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Week 9
Welcome to Week 9, where the rules don’t matter and every team seems to do whatever it wants!
We have a 5 game slate that was actually pretty good, so let’s get started!
Game 1: Leicester @ Garreg Mach
Rhea, we’ve talked about this.
Rhea, you need to play the game like an adult, or you are going to get suspended.
Rhea
RHEA
Leicester v Garreg Mach had a lot of promise, until the starting lineups came out. Still resting Leonie, Raphael, and Hilda, Leicester came out with a lineup of Lysithea, Claude, Marianne, Lorenz, and Balthus. Still a competitive team, but with Leonie and Raph having limited playing time, the game never felt like it was in the Golden Deer’s control.
Catherine controlled a lot of the game, showing off why she got MVP in the test league.
Still, all roads lead through Rhea, as she provided the offensive spark that Catherine still lacks.
Leicester struggled in the beginning of the game, as the only points provided were from Claude and actual MVP candidate Marianne Von Edmund.
The Beast dragged out 10 early points in the first 6 minutes, before Leicester’s coach put in Leonie for Lysithea.
Lysithea has the problem of being a pass-first point guard. She’s technically a better shooter than Leonie, she’s technically a better passer, but this game locks her into refusing to shoot no matter how much I beg and plead.
Leonie has no qualms of taking shots.
Once she entered the game, things began to open up for Leicester.
Which opened up more shots for The Beast.
The only person that could keep up with Marianne’s offensive input was provisional 3 Point Contest Participant Shamir Nevrand.
The 1st Quarter ended with Garreg Mach up 7, 33-40.
Leicester’s problems only increased in the second quarter. Claude was largely ineffective, scoring only 2 points on 1-6 shooting. But when the coach replaced him for Ignatz, the offense completely fell apart.
This was the best looking shot Ignatz would take in the quarter, as he went 0-10 shooting, 9 of which were from 3 point range. 10 possessions of horrible looking shots that could’ve gone to Marianne, Hilda, Leonie, or even Balthus, and it showed as the offense sputtered. I can’t imagine what was going through Ignatz’s head, but it couldn’t have been good.
Luckily for Ignatz, Raphael Kirsten would come in late in the half, and make a huge run.
12 points in only 5 minutes, and he helped drag the team from a 20 point deficit before halftime.
But he wasn’t the only one to come alive. Lorenz showed off his finishing ability:
While Hilda got up close and personal and put in some effort:
But control never fully left Garreg Mach’s clutches, as Alois moved that dad bod around the court and pulled in 8 points of his own, as well as 6 rebounds:
And Shamir got herself open once again:
The half ended with Garreg Mach opening up the lead to 10, 60-70. Better than the 45-65 it was a few minutes earlier.
The second half started, once again, with Catherine putting in the defensive work:
And The Cathedral, once again, has the knack of giving Garreg Mach some unnaturally good bounces:
Near the end of the 3rd quarter, Ignatz finally got a shot that he could hit:
He would go 3/14 from the field overall, but 3 of 4 in the second half. It would’ve been nice to see him do better in the first half, but something during halftime got to him, which was nice. The rest of the quarter proceeded with Garreg Mach dominating. They would lead, 104-88.
With the game pretty much settled, Garreg Mach put in our two self-insert players.
Big Owl Guy got hit quite a bit, but presented a constant scoring threat.
He would end with 8 points, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds.
The other one, Kitty Empress, would get a double double. 12 points, and 12 rebounds. All in 8 minutes. The only other person to get that in this game was Rhea with her 20 and 10.
Her most notable score? Spinning out Lorenz
Garreg Mach would dominate, 117-137.
Game 2: Almyra @ Sreng
Ready for a defensive slugfest? Barkley is.
Sreng has been cruising, but Almyra keeps hovering just under the playoff line. Stealing a game in Sreng would be huge.
The Falcons came out with intensity, and pulled out a 8-0 lead.
However, Sreng started to plug away, and started to pull back.
If by pull back you, mean, get a 12-20 lead. But Almyra’s starting shooting guard, Khosrau Anashirvan, wouldn’t let it go that easily.
The quarter would end with Sreng up, 16-20.
Sreng started the 2nd quarter with a big defensive effort from Nanami Kiryuu, who would have a stellar game for the basketball club:
Kiryuu had 5 blocks in the game, tying Fort Merceus’s Big Dennis and Rhea for most blocks in a game.
But more importantly, her defense started to open up opportunities for players deeper in the rotation:
Walter Gibbs got his first points in over a month, and Kiryuu herself got 10 points to go with those blocks:
Almyra, however, came back with hard defense:
Nader Shah ended the game with a jack of all trades defensive effort, with 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks.
Shooting Guard Abbas Safavid would end the game 11 points, tied for second amongst everyone in the game.
And with Khosrow Parviz’s fadeaway jumper, Almyra was back in the game by halftime, 26-27.
The 3rd quarter became as close to a shootout as these two teams would allow.
Dr. Hans Zarkov got the scoring started:
But Almyra would come back hard with Amir Timur
Sango would hit a long 3:
And Ardashir Sasan would reply:
But then, Ritz Malheur saved Sreng in a critical moment:
Sreng would pull away slightly in the 3rd, 40-46.
Almyra continuously pulled within 2 points, notably when they got to 54-56 on the back of a Cyrus Teispid dunk:
And maybe out of frustration, perhaps desperation, Almyra makes a huge mistake:
That foul, followed by this defensive breakdown:
Would make the deficit too big to come back from.
Finally, Charles Barkley would finish the game off:
Sreng wins: 59-63
Game 3: Fort Merceus @ Western Church
Fresh off of a 102-105 overtime win against Fhirdiad, Fort Merceus came into the Western Church Forum exhausted, and with the coach limiting the minutes of top player Dennis, it felt like he was accepting a potential loss here..
Fort Merceus still leads the league in blocks per game, and is the 3rd most efficient defense in the league. (Garreg Mach and Ylisse edge them out slightly).
Even though the coach clearly considered this game an acceptable game to let go, the team still came out with 110%.
But something wasn’t quite right with Fort Merceus’s defensive scheme. While a lot of interior scoring wasn’t happening, the backcourt of the Western Church began to light up.
Fort Merceus managed to keep up in the 1st quarter:
Bowie, in his first game as the starting small forward, had a good showing.
Up 22-19 with almost no time left, Western Church chucked up a weird shot.
22-21, Fort Merceus lead at the end of the 1st.
The second quarter did not start out well for the Cavaliers:
The offense made bizarre choices, which the Western Church would capitalize on frequently:
The top rated defense had to try to cover for their mistakes on the opposite side of the court, and while they did a decent job, it still gave the Friars a 34-40 lead with only a few minutes left.
Enter the backup to Dennis, D.B. Merceus. Is he related to Fort Merceus’s owner? No one knows for sure. But the year-long bench man started taking the game into his hands.
Another bench player, Max Well, would start dragging Fort Merceus back:
With only a few seconds left, the Western Church would build the lead to 6 off of this:
But Petr Zwei would have other ideas:
Fort Merceus would survive the onslaught only down 4, 42-46.
The third quarter would start with fireworks:
And in the 3rd quarter, Fort Merceus decided to try to step on the Western Church’s throat. They brought in
Dennis.
And Bowie pulled out two dunks to end the quarter:
Fort Merceus would come around in the 3rd, leading 61-57.
However, the 4th quarter would not start out well for the Cavs.
Remember when I said that their defense inexplicably couldn’t handle the perimeter early in the game? That came back hard in the final quarter.
The Friars scored 18 points off of 3 pointers, and Fort Merceus finally had their fatigue catch up to them.
Down 70-74, Jarred Funf would attempt to start a comeback:
But it was too little too late, with some late foul shots, Western Church would take a hard fought win, 72-77.
Game 4: Fhirdiad @ Enbarr
Fhirdiad had just suffered a huge loss to Fort Merceus, and were looking to bounce back in the Enbarr Arena.
Enbarr, on the other hand, was more interested in keeping up with Garreg Mach, as the stronger record will get that valuable extra home game.
The teams would spend the whole 1st quarter shooting lights out.
Dedue would be one of the only players with a solid defensive start:
A quick paced 1st quarter would end with Fhirdiad up, 25-22.
Fhirdiad started the 2nd quarter off like a rocket:
The lead expanded to 8 at one point, before one player took over for Enbarr:
Player Character Viscardus:
7 points, 5 rebounds, right when Enbarr needed it the most.
And while Felix would hit a huge 3 with little time left in the half:
Dorothea would answer with a huge dunk:
Then Cornelia Arnim would make a huge unforced error:
That foul would let Enbarr cut into the lead with no time left in the half.
Halftime: Fhirdiad leads 43-41.
The 3rd quarter fell under Enbarr’s control, with Hubert and Petra specifically playing hard:
Edelgard followed all this up with a 3 of her own:
It was a 13-0 run, putting Enbarr up 43-54. Felix would finally end the run:
But Enbarr’s full team effort would shine through in the 3rd.
Ingrid had a chance to cut into the lead with only a few seconds left, but:
Enbarr would come out of the 3rd ahead, 59-72.
The 4th was a return to the shootout that we saw in the first. There was little defense, and a lot of 3s were shot:
At the end of the game, Hubert decided to show zero respect.
“If you are a big enough fool to get into the interior with me, you must be big enough to get decimated.”
Enbarr wins, 84-97.
Game 5: Nuvelle @ Nohr
Nuvelle is slowly getting pieces back after their disaster week two weeks ago. Nohr would rest Xander for this game, giving Nuvelle the edge for the first game in a little bit.
Those mean girls know they’re getting no respect in the Garon Dome tonight, so they decide to dish out some disrespect before the game even starts.
Missy Pantone is still out with knee issues, but Cordelia Chase and Blair Waldorf would be getting limited minutes in this game. But the real MVP came out immediately:
Regina George carried Nuvelle early in the game, scoring 14 of the team’s 17 points in the first quarter.
On the other end, Niles would mostly carry Nohr in Xander’s absence:
The quarter would quickly end with this 3 pointer by some random Nuvelle player:
You know, for a bunch of mean girls, Nuvelle has surprisingly good chemistry.
Nuvelle leads, 17-14.
The second quarter started with what I can only describe as a full blown block party.
It took both teams 4 minutes to score points, which were these 2 from a Torrance Shipman layup:
The last 3 or so minutes would provide most of the scoring for the quarter:
And with 5 seconds left in the half, Blair Waldorf shoved up a hail mary:
Ice Cold, Queen.
Nuvelle would extend their lead, 38-32.
The 3rd quarter was largely uninteresting: Torrance Shipman continued to distribute to her teammates:
While Nohr continued to cling for their lives:
Niles also continued to drag The Glory through his own offensive output:
But he may have worked himself a little too hard by the end of the quarter:
The 3rd quarter would end with Nuvelle maintaining their 6 point lead, 56-50.
The 4th quarter was all about the connection between Torrance Shipman and Regina George:
The duo set each other up offensively, and George even set some screens for her point guard.
Niles would finish the game with a huge slam dunk to keep the deficit under 10 points, but the game was never out of Nuvelle’s control.
Get in losers, they’re going to the playoffs.
Nuvelle wins, 73-64.