New League, Same Result

Since several of the Pro-Am teams have found a home in the Hayward Basketball League, Dorvez and I have been looking at that league for a while as a possible new venue for East Bay United. We finally signed up for the Winter 2009 season and had our first game this past Sunday. The result was the same it has been elsewhere–a resounding win. A beat-down, really.

Granted, Above All may not be the top team in the league, but they never had a chance in what was a statement game for EBU. The final result 69-32. We ran nine deep and everyone got in the scoring column. Herb was 6 for 7 from the 3-point line. Reggie threw down several epic dunks. Ty also threw down, as did our newest player, Julian. Dorvez heated up at the end of the game with three consecutive treys. 

I asked Paul and Ty before the game to make a statement with anyone who tried to take the ball inside. The result? I counted 16 blocks by the end of the game as well as a few more they called fouls. By the second half, Above All just stopped trying to push the ball inside. Then Anton, Herb, Dorvez and Tim took over and used ball pressure to force numerous turnovers. Anton ran a beautiful game from the point with Herb and Tim also filling that role seamlessly.

It didn't matter who we had in the game, we had balance and unselfish play from start to finish. We welcomed Terry Austin back to our front line, and newcomer Julian will definitely be a strong contributor on both sides of the court. By the way, thank you Juanita for producing an outstanding highlights DVD. It looks like we may have a few more highlights before the season end!