Terminator 45, Generation 50

As I wrote in the preview, this game was very important for both teams. And as championship contenders, they both need to prove to each other where they aspirations truly stand. The matchups were great: J.J. McGowan vs. Omar Grant, Joe Branch on Treasure Kyn Neal and everyone was digging in on D.

One major difference this week was that Grant was finally getting his calls. After weeks of patiently waiting, the contact in the lane was actually sending him to the line. But early and often, the two-man game of McGowan and Branch was killing. It was like they were the Suns, running the same plays as Nash and Amar’e.

With five minutes left to play in the half, Generation’s lead was 20-12, causing Terminator to call a timeout. One thing I’ve noticed since coach Tony Chan has been absent is that Terminator doesn’t have a unified voice in the huddle. When will he be back? To me, his absence could hurt Terminator in the long run. Making a late run before the break, Generation’s lead was 22-19 heading into halftime.

Look who shows up at halftime: Dan Solomito. It’s a known fact that Generation is a completely different team with Solomito than without him. And that second half showed that. At the 15-minute mark, they’d pushed their lead to 32-25, and 10 minutes later, had maintained it at 39-32. On a raining night in the Lower East Side, the shots just weren’t falling.

But with one minute left, Generation made their run. A Gladstone three on one trip followed by a Neal three the next, and we had ourselves a ball game. The next time down, Gladstone connected again to make it 46-41 with 33.9 seconds left. Add on two runners in the lane from Grant to cut the lead to 48-45, and we had ourselves a game. But it was too little too late.

Final score: Generation wins, 50-45.

Box Scores