Uptempo 104, Huarache 108

As the Commish predicted, this early season rematch of last year’s MSG game was reason to show up early to Grand St. Scott Williams (27 points, six rebounds) didn’t take long to make his presence felt, knocking down two three-pointers within the first five minutes. Teammate Nick “I Still Got A Lot of It” Blatchford pushed the lead with an and-one bucket to give the defending champs a quick 9-0 lead. Team Uptempo built the lead to 11 (19-8) with nine minutes left in the half behind Williams medley of mid-range jimmy’s.

LeKeith Taylor had to get his Evan Turner on; initiating the “O” and locking up Williams. Midway through the half, Team Huarache decided to make one man beat them and picked up Blatchford 94-feet with either Billy Dodson or Terance Takyi at all times. Blatchford was held to eight points in the game, but switched his roll to facilitator and dished one of his four assists to Williams for the jumper and a 30-25 halftime lead.

Team Uptempo looked to dominate inside with Jarek Carethers beasting on boards (11 rebounds) and finishing with a solid seven points in the paint. Team Huarache went with a small lineup and threw on the full court press with 11 minutes to go. This helped them match Uptempo’s pace and keep the game close. Roscoe had a quiet first half but scored six of his 10 points down the stretch, including a put back layup to put Huarache up one with under two minutes. After Danny Millan answers with a bucket in the post, LeKeith (13 points, five rebounds and three steals) goes “Le-Klutch” off the glass for a 47-46 lead.

With 32 seconds left and Huarache up 49-46, Williams bangs a game-tying three from deep. Takyi answers immediately with a three, making the crowd roar like on Jay-Z’s track encore with 20 seconds to go (52-49, Huarache). On the ensuing inbounds play, Williams breaks free of the two defenders, catches a bounce pass and knocks down another tre-ball (with a lot of contact) as the defenders closed out. After a missed shot by Huarache, Uptempo gets a chance to win the game with 3.4 seconds left. Now at half-court, with Williams doubled teamed, Uptempo tries to go to Blatchford but Dodson (13 points) steals the ball, gets to the basket and finishes with defenders flying at him a-la Derek Fisher in last year’s finals, for the game winning basket (54-52).

Box Scores