Basketball Write Ups – Week 8
OPEN:
Team Wall (52) – Team Coogan (48)
WALL: It was a tale of two halves in this Battle for the Four Seed as the second highest
scoring team in the league went up against the second-stingiest defense. Team Wall got
off to a strong start with a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, and a 36-18 lead at
half. TW once again relied on a balanced attack as every quarter had at least four
different scorers, including five players scoring in the opening frame. Five different
players hit a three, and five players scored between 6 and 14 points.
Things changed quickly after halftime as a 2 field-goal third quarter from TW allowed TC
to start to cut into the lead and build momentum for the fourth quarter, when they scored
as many points as they did in the entire first half. Team Coogan managed to get the lead
down to just a couple of possessions at multiple points in the fourth, but Team Wall held
on despite some miserable turnovers and poorly timed shots (Big Ted was not a fan of
the basketball IQ on display).
Team Wall was led by "I'll Sponsor That" Wall and The Good Sumner with 14 points
apiece, and by Boo Boo Navarre, who put up five points substituting for Jordan Faircloth
on Team Coogan. Can't stress enough how much we appreciated his contribution.
COOGAN: First of all, is it true that Rookie Chase Richard played varsity basketball?
It was hard to tell if he ever played any basketball ever last Sunday. There is also a
rumor floating around that Scott Sumner won’t be available for week 1 of the playoffs.
This shouldn’t be a big deal at all for Team Wall – someone else can feed Michael
Sumner the ball so he can keep carrying this team.
Anyways, giving credit where credit is due (reluctantly) – Team Wall came out fired up
having waited all season to face the juggernaut Team Coogan and got out to a decent
lead in the first half, led mostly by Michael Sumner and Ted’s coaching from the
sideline. In the second half TC started playing TC ball and ramped up the defense
(Rookie Levey harassing the other Sumner) and started knocking down some shots.
Coogan (led all scorers) battled for points in the paint, Lasseigne slashed to the goal
and got to the line, George hit a couple 3’s and Anderson cleaned up the boards and hit
a huge 3 to get it to a 2 point game in the 4 th . With a chance for TC to tie or take the
lead, Wall channeled his inner Coogan and made a huge play with a steal and a bucket
to give TW the 4 point advantage.
Did we mention that we played this game without Faircloth? Sub Boo Boo played
valiantly but the 4 o’clock game was tough on him, having just left Icehouse a few hours
earlier.
Looking ahead to Sunday TC has Team Mahtook, who is coming off a 45 point
performance against Team Aillet (a team that has pretty much refused to play defense
all year). Hopefully Brandon Deaton’s sharp shooting can spur on some offense against
the #2 scoring defense in the league.
Team Aillet (67) – Team Mahtook (45)
Team Alexander (78) – Team P Arcement (74)
P ARCEMENT: Lot of subs in this one. Our top pick Salmon was out and Team
Alexander was without their captain. Albin subbed for Korey and Aillet for Alexander so
both sides were still close to their full strength. Was a close game at half 39-33 in favor
of team Alexander. They went on a little run to stretch the lead out to 10 or 12 to start
the 3rd then team Arcement went on a big run to take a 4 or 5 point lead. We held onto
the lead and were even up 6 with 4 minutes left before team Alexander-less went on
one final run to take the lead 71-70 and held onto late at the FT line. Tough loss for us
as it felt like we had it late but couldn’t hang on. Butcher was on fire first half and
finished with 35 for them. Scoring spread out for our team lead by Helm with 21. Great
contributions from May and Jenny on defense and each scoring double digits. Still feel
good about our group when we get everyone there and on the same page. Looking to
finish strong these last 2 games
Team Tuqan (82) – Team Hebert (75)
Team Sumner (50) – Team Davenport (53)
DAVENPORT: Team Davenport limps to a victory against Team Sumner down its top
two draft picks, Bickham and Pecue. Danny Sumner spit in the face of analytics this
game and in impressive fashion, nearly brought the midrange shot back in vogue.
Despite being down 13 in the first half Nelson (26pts) and McKenzie (13pts) led the
charge to close the gap by getting to rim. Wes and sub Ferarra turned on the defense
resulting in a 12 to 6 turnover ratio. With the game winding down Team Davenport
decided to use a timeout and run an organized play for the first time this season.
Davenport had the confidence of a lion while explaining the play, focusing on Ferrera’s
crucial role. The play ended with a dramatic go ahead Davenport 3 pointer with 15
seconds on the clock and subsequent steal to end the game.
“I’m glad that worked out, because I had no idea what I was supposed to do”
-Cory Ferrera
Team W Arcement (58) – Team Brantley (50)
W ARCEMENT: Team Arcement battled Team Brantley and the game overall was not
easy on the eyes. Missed shots and uncalled fouls were a staple of this matchup. Both
teams had players missing leading to a bit of a slugfest. Team Arcement pulled away
with a win, making them 2-0 in back-to-back weeks at the Lockhart gym. They’ll hope to
shoot a bit better next week as they return to PARDS.
LEGENDS:
Team Dornier (65) – Team Warde (33)
DORNIER: There were 2 quotes that adequately sum up what we are — first quote
from Kenny Carr was "Whatever we do, we do as a team" meaning when we play poorly
we all play poorly, and vice versa — the 2nd is "Run Forrest Run" — our team does well
when we push it like Salt and Pepa — having Sandridge back to extend the floor and run
opened up opportunities for everyone and we finally started hitting our shots!
It also helped that Warde only had 5 players and were missing Dartez and Guitrau —
kudos to all for their stingy defense, esp Ringe, Nixon and Sandridge — offensively
Talley (22 points) had another monster game while Martin and Carr started hitting some
3s — Team Warde fought hard the whole game and never gave up!
Team Smith (16) – Team Lambert (31)
LAMBERT: Team Lambert: In the 1st and 3rd quarters both Team Smith and Team
Lambert scored 7 and 9 points. Thankfully, our defense clamped down and held TS
scoreless in the Q2 and Q4 to nail down a 31-16 win. The second straight game that we
won the 4th qtr. That’s playoff basketball! Levesque had a strong game on both ends of
the court, justifying his first round status. He led our team in scoring with 12 points. For
TS, Roussel is a beast to stop, but Barbay did about as good a job as anyone could
down low in containing him. Team Smith was shorthanded and gave a good effort, but
we’ll take the win to get us to the 500 mark.
Team Goscha (33) – Team Valenti (30)
VALENTI: Team Valenti played there best game of the season this pass Sunday. Although we didn’t get the victory we play Team Goscha we had them scared. It was a thought played game with team Goscha getting the victory by 3. Watch out for Team Valenti I think we will make the playoffs
GOSCHA: Team Valenti is the best 2-6 team in the history of Legends basketball and
whoever draws them in the first round will have a tough time. They really played smart
and used the talent they have very well. Every BRAAS season I try to find a way to play
with Ryan Smith, his efforts in this game were fantastic and I hope to play with him in
the future. Nothing but complete respect for team Valenti and no way can I understand
how they're 2-6. Dom showed up and drank two Neutrl drinks. I'm not sure but I believe
this could be a curse to his team.
Team Goscha has averaged 7 made three pointers per game. We made 2 in this
contest and the Diesel missed all his free throws bringing his two-week total to 3-18. In
addition, diesel missed 7 layups with very little fouling by Legends standards. Goscha
got his shot blocked three times and two of those blocks were blocked by a guy who
literally didn't jump. With or without pneumonia the team expects more.
Thankfully for Team Goscha we found a very good game in sneaky Dean Esposito.
Dean chipped in 10 points, and he hit shots at vital points. Boyce piled upon his season
statistics with 16 points and a very solid rebounding effort. LeDoux gave us great
minutes and pulled down several critical rebounds, played great defense and team
Goscha has yet to lose when he is there. Lato had his nerves shot on the way to the
game doing 95 in a 55. Woodville is a long way to get a late start from. Hopefully, his
silky-smooth shot will come back next week after his nerves heal up. Upon leaving, Lato
and I were ETA 6:05 and we pulled into the yard at 5:51. That's 14 minutes made up in
an hour and 10-minute drive.
Landry, Babin and Fruge chipped in solid defense and gave us the needed lift to catch
our breath and the W after losing our previous contest. Babin had a great drive to
penetrate the d which led to an easy layup for Boyce.
Walk Ons
Miguel was the only open player to show up from 6:00 to 9:00. To pay proper respect for
his efforts he will drink free with Diesel the remainder of the 2025 BRAAS season. This
also includes mangos. The service at Walk-ons was as bad as one can imagine, and I
don't get it. Beyond buying the young lady a new car we have been very generous with
our tips. My vote is let's bless some small local business owner for the rest of the
season. Pitre brought great news of he and Team Oursos win over team Tate. Team
Goscha back on top with two games left.
Team Ourso (49) – Team Tate (47)
OURSO: Team Ourso jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter by scoring 21 points,
only to see most of that lead disappear in the second quarter. It was a total team effort
with everyone contributing on both ends of the court. Team Tate made the game
interesting as Team Ourso struggled from the free throw line in the last 2 minutes. But a
win is a win as we pulled out a 2 point victory.
TATE: In a hard-fought battle, Team Tate came up just short in a 47-49 loss to Team
Ourso. The game started with Team Ourso coming out firing, scoring an impressive 21
points in the first quarter and jumping to a 12-point lead. Despite the rough start, Team
Tate showed their resilience and determination, chipping away at the deficit throughout
the game. We entered the fourth quarter trailing by 11 and outscored Ourso by 9 points
to make it a nail-biter in the closing moments. Tejas came up big from beyond the arc,
knocking down four three-pointers in the game, while Kevin Tate led the charge with a
game-high 18 points.
While the result didn’t go our way, the effort and heart Team Tate displayed were
undeniable. We’ll regroup and come back stronger in the next one!