BuzzerBeater Forums

Championship Game One Recap

Game one of DIV III.11's championship featured the Gremlins (managed by Gizmo) on the road against Bayard Forrest managed Scrap Heap Low Posters. The 18-4 Gremlins were underdogs coming into the series, even though they led the league in scoring this year on the backs of 4th place MVP finisher PF Ramón Peñalver's 21.6 PTS/Game and 6th place MVP PG Dwayne Nava's 17.9 PTS/Game (and league Assists leader with 6 APG [and a tremendous 6-1 assist-to-turnover ratio]). They're underdogs, because of Scrap Heap's large point differential on the season (2nd highest in the league, allowing only 79.5 PTS/Game and scoring nearly 105.

However, from the outset, the Gremlins looked like they were going to cause Scrap some trouble! The Junk Yard was packed to the brim, and the Gremlins came out spreading the scoring around, making 9 FGs, including two three pointers in the first 12 minutes to take a 25-20 lead into quarter number 2. Only two things looked bad for the Gremlins - the first was C Wu Chan Kiew (top 20 player in the league in rating/efficiency) being injured when he tried to take a baseline jumper and Scrap Heaps C Su Xiuying was assessed a flagrant foul, apparently kicking Kiew directly in the cajones as he's out for the remainder of the season with a "pulled groin". The second prescient moment of the first quarter was SG Roc Pedrosa (averaging 17.1 PTS/Game) going 0-4 enroute to his poor shooting night. On the other side, Scrap Heap wasstruggling, seeing many of their shots clang off the hoop, hitting only 6-16 FGs - fortunately, they were able to make it up by shooting 8-10 from the charity stripe to keep the game close.

They rolled into half time with the Gremlins holding on to their 5 point lead (45-40) with SF Rene Tuvike scoring two more three pointers for 13 overall points, and back up center Juanma Campino holding his own against the vicious Xiuying, having gone 4-6 in the half with another 3 free throws made and pulling down 8 total rebounds. However, fouls and turnovers were a problem for them as they approached the break. Scrap Heap held steady for the 2nd quarter, matching Gremlins' scoring output, again with their added free throws, having scored 16 of their points from the line, keeping the Gremlins in sight. SF Demyan Charykov contributed 6-6 from the free throw line and finished the half with twelve points.

The third quarter would bring to light the difference in effort on the evening, with Scrap Heap vaulting ahead, outscoring Gizmo's crew by 16 points, pouring in 32 total points with Charykov scoring another six, while the MVP Runner Up Gabriel Horyza coming on strong with another 10 points and 3rd place MVP Tommy Kang bringing his scoring total to 14 in 31 minutes played. Interestingly, Scrap Heap took no free throw attempts in the third quarter, while the deficit at center for the Gremlins started to show its wear. Heading into the final frame, Gremlins found themselves down 11 and the nearly 20,000 Junk Yard fans began to get raucous.

The Gremlins tried to keep pace in the 4th, but got outscored by 4 in the last quarter, and Scrap Heap cruised to a relatively easy 15 point victory. Even though Scrap Heap clearly put in more effort, this commentator's not sure that Gizmo's Inside crew has enough to stand up to the likes of Doktor and Xiuying as it appears Bayard Forrest's tactic is to ground and pound the inside and not concern themselves with Gremlins' hopes to Golden State Warriors it up from outside.

Relegation News
Here are your relegated teams for DIV III.11:
- Big 8's BOT Tidals
- Great 8's BOTS Solana Tides & Tropicana Flamingos
- It looked like x DOMINATE x had given up on tanking for a few weeks, but then shifted gears and didn't give much of an effort against the War Birds, with the Birds shutting down the series after two games.
- The big surprise was Chewy's decimation by the SuperSonicz - Seattle put in more effort in Game 1 to only lose by 1, making an eipc comeback after being down 16 after three quarters. And then, they switched from their Motion strategy to a Patient offense and in games 2 and 3 ended up winning by a total of 50. Chewy had sold 35 year old PF Ben Gansler after game one of the series and bizarelly played 25 year old PG Vern Becker at SF who only pulled down a 3.0 rating in the game (though, he did score 9 points, all on three pointers).

At any rate, if the championship series goes the way I think it will, the Big 8 will have 2 new teams, while the Great 8 will have four new teams...unless the Gremlins pull off the upset! Great, fun season everyone!

Great Analysis Baine as per usual.

On my situation I have been AWOL the whole season because RL commitments.
I logged back on after Allstar week and with two bots on my side, I realized I was a few games back from being in the playoffs.
So I bought a few good players who if I got their game shape up, added to my homegrown players, could have taken me deep into the playoffs.
That early loss to Chewy (when my GS was shot) kind of sealed my fate.

I bought the 4 players for $100k and sold them for over $400k, so it worked out ok.
I wanted to be relegated so I didn't have to do much next season, and probably make a run the season after.

I saw that! Color me extremely jealous that worked out for you like that!

Season 56 Championship Final Recap
*Whew* my prediction came true, though Gremlins tried their best to extend the series to three games, even if they had beaten Scrap Heap, I don't think they'd have the gumption to put up much of a match in the final game.

After one quarter, the Gremlins found themselves up pleasantly by 12 points even though Scrap was pressing them from the start. Ramon Penalver went 5-6 for 10 points and Dwayne Nava hit 2 three pointers for another 9 points total and the Gremlins limited the FCP damage as much as possible with 6 TOs in the quarter. They also were able to haul in 14 Total Rebounds.

On the other side, Tommy Kang, still furious with his third-place MVP finish, went 5-8 from the field with 2 three pointers of his own to score 12 points, and while the rest of the team chipped in, only one other player (Su Xiuying) had more than two points in the frame. They'd also been out rebounded (by four, but still!).

Three minutes into the 2nd, they'd cut the lead to 5, but then stalled out a bit letting Gremlins increase the lead to 9 with half the quarter left. Ending the half down 11, Scrap Heap was relying on the solo show of Kang to limp them along (19 PTS in 24 minutes). PF Demyan Charkov (who'd later go on to be listed on the transfer list) had a rough first half, missing 7 shots and only bringing in 3 rebounds, while his counterpart Penalver was 6-8 for 12 points and had corralled 10 rebounds. Backup C Juanma Campino (who has a great first name that is so close to a yo momma joke - I just haven't been able to pin point it yet), pulled down another 10 rebounds, but was alarmingly giving the ball away at a relatively high rate (4 TOs). Nava contributed 13 points, and Juan Carlos Vazquez (backup SF) supplied another 12 points. Gremlins led 57-46 at the half.

But as is many times the story, the 3rd period proved to be the turning point, with Scrap Heap GOING OFF for 41 points (Kang only putting in 7) with Bruno Pappaloardo, coming around with 15 points in 27 minutes, Su Xiuying with 14, Gabrield Horyza another 12, and Ivan Doktor hitting double digits as well with 10. By the end of the period, Gremlins had given up 18 TOs, and while Penalver was trying to hold it steady with his 24 points on the night, the third quarter blow out (23 points scored by Gremlins), put Scrap up by 7 heading into the final frame.

Both teams kept pace with each other, with Gremlins scoring 28 points in the first 15 mintues of the quarter - they found themselves down 1 with 39 seconds left, but Pappaloardo scored on a lay up 11 seconds later to make it 113-110. After a time out by Gremlins, Penalver attemtped a three-point shot from the wing but missed - and Xuiying grabbed the rebound. G. Horyza sank both free throws after being fouled by Vazquez and Gremlins called another timeout with 19 seconds left, down 5. After the break, Nava missed a three-pointer, and Scrap Heap's backup C Doktor grabbed the rebound. ANother foul led to 1-2 FT attempts by Pappalardo, and Campino tried to grab the board, but lost it out of bounds. A quick foul by SF Tuvike, and Horyza made both free throws to go up 118-110 effectively sealing the game with 10 seconds left. Nava scored a deep three with 5 seconds left, but the ensuing fould left Doktor to sink both freethrows and the game was over after a desparation three by Nava with no time left.

Congrats to Scrap Heap! Wishing you luck in Div II.4!