SpF is in rehab so I'll write the review for this one.
It was our most exciting game of this young season. Peru started the game out strong, going on a 10-0 run. At the end of the first quarter things looked bleak for the Americans, down 26-13, with star big man Jairo Alejandro Renteria in foul trouble. Jairo refused to come out of the game and fouled out in a stunning 17 minutes, unable to defend Peru star Ramón Linares. After he fouled out he ran out of the arena, and according to Jelme, Jairo didn't want to miss a showing of The Notebook at the local movie theatre.
Anyway, the team rallied in the 2nd quarter behind backup center Lynn Tirado. Down 4 points at half, assistant coach Rambo gave an inspiring halftime speech that he ripped from Remember the Titans, "I don't want them to gain another yard. You blitz all night! If they cross the line of scrimmage I'm going to take every last one of you out. You make sure, they remember...forever...the night they played the Titans." As you can imagine it didn't make much sense, but Willis Lundy saved it by starting a slow clap and the team got fired up.
The second half was a battle, the lead went back and forth, but down 76-69 with 8 minutes left things were starting to get tense. I asked Rambo if he had anymore speeches and he said he could do the locker room speech from Friday Night Lights, but before he could start Dexter Dennison just said, "We'll be fine, get me the ball." On the next play Dennison found Arzapalo for a dunk, sparking an 11-3 run that put us up 1 with 3 minutes left.
Down 1 with 2 minutes to go, Dennison again came to the rescue, with a dunk off a pass from backup guard Richard Ugona. Both teams failed to score on the ensuing possessions, leaving Peru with the ball and the chance for the lead with 38 seconds to go. Peruvian star guard Tupac Yupangui missed a bank shot with 14 seconds left, but was able to get his own offensive rebound, and now Peru had the chance to win the game with the final shot. In the chaos, Peru's Paolo Baldeon found himself one on one with Ugona. With only 3 seconds remaining he fired up a 3 with a hand in his face and missed badly. The long rebound fell to Peru's Gustavo Morales who found Baldeon going strong to the basket, but Ugona recovered and forced the miss at the buzzer. Final score: USA 82, Peru 81.
After the game, I gave Inez Arzapalo the game ball for his outstanding performance, leading the team with 19 points and 13 rebounds. I also went to go chew out Jairo, but in the end I figured seeing The Notebook is punishment enough.
Last edited by jfarb at 2/22/2011 7:29:03 PM