runner ... missed – we have a 3rd Overtime.

Third OT: Darsow opened with a big 3 in the corner, Saints came down and scored straight away ... same story all night. Darsow was fouled and made 2 of 2 FTs ... B’s up 3. SPOC missed – B’s missed – SPOC scored on a put-back – up 1. Darsow was fouled again and made 2 of 2 FTs. SPOC missed a 3 to tie it up. Altmann was fouled – made 1 of 2. Saints missed and the B’s ran out the clock. The whole game was edge of the seat action – was an amazing game to watch – the B’s performed incredibly under pressure winning 43-39. Darsow had 12, Altmann had 9.

Highlight: Saints Bill was complaining all game that Darsow should not have been playing cos he was not written on the scoresheet at the start of the game. Ref Phil countered Bill’s argument with “well write him on the scoresheet then”. Dars warmed up with the team – was listed in the program as playing for the B’s ... he wasn’t there for a haircut.

Talking about haircuts – it was mentioned on the sidelines that Saints A’s as a group collectively have the worst haircuts of any team in the history of basketball ... I have no stance on this either way – just reporting what I heard.

A’s - Blair came out on fire – scoring 15 of the teams first 17 points – after 5 minutes SPOC called a timeout down 17-8. Both teams steadied trading baskets to half time – with the A’s going in up 10 – 28-18. The 2nd half Saints did their best to get back into the game – switching to man – but every time Saints mounted a comeback the A’s would score key baskets to keep the lead at 10 to 14 – Goody hit a long jumper, Blair hit a crazy runner falling out of bounds on the break, Purge scored in the lane, Liam scored 3 times on drives to the basket, Stu hit his second offensive rebound and put back plus a couple key free throws, Purge found A low with a lovely pass for 2 and Jack made an awesome hanging lefty lay-up on the break. Saints never got the lead below 8. Late in the game Purge hammered #5 on 3 point attempt – he seemed a bit rattled and missed all 3 free throws. The A’s went on to win 57 – 49. Blair had 22, Liam and Stu had 8 a piece.

As the song says “2 Out of 3 Ain’t Bad”. Great night guys – good work for the lads that came back to the pub. As always we outnumbered the SPOC boys 4 to 1. What is so important that they have to rush home to?