4-0 vs 4-0

Ladies and gentlemen, the streets are talking, and no, not just about last night’s dramatic matchup between the conference’s last two unbeaten teams. Last week multiple Barndog players were spotted scouting at the Cantaloupe game, and we’ve now received word that contract offers for the Fall have been sent to more than a few active members of the Cantaloupe. Now typically we wouldn’t bat an eye at this sort of thing, the Cantaloupe have been stacked for years and it’s natural for others to want to see the end of a dynasty. Not to mention, with the recent success, team dynamic has never been a concern- that is, until last night when the Cantaloupe suffered their first loss of the season in a heartbreaking 68-66 loss against Team Coffee Us Up led by Jeff, a former Cantaloupe member in his own right.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, backtrack to Wednesday afternoon. In a shocking announcement that none of us saw coming, Pondo who was originally thought to be out for at least another couple of weeks was upgraded to active and named a starter for what many are already calling the game of the year. Yes, the Fighting Cantaloupe and Team Coffee Us Up came into this one as the clear-cut top two teams in the Mon/Weds. Conference each coming in with an undefeated 4-0 record, but somebody had to walk out with a loss. It was a back-and-forth game for the majority of the first half, Jeff letting his former teammates hear it as he got Coffee Us Up off to a hot start, and seemingly into the head of the Cantaloupe’s leading scorer Ryan, getting him into foul trouble early on. With one Welsh on the bench, the other stepped up as Nick led the team with 21 points including a huge 3 that gave us the lead heading into the second half. Lou also provided a massive spark for the offense off the bench as he pushed the pace and came up with some key buckets of his own, finishing with 17 points, 2 assists and 5 rebounds.

Oh, the rebounds. Yes, that was the story in this one, Kevin and Pondo led the team with 7 a piece then aside from Lou’s 5 we mentioned earlier, nobody else finished with more than 3 boards. The Cantaloupe started a little cold from the field in the second half and lost the lead in large part due to giving up second chance buckets on the other end. Down 8 with 5 minutes to go, Ryan officially fouled out and things were looking bleak until the Cantaloupe came roaring back. Lou and Ryan Deal getting some quick transition buckets along with Nick continuing to knock down jumpers pulled the Cantaloupe within 2 with about 10 seconds left. The ‘loupe decided to stick with the hot hand and get the ball to Welsh but with the defense collapsing heavily on him and a miscommunication on the pass, a Cantaloupe turnover would seal the game for Coffee Us Up.

The Fruit Basket was less than pleased to see the team lose their undefeated season in such disappointing fashion. We caught up with a few fans after the game to see what they felt went wrong, the common belief being a combination of a lack of boxing out along with some sloppy offense down the stretch, one fan nearly in tears putting it quite plainly: “I hate to say it, but they played harder than us.” Phrases like ‘soft in the paint’ were thrown around with reports of claims saying that a member of the coaching staff felt the Cantaloupe were historically ‘un-clutch’ in big games. But as every good journalist knows, there are two sides to every story, so I reached out to a few of the players to get their thoughts on all the recent talk surrounding the team after the loss.

The players knew what this game meant to the fans, saying this one has been circled in the calendar since the day the schedules were released. They felt it was obvious it was the two best teams going at it last night and while the loss was devastating, they see it as a learning opportunity. After an apparent meeting of the minds last night, the team aired out all their grievances with each other and while nobody is pointing fingers, they all want to hold each other accountable. When asked about recent rumors regarding Barndog recruitment and Coach O’Neill’s ability to keep his guys motivated they stood firmly united, one player saying that they don’t pay attention to the noise, their only focus is the team. With next weeks game being Monday, we asked if they felt the short rest would play a factor after such a grueling game to which one of the players stated “We’re hungry for the next game. I think we’re all happy that it’s a short week this time, we’ve got the itch to make sure the league knows we still mean business.” Coach O’Neill reiterated the sentiment saying “They outworked us tonight and we won’t let it happen again. On to the next one, it’s a long season.”

Is it a long season though? With only 3 games left, week 6 action is set for Monday August 2nd @ 8:30 pm with another tough matchup against team We Never Practice who will be coming in with a record of 3-2, averaging just under 62 points a game. The Cantaloupe will need to finish out strong if they want to have a chance at getting this win back against Coffee Us Up in the playoffs as they’ll likely be heading into the postseason as one of the top seeds in the conference now that they own the tiebreaker. Will all this talk serve as a wake-up call for the Cantaloupe or will next week be more of the same? Only time can tell, but the ball is in your court gentleman.

Written by: Jonathan Abbott

July 29th, 2021