Generation 44, Shox 36

Coming into Week 6, four teams (Shox, Hyperflight, Uptempo, Terminator) were all tied for first in the NRF with 3-1 records. Which one of those teams would still be sitting in first after Wednesday night? Definitely not Shox, who fell to Generation 44-36 in the first game of the night.

The story of Shox's (or as someone in the crowd referred to them: the Duke of NRF) demise was turnovers. For the game Shox turned it over 14 times. Generation's Rafael DaSilva also proved to be a problem for Shox. For the last few days, DaSilva has been running his mouth around the 94 by 50 office. And while most the office wanted to see Raf put in his place, the man came in and backed up his bark. DaSilva's shot was on the money and got to the basket at will. He wowed the crowd with a couple of circus layups and shockingly even passed the ball. He finished with a game high 21 points.

For the majority of the game, Generation had control of the game and had a double digit lead for much of the second half. And even though Shox failed to take care of the ball and their star forward Jason Burke had an off night, you have to to applaud their effort as they fought their way back into the game late in the second half. Their scrappy and physical play turned the game into a dog fight. Burke and Generation's Joe Branch had probably one of the most intense battles I'd seen this season. There were plenty of times I thought the refs let fouls go and failed to take control of the game when tempers were starting to flare. The officials must have thought they were reffing the Nike Battlegrounds, not NRF.    

After a Justin Leonard three and a Burke jump shot, Shox cut the lead to 5 with three minutes to go. But DaSilva put an end to that run with a pretty layup on the next possession. Coach Joe Beaf considered sending in DJ Webstar to maybe knock down some threes, but the inventor of the Chicken Noodle Soup had already packed it in and was dressed up in his street clothes (since midway through the second half). With no Webstar and nobody else on Shox able to hit threes down the stretch, that was pretty much the ball game.

Shox was led by Burke who finished with 19 points and 16 rebounds. On top of DaSilva, Generation got a great contribution from Branch who finished with a Pippen-esque, 8 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

	1	2		T
Generation	26	18	-	44
Shox	17	19	-	36

Box Scores

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