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Game 1: Albinea vs Fort Merceus
We start with another battle between two of the stronger defensive teams in the league. Fort Merceus still leads the league in Blocks per game, but Albinea’s defense has gone from 12th in the league to 6th in the past 3 weeks!
Which means, of course, the 1st quarter started as a shootout:
Dennis would start off the scoring, which foreshadowed a monster game from the forward.
Albinea would match Fort Merceus frequently, using steals to get their scores in transition.
Fort Merceus would ride the hot hand, and Dennis rewarded the team with huge baskets.
Albinea spread the ball around a little more, but relied on the speed of Rimmy Tim to open up more transition scores early:
The shootout kept going:
At the end of the 1st, Albinea held a 1 point lead, 23-22.
The 2nd quarter was also pretty high scoring, with Albinea doing their best to maintain their lead.
Rimmy Tim in particular caused Fort Merceus headaches with his speed:
But Fort Merceus grinded back to 1 point lead with only 7 seconds left in the half, when:
Bemp’s amazing steal and flush would give Albinea that 1 point lead back going into the half, 45-44.
Albinea would continue their form early in the 3rd:
Albinea, at this point of the game, had 6 blocks to Fort Merceus’s 3, and it looked like the Cavaliers were stretched thin.
But leave it to Dennis to get this team back on track:
And Fort Knight Guy would give a spark off the bench, putting in 8 points in the 3rd quarter:
Albinea leads going into the 4th, 67-63.
The 4th quarter started with some gritty performances from Max Well, as he tried to give Fort Merceus a spark with Dennis resting:
Max got fouled 4 times in the 4th quarter, playing a physical brand of basketball that kept Fort Merceus in the game late.
Albinea responded in kind:
With 4 minutes left, this 3 put Albinea up 7. Fort Merceus responded by bringing back Dennis for one final run:
Fort Merceus would go on a 10-4 run on the back of the power forward, who would end the game with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks. But with 20 seconds left, Fort Merceus put all their hopes on Eins, a center who has had a good season, but only had 2 points and 3 rebounds to his name all night.
84-83
84-86. Fort Merceus’s first lead of the game would come at the very death of it, and they survived two Albinea possessions at the end to steal a huge win.
Albinea’s next game will be against Enbarr, which doesn’t bode well for their week.
Speaking of Enbarr…