JCC of Central New Jersey Men's Basketball

10 weeks down and only two remaining to play.  The playoff seeding is taking shape though there is still a lot to be determined over these last two weeks (well other than The Pipe Layers, who can rest easy knowing they are locked in as the 8 seed).  All 4 games this week were "relatively close" (single digits) so let's get right into the game action.

Splash 62 - The Silent Killers 61: Splash was missing captain and leading scorer Jon Ackerman while The Silent Killers were missing Eric Lai.  This was a really tight game throughout, especially in the first half where neither team led by more than 6 points and the half ended in a 31-31 tie.  In the absence of Captain Ackerman, the scoring burden fell more to the two remaining guards (Adam Driansky and Shamar Mason) as well as the man in the middle, Mike Glanzman.  This trio came through in a big way and scored all but 4 of their team's points.  Adam Driansky stepped up big time in his starring role, scoring a game high 29 points and also getting it done on the defensive end with 3 steals.  Shamar put up 14 points and Glanzman had 14 points and 11 rebounds.  The Silent Killers were again led by the Carpien/Pompeo duo with their newcomer, Eddie Ford, also having a strong showing.  Siri led the team with 24 points/7 rebounds while Pompeo had 12 points/8 rebs and Eddie added 14 points of his own.  In the second half, Splash twice opened up an 8-point lead only to see The Silent Killers come storming back.  Splash led 60-57 with 2:00 remaining and here's how it played out:

• Glanzman missed layup with 1:50 left - rebounded by Pompeo and he was fouled (no bonus)
• In bound pass to Siri who backed down Shamar for the layup (60-59 1:38 left)
• Shamar turnover stolen by Pompeo with 1:12 left - fast break pass to Eddie Ford who was fouled (missed both FTs with 1:05 left)
• Shamar turnover with :44 left stolen by Eddie Ford
• Rory hit baseline jumper with :29 secs left (61-60 Silent Killers). Timeout called by Splash. 
• Silent Killers only had 4 team fouls. They committed a foul with 15.9 secs left becasue they had two to give. With 7.1 seconds left, Alex Fisher committed a foul, because he still had one to give. However, the refs called it a shooting foul putting Adam Driansky on the line for 2 fts. Judge for yourself whether you think it should've been called a shooting foul

• Driansky hit both fts to take a 62-61 lead. Siri turned the ball over on the ensuing in-bound play and there were some unhappy players on The Silent Killers, most notably Alex Fisher, the man called for the suspect shooting foul.

The win moved Splash to 7-3 on the season while the loss dropped The Silent Killers to 5-5.

99 Problems (But a Swish Ain't One) 69 - JCC You in the Finals 60: This was a tale of two teams heading in opposite directions, with 99 Problems coming into this game having won their previous three games while JCC You were riding a two-game losing streak. JCC You came out strong in the first half building a 7-point lead going into the halftime break.  In the absence of team captain Jason Narod, Jim Korn scored 8 of his team leading 17 points (7 rebs) in the first half while Ed Seiden scored 11 of his 13 points in the opening stanza.  99 Problems were missing Steve Shelton and Rick Auyeung but got 10 points apiece from Jason Lorenzo and Jorge Mangui in the opening half.  Now stop me if you've heard this story before but JCC You opened the second half and struggled to keep the momentum going.  What was a 33-26 JCC You halftime lead became a 55-45 lead for 99 Problems thanks to a 29-12 run to open the half.  Holding Jorge to 10 points in the first half felt like a pretty big accomplishment and if JCC You could somehow replicate that in the second half then they would have had a real chance to win this game.  Unfortunately for JCC You, Jorge had other plans and essentially did whatever he wanted in the second half.  Jorge scored 28 of his team's 43 second half points and was doing so with a deadly combination of drives and three-point shooting.  The one thing JCC You was able to do to contain Jorge was to not allow him to get his typical 4 steals per game. In this game Jorge was held to just one steal (take that sucka!!!) though he did have 8 rebounds and 4 assists.  As has often been the case for JCC You, the offense went cold in the second half and the missed shots often led to fast breaks for 99 Problems.  Damien Jackson had another very good all around game amassing 11 pts/12 rebs/6 assists.  Jason Stern was all over the place in the first half, scoring points and grabbing offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive but he was quiet in the second half.  Steve Bachman was the one exception, scoring 8 of his 11 poins in the second half but he struggled from long range in this contest (1/11 from deep).  Jason Lorenzo finished with 15 points and Gabe Berkowitz made some timely baskets en route to 7 points. JCC You continue to look very good for all but around 10 minutes of their games.  Unfortunately those 10 minute lapses usually result in their opponent's going on big scoring runs, which have been consitently costing them games.  The win moved 99 Problems to 7-3 and in a second place tie with Splash (though they currently hold the tiebreaker over Splash) while the loss dropped JCC You to 4-6 and in a three-way tie with Team Psycho and Bagels & Blox.

Greatest Show on Courts 77 - The Pipe Layers 73:  Greatest Show was very happy to welcome captain Matt Ceccarelli back into the fold after losing last week in his absence.  Greatest Show did have to make do without Pete Strauss, in case you were all wondering why there wasn't a clip of Pete this week missing a crazy runner in the blooper reel.  With Jordan Perlmutter out for the remainder of the season with a rib injury, Mike Pollack officially took his place in the lineup this week and had a strong showing.  As with Matt Ceccarelli, The Pipe Layers were anxious to get captain Adam Hynes back out on the court. This score makes it look like this was a really competitive game and all credit goes to The Pipe Layers for battling back late in this contest.  But this game was a blowout for the most part, other than the furious comeback in the final minutes.  All five members of Greatest Show's starting lineup scored in double figures led by Matt (18 pts/5 rebs), Will Howarth added 15 pts/7 rebs followed by 14 pts/6 rebs/5 assists from Mike "Flex" Huberman (who did flex at least once as can be seen in the highlight reel), Eric Sass had 13 pts/9 rebs and finally Justin Dank added 10 pts/7 rebs/4 assists.  It's so difficult to stop this team because the scoring comes from so many places and while they did give up 73 points, they did add another 8 steals in this game.  The Pipe Layers were led by Adam Hynes' game-high 25 points on 9/19 shooting.  But Adam wasn't a one-man show as he had three teammates also score in double digits including Ben Carr (13 pts), Andrew Merel (11 pts/5 assists -league leader in that category) and Mike Korn (10 pts).  As mentioned earlier, Mike Pollack had a strong showing putting up 7 pts/10 rebs/4 assists for The Pipe Layers.  The score was 68-53 with 3:00 left in the game and that is when The Pipe Layers offense went nuts, scoring 20 points in the final 3 minutes.  They did manage to cut the lead to 4 points thanks to several deep bombs by Adam Hynes as well as Ben Carr looking like a runaway train making his way through the Greatest Show's defense.  But it was too little too late as they never got the score down to a single possession and Greatest Show improved to 8-2 on the season.  The Pipe Layers dropped to 1-9 but perhaps they can carry over some momentum from how they closed out the game this past week. To be determined.

Bagels & Blox 60 - Team Psycho 52: Bagels & Blox came into this game playing their best basketball of the season, winners of their previous two games.  Team Psycho was looking to get back to .500.  Now what if I told you that Jamal Berry would score a mere 15 points on 3/15 shooting and yet this might have been the best team performance from Bagels & Blox all season.  Bagels & Blox were missing team captain Jon Kanarek and somehow the team was able to overcome the lack of his in-game coaching and halftime adjustments.  Team Psycho started off well and held the lead for much of the first half.  Captain Colin Neff led the team in scoring with 23 points though shockingly totaled only 3 rebounds.  The only other player on Team Psycho to score in double digits was TJ Farrell with 12 points (but on 4/13 shooting).  I've often spoken about the need for Jamal's teammates to step up their games to ease the burden on Jamal.  Well that is exactly what happened in this game.  Ben Huber seems far removed from his early season struggles (10 pts/6 rebs for the game).  Jake Lillie looked like a totally different player on this night, as if he had figured something out to regain his shooting confidence. Jake hit 4/6 from deep en route to 12 points (including a bank three from the baseline).  Brian Schiller (9 pts), Dave Kobi (8 pts/10 rebs/4 steals) and Matt Birnbach (6 pts/2 blocks) all played crucial roles in the victory.  For Dave Kobi, this whole scoring thing has become addictive, and he seems eager to get his next fix every time out on the court.  And for Jamal, even though he only scored 15 points (which I recognize for most people is a very good game), he also contributed 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals and he seemed to really enjoy seeing his teammates make shots and pick up the scoring for him.  The second half went back and forth with Team Psycho taking their final lead with around 5:00 remaining.  But it was too much from Bagels & Blox down the stretch and they held on to secure their 3rd straight win which moved them into a 3-way tie for 5th place with Team Psycho and JCC You.

Power Rankings:

1.  Greatest Show on Courts (8-2) - They welcomed captain Matt Ceccarelli back this week and they got back to their winning ways.  This is still the most complete roster (thanks in large part to drafting Mike Huberman and Will Howarth in the 3rd and 5th rounds - well below their actual value) 
2. 99 Problems (But a Splash Ain't One) (7-3) - After a 2-game losing streak, 99 Problems have bounced back and won 4 straight games.  Jorge Mangui is playing as well as anyone in the league (especially over this streak) but he's getting a lot of support from one of the deepest rosters in the league
3. Splash (7-3) - They still haven't lost a game when their big man was present and the speed and shotmaking of their 3-guard rotation is a matchup nightmare for most teams.  The have also been playing outstanding defense.
4. The Silent Killers (5-5) - They lost a heartbreaker this week to Splash but captain Siri Carpien and Jason Pompeo have been playing great ball.  Eddie Ford has brought a different dimension to the team after the unfortunate loss of Orlando Jean-Charles and this team is very capable of beating anyone despite sitting at only .500
5. Bagels & Blox (4-6) - The biggest movers since the last power rankings thanks to their current 3-game winning streak. Jamal Berry has been the best player in the league for most of the season (though Jorge has made a big push recently) and they've been getting more consistent production in recent weeks from the supporting cast.  Ben Huber seems like he's back to his old self and Dave Kobi has been asserting himself much more on the offensive end in recent weeks. Plus they beat Team Psycho last week thus warranting the higher spot in the rankings
6. Team Psycho (4-6) - Speaking of Team Psycho, they have been playing much better offensively lately and their defense has been consistent all season.  Dan Amsellem is getting back into game shape after missing a few weeks and Colin Neff has shown on a weekly basis why he's one of the most complete players in the league
7. JCC You in the ____ (4-6) - In the midst of a three-game losing streak, this team needs more consistency within each game.  For the second straight week, they blew a second half lead thanks to an inabilkity to hit shots combined with getting out-hustled.  At 4-6 it doesn't seem like this team will be seeing you in the finals but if they can put togerther a complete game, there's no reason to doubt their ability to win it all.
8. The Pipe Layers (1-9) - They showed a lot of heart fighting back late against Greatest Show and maybe this is something they can build on.  It hasn't been pretty but it's not like this team lacks talent.

Stats leaders:

Points:

Jamal Berry - 26.2 ppg

Jorge Mangui - 22.2 ppg

Jon Ackerman - 18.2 ppg

Rebounds:

Bryan Minasian - 12.7 rpg

Eric Sass - 11.6 rpg

Damien Jackson - 10.8 rpg

Assists:

Andrew Merel - 3.8 apg

Jordan Perlmutter - 3.7 apg

Mike Huberman - 3.4 apg

Steals:

Jorge Mangui - 3.5 spg

Jamal Berry - 3.4 spg

Mike Huberman - 3.0 spg

Blocks (Total):

Mike Korn - 16

Eric Sass - 11

Damien Jackson - 10

Three-pointers made:

TJ Farrell - 28

Jorge Mangui - 23

Siri Carpien/Jamal Berry - 22

Flexes:

Mike Huberman - 1.5 flexes per game

Good luck to all this week