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Week 6
I have to start this with a warning, managers: This was not the best week for your teams.
Except Brigid, who has slowly recovered from a slow start and went undefeated this week, everyone hit a roadblock with some difficult games. I’ll post the standings at the end of this post, as everyone is easily in the hunt for the playoffs this early in the season.
Anyways, let’s get into the games:
Game 1: Enbarr @ Garreg Mach
Welcome to The Cathedral, 100,000 seats of pure religious fervor and a passion for basketball.
Enbarr never got going in the first game, falling apart by the end of the half, and they came out looking rather emotional.
They exploded out of the gate with a 33-21 lead in the first, but the whole quarter just felt like an emotional valve releasing for Enbarr.
The 2nd quarter is where things started getting ugly.
Garreg Mach got a little home cooking from the referees, and Rhea eventually got her defensive edge back.
The Immaculate One would have 3 blocks in the 1st half, making up for her 1 rebound and 4 points.
Rarely mentioned Yuri LeClerc added 14 points in the quarter, quickly bringing Garreg Mach to within 3, 61-58. And then guess who arrived?
Shamir would score her first points of the game with a stupidly long 3 pointer, tying it up with 10 seconds left in the half, 61-61.
Hubert would get the last laugh, however, scoring right before the halftime buzzer:
A much more contested game than before, with Enbarr holding the slim 63-61 lead.
The 3rd quarter was a match between Edelgard and Shamir.
But there was also a new contestant, one Constance von Nuvelle:
Shamir scored every point for Garreg Mach in the 3rd (31 points!!!) and didn’t score again for the rest of the game (go figure), but Constance and Edelgard matched her shot for shot, leading the game to a 94-92 score as we reached the 4th quarter.
The Rhea. Went. Off.
Rending space and time to her will, the Immaculate One scored 11 points, had one final block, and added 12 rebounds to her collection.
She was on fire, and she damn well knew it.
Enbarr, for what it’s worth, handled it pretty well, and were only behind 113-114 with 20 seconds left; but at the end, critical shots failed to fall, and they were forced to foul to try to stay in the game. Garreg Mach steals one from Enbarr, 113-118.
Game 2: Plegia @ Agartha
After weeks in the bottom tier of the league, Plegia was bought out by a mysterious stranger, who insisted on changing the roster and replacing them with players of their choosing. While Plegia in name, the team has … changed.
None of that mattered to Kronya Von Ochs, who started the game with 12 points.
But wait, who’s this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coXujuBILkg
Morgan? Why does that name sound familiar…
And is that … Brady?
Gerome???
Yes, say hello to New Ylisse, a team of time-traveling castaways that have never played basketball before, but are hoping to stay competitive through sheer hope!
And hope they did, as Morgan:
Noire:
And Inigo:
Fought back at the end of the 1st to bring the soon to be rebranded Plegia within 7, down 14-21.
The second quarter became a hard fought grind, as both Agartha and Plegia refused to back down from each other.
Owain (last gif), had the most impressive quarter of all. 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 steals kept Plegia within arms length of Agartha.
Noire took a heavy hit at the end of the half, but she ended up being okay, and this score brought them within 1 by halftime, 38-39.
However, the start of the half brought bad news for Plegia. Both Cynthia and Lucina had minor injuries, and would at least miss out the quarter. Agartha immediately pounced on a team trying to find it’s legs again.
Agartha bullied and fumbled their way to a huge 16 point lead with 3 minutes left in the 3rd, 50-66, when Noire and Morgan came back in.
And they brought the Blood and Thunder!
They scrambled together 10 points to get Plegia within 6, 60-66.
The resurgent Plegia team then moved scoring to Owain, who finally got to show some offensive ability as well.
But both teams struggled to remain consistent in the 4th, and with Plegia down 5, this would be the last score of the game:
An impressive dunk by Owain, to be sure, but this was at the 8 minute mark of the quarter.
We had 4 more minutes remaining in the game. I’m not kidding. Agartha would have 3 shot clock violations and go 0-2 from the field, and Plegia went 0-5 from the field and didn’t even try to foul any Agarthan players at the end.
2k, why did you do this to me?
Agartha would win, 73-76.
Game 3: Albinea @ Almyra
On a technicality (more people voted for Almyra as the second name), I recorded this part of the home and home series that took place this week. And boy oh boy, when I saw the score of the first game go under 140 points total, I was excited.
And boy did this game not disappoint.
Two of the most physically punishing teams in the league so far, both having rather rough weeks last week, attacked each other with vigor.
Albinea’s Rimmy Tim had an aggressive start to the game, grabbing 5 rebounds and scoring 6 points. This might not seem like much, but points in this game were as valuable as baking supplies in quarantine.
On the other side, Almyra’s Nader Shah went 2-3 from deep.
Almyra would lead at the end of the 1st quarter, 13-17.
I didn’t save anything from the 2nd quarter. It was an 8 to 13 cavalcade of missed shots, steals leading into other steals, and various other forms of Wisconsin Basketball. Somewhere in LA, Jerry West and Magic Johnson felt chills go down their spines. Jordan wept, and LeBron James couldn’t even look at his computer.
Halftime score, 21-30, Almyra leading.
Albinea, to their credit, were not satisfied with leaving the game like that.
They came back with a vengeance in the second half, and while they only got to 39-44 by the end of the 3rd, they had momentum on their side.
And Rimmy Tim showed what 96 speed can do, even with low acceleration.
The score was now 62-61, Albinea’s first lead of the game, and now it was up to Almyra to respond. They had lost 3 games in the 4th already.
Nader Shah, ice cold.
62-64
Kipper responded immediately. 65-64, 5 seconds left.
Anashaviran nails the shot with .5 seconds left.
For tonight, the Almyra Curse was broken. Almyra wins, 65-66.
Game 4: Sacae @ Fort Merceus
This game’s biggest story was the tale of Florina.
Poor Florina just wants Lyn to respect and love her, but she had terrible luck at the start of this game:
Fort Merceus slowly built up a big lead in the first half, mostly on the back of:
Dennis
Dennis
DENNIS
Yes, Dennis had an impressive 22 points, 8 rebounds, and a block in the first half, in which Fort Merceus ran out to a 36-48 lead by halftime.
(Fort Merceus has some good offensive ball movement ya’ll)
Also, here’s a fun thing that happened in the 1st half:
But in the second half, things changed. Florina was shooting so horribly, and Eliwood and Lyn were becoming bigger threats, so people starting slacking off on guarding the pegasus knight…
And Fort Merceus’s lead evaporated, with Sacae taking a 63-57 lead into the 4th quarter.
Florina started the quarter off red hot, but Fort Merceus was no longer shell shocked.
Dennis took control of the game’s pace again, and Merceus reeled in Sacae.
They also seemed to start breaking mentally.
With 4 seconds remaining, Jerome Funf saw an open 3 and took it:
Fort Merceus had the lead again, 76-78.
And Lyn proceeded to tear their hearts out.
Sacae miracled themselves a win, 79-78.
I’ll share scores tomorrow, but here are the current standings going into White Heron Month:
Northern Fodlan:
Fhirdiad: 18-2
Leicester: 16-3
Ylisse: 16-4
Friege: 11-7
Rhodos Coast (???): 11-9
Agartha: 11-10
Sreng: 9-10
Eastern Church: 9-10
Western Church: 8-9
Sacae: 9-12
Albinea: 8-11
Almyra: 8-12
Gloucester: 7-12
Valm: 6-12
Plegia: 7-14
As you can see, everyone is within 5 games of the 4 seed Friege. I have no clue why Rhodos Coast is so good, and I think we’ll take a look at them next week.
Southern Fodlan:
Enbarr: 18-2
Garreg Mach: 17-3
Nuvelle: 13-8
Macedon: 12-8
Nohr: 11-8
Valentia: 10-9
Brigid: 10-9
Fort Merceus: 10-10
Ailell: 8-12
Hoshido: 8-12
Garreg Mach Town: 6-13
Charon: 5-15
Airmid: 4-15
Valla: 4-16
Morfis: 3-15
Much like the Eastern Conference in the NBA, the line between good vs bad teams in Southern Fodlan is more pronounced. And if you find yourself saying: “Garreg Mach has swept Enbarr so far, why are they still behind?” Well, you have Nuvelle to thank for that, courtesy of a 128-104 beatdown of the Dragons in The Cathedral.