Huarache 36, Shox 47

An unfair game for me to recap, as all I remember was running around like a maniac looking for someone to screen. But from the court, the key was Shox’s commitment to defending Pat Cassidy. They hedged all screens in which Pat was involved – on or off the ball – limiting any clean looks he’d get at the rim. Plus, an errant elbow from Jason Burke didn’t help Cass’ vision. That enabled Christian Grant-Fields to have fewer bodies in his way on his route to the basket. 

On offense, Shox was exploiting mismatches in the post-up game and with the pick-and-roll. Will Eberhart and Burke ran the screen and roll really well, and on a number of occasions, Burke stuck open jumpers when he popped out on the perimeter. The icing on the cake was Justin Leonard’s three-point barrage in the second half. He sank a couple of really big shots to help Shox fend off a mini-run from Huarache.

Another big difference was the work that Shox put in on the glass. The men in red were tenacious on the boards pulling down everything in sight. Last time these two teams met, Grant-Fields has close to 20 rebounds. No one on the Shox bench wanted to see that again, to they made it a priority to keep him away as much as possible.

Ultimately, Shox built a comfortable 10-point lead, lasting the entirety of the final five minutes of the game.

 

	1	2		T
Huarache	19	17	-	36
Shox	22	25	-	47

Box Scores

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