Cantaloupe Suffer First Loss of Fall Season

Well, to be honest…. we could see this one coming. With Lou, Pondo, and Trevor all being ruled out prior to the game, the Fighting Cantaloupe came into this game noticeably shorthanded, and it was evident early on. The team started off sloppy giving up the lead in the opening minutes and Win or Booze never really looked back after that as they took down the Cantaloupe in this one 55-47. While the Cantaloupe did manage to pull back within 5 a few times, their failure to convert easy looks all night proved to be their downfall. The team shot a combined 19/62 from the field with 10 of those makes coming solely from Nick Welsh who was on absolute fire in the second half, single handedly trying to will the team to a fourth straight victory.

While his efforts ultimately fell short, Nick had it going down the stretch as he finished with a season high 25 points, while hauling in 6 boards and adding a couple of steals and an assist to go with it. There wasn’t much offense other than that with the next highest scorers being Ryan and Tim who both finished with 6 apiece. With the teams starting point guard out, there were big concerns about how the offense would flow, and while the shots weren’t falling, a couple of unlikely faces did step up to facilitate open looks for their guys. Kevin, who typically operates down in the paint, led the team with 5 dimes, followed closely by Torney with 3. Torney, though only going 1/6 from the field was huge for the Cantaloupe down low filling in as the anchor during Pondo’s absence, bringing down 10 boards and coming up with yet another block.

Hopefully the team can turn it around and break out of their shooting funk tonight as they’re set to take on Scraping Ants in another tough matchup to start the second half of the season. The Ants (3-1), are coming in off back-to-back 60+ point performances against Win or Booze and The Brick Layers so the Cantaloupe will look to have their hands full in this one. With a few players still listed as questionable for the primetime matchup Coach O’Neill will need to tighten the screws if they want to keep pace with the high-powered Ant offense. The Fruit Basket has already sold out as second half kicks off tonight with tip-off set for 8:30 pm.

Written by: Jonathan Abbott

October 25th, 2021