JCC of Central New Jersey Men's Basketball

Sorry for the delay in getting this recap out but it was a busy 4th of July weekend and it takes a lot of time for Matt & I to do the stats and then write the recap.  Better late than never.  Also, because this one is coming so late, I'm not going to bother with stat leaders and power rankings until I write the week 10 recap.  Before I get into the game recaps, I just wanted to fill evereyone in on some league news.  Jordan Perlmutter suffered a rib injury is out for the remainder of the season.  He will be replaced on The Pipe Layers by a familiar face in the JCC league, Mike Pollack. Also, as we're getting closer to the end of the season, some guys have reached out regarding playoff tiebreakers. So hopefully this will cover everything but if I leave anything out, feel free to email or text me with any questions.

• If two teams are tied, the tiebreaker is head-to-head record.  If teams split their head-to-head matchups, then it will go to the total point differential in the head-to-head matchups.  So as an example, 99 Problems and Splash are currently tied. They split their H2H matchups but in the first matchup Splash won by 6 points but in the second matchup 99 Problems won by 7. So if it came down to those two teams being tied at season's end, then 99 Problems would be the higher seed.
• If two teams are tied and they split the H2H matchups but the point differential is zero, then it will go to total point differential for the season.
• If three teams are tied, (as is currently the case with JCC You/Team Psycho/Bagels & Blox) then it will go to the best winning percentage amongst the three teams in games against one another.  In the three-way tie I just mentioned, here are the records of the three teams in those matchups

1. JCC You is 2-1 against these two teams (.667 win %) 1-1 vs Team Psycho and 1-0 vs Bagels & Blox
2. Team Psycho is 2-2 (.500) 1-1 vs both JCC You and Bagels & Blox
3. Bagels & Blox is 1-2 (.333) 1-1 vs Team Psycho and 0-1 vs JCC You

One more piece of league business to cover is the all-star game and three-point shooting contest. I am hoping to get the poll out early next week so everyone can vote on who they think should make the all-star game.  Finally, before geting into the week 9 action, we had a frontrunner for play of the year in week 9 courtesy of Steve Bachman...

Bagels & Blox 62 - Greatest Show on Courts 54 (OT): Greatest Show was missing captain Matt Ceccarelli for this contest while Bagels & Blox were playing without Brian Schiller and Jake Lillie.  Matt was away on vacation with his family at Universal Orlando, getting the VIP treatment when they learned that Will Hogwarts played on Matt's basketball team. Greatest Show got out to a blazing start early, leading 30-14 with 7:00 remaining in the first half.  Mike "Flex" Huberman hit 4 threes in the first half but only scored two points the rest of the way (14 pts/10 rebs). It should come as no surprise that Greatest Show got off to a quick start because Jamal Berry was a late arrival and didn't check into the game until 8 minutes had been played in the first half. Over the final 7 minutes of the first half, Bagels & Blox went on a 14-6 run to cut the halftime lead to just 8 points (36-28).  While Jamal was his typical dominant self (27 pts/12 rebs/6 assists/3 steals), it was the contributions from the bench that made the big difference for Bagels & Blox on this night.  Captain Jon Kanarek was not just imparting his basketball wisdom but he also added 11 points.  Ben Huber has been returning to his all-star form of the past two seasons and added 12 points and 11 rebounds.  Dave Kobi, a week after scoring his first basket of the season, decided he liked this whole scoring thing and hit 3 shots (6 pts as well as 7 rebs, 4 steals and 3 blocks).  Bagels & Blox flipped the script in the second half and Greatest Show seeemed to go away from what was clearly working for them in the first half. Jamal scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half and Bagels & Blox collectively picked up their defensive intensity, holding Greatest Show to just 18 points in the second half and overtime.  Will Howarth continued his solid play, leading his team with 17 points along with 8 rebounds. Justin Dank (9 pts/9rebs) and Eric Sass (8 pts/10 rebs) both put up near double-doubles in the losing effort.  It was an uncharacteristic poor shooting night for Greatest Show (31% for the game).  Jamal tied the game at 54 with 40 seconds remaining and Greatest Show had a chance to win it but Justin Dank missed on his late shot attempt.  Flex grabbed the rebound and nearly won the game on a putback were it not for Jamal flying in to block the shot attempt.  Greatest Show failed to score a single point in the overtime though not without some controversy (questionable officiating).  Flex appeared to tie the game up with a layup in overtime with under a minute remaining but was called for a traveling on this play (despite it looking like Ben Huber clealy knocked the ball loose before Huberman re-gathered):

Bagels & Blox held on to secure their second straight win and really beat Greatest Show at their own game in the second half (running and pushing the pace on both ends).  The offense really stalled for Greatest Show in the second half but the loss dropped them to what is still a league-leading 7-2 record.  Bagels & Blox moved to 3-6 but if they can continue to get production from their supporting cast, this is a team that nobody will want to face in the playoffs (a la 1988 Kansas Jayhawks Danny (Manning) & the Miracles).

The Silent Killers 68 - The Pipe Layers 39: The Pipe Layers have had a difficult enough time winning games at full strength but for this game they were playing without captain Adam Hynes, Jordan Perlmutter and Erez Liebermann.  This game was ugly and there isn't too much to say about it. The Pipe Layers went on a big run just before half to open up a 20-point lead and were never really tested throughout.  Without their leading scorer, The Pipe Layers had a really difficult time putting up points and Ben Carr was their only player to tally double digits (13 points/9 rebs).  Mike Korn scored 8 points and Andrew Merel scored 7 points to go with 9 rebounds.  The Silent Killers were led by their duo of Siri Carpien and Jason Pompeo, as has often been the case this season. Pompeo scored a game high 23 points and also added an impressive 19 rebounds (including 13 on the offensive end).  The offensive rebounding was one of the biggest storylines of the game as The Silent Killers had 29 offensive rebounds compared to just 2 for the Pipe Layers.  Any time The Silent Killers missed a shot, Pompeo or one of his teammates were usually there to gather the miss.  Siri Carpien did what he does, totaling 15 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists.  The Silent Killers got solid contibutions from their supporting cast as well including Seth Niessen, Rory Schulman, Eddie Ford and the ageless wonder, Dave "Doc" Livingston. The loss dropped The Pipe Layers to 1-8 while the win moved The Silent Killers to 5-4.

99 Problems (But a Swish Ain't One) 65 - Splash 58: This was the marquee matchup of the week with these two teams battling for second place in the standings.  Each team was missing a key contibutor in this game with 99 Problems playing without Jason Lorenzo while Splash was missing Mike Glanzman.  As I pointed out last week, Splash had yet to lose a game when they had their big man (Glanzman or Phil Romero) present but they would have to figure out a way to secure the win without their big this week.  This was a back and forth battle in the first half with 99 Problems building a lead as large as 9 points but eventually settling on a 34-32 lead at the end of the half.  The past several weeks Jorge Mangui has been playing at an MVP level and it was no different against Splash.  While Adam Driansky and Shamar Mason made Jorge have to work hard for his points, he still put up a big stat line (20 pts/12 rebs/4 assists/3 steals).  Everyone knows about the scoring and the steals, but Jorge, one of the shortest guys on the floor, is averaging 8 rebounds per game thanks to his quickness and hustle. Mike Gerstein added 14 points and 9 rebounds for 99 Problems.  The second half opened with the two teams continuing to trade baskets for the first 7-8 minutes and the score was tied at 42 with 16:00 left.  That is when 99 Problems began to impose their will though Splash continued to keep the score within striking distance.  Splash, as usual, was paced offensively by the three-guard rotation.  Team Captain Jon Ackerman and Shamar Mason each tallied 17 points and 7 rebounds while Adam Driansky scored a very efficient 14 points (6/8 shooting).  These two teams matchup very well against each other but in this game 99 Problems were the slightly better team.  Bryan Minasian (8 pts/12 rebs), Gabe Berkowitz (7 pts/4 rebs/5 assists) and Steve Shelton (9 pts/5 rebs) all made crucial contributions in the winning effort. Brandon Wendel continues to hit threes at a league leading rate (converting both attempts in this game).  The win moved both teams to 6-3 and in a tie for second place behind Greatest Show on Courts.

Team Psycho 65 - JCC You in the Finals 54: Dan Amsellem returned to the court for this game after sitting out the past few games with a calf injury. And while he wasn't at 100%, his presence definitely helped Team Psycho in this contest.  These two teams battled it out in the first half and the score would've been tied at halftime were it not for the Steve Bachman half court buzzer beater.  Bachman (13 points) and captain Jason Narod (13 points) both got off to hot shooting starts though both cooled off in the second half.  Team Psycho captain Colin Neff led all socrers in the game with 21 points as well as 8 rebounds and 4 assists.  TJ Farrell hit 5/12 three point attempts en route to 17 points (and 9 rebounds).  As has often been the case this season for JCC You, they play really well for stretches but then allow their opponents to go on a run to turn things around. In this game, JCC You had opened a 6 point lead at 35-29 but then allowed Team Psycho to go on a 21-5 run which led to  50-40 Team Psycho lead.  It was a combination of an inability to make shots and compounded by failing to hustle back on defense to prevent fast breaks that did JCC You in.  The bigs for JCC You both had solid games with Damien Jackson scoring 13 pts/10 rebs while Jim Korn totaled 11 pts/8 rebs.  Ben Gerstein added 8 points while the rest of the supporting cast (Jake Granoff/Shame Calendar/Drew Mandelbaum and Gary Levine) all had timely baskets in the winning effort.  Both teams have mathcing 4-5 records after this contest.

Week 10 recap will be coming soon