Oh What A Night

Ladies and gentlemen, they finally did it. For the first time since his defection, the Fighting Cantaloupe have just taken down Jeff and the Sellers in a playoff matchup of epic proportion. The 50-46 win was the Cantaloupe’s first playoff victory in two seasons so naturally, they made us sweat it out until the closing seconds. Nevertheless, the Fighting Cantaloupe can once again say they’re moving on to the second round.

The game started a little slow, each side still struggling to find their rhythm after the first five minutes. With Jeff averaging over 20 ppg in his career against the Cantaloupe, Coach O’Neill finally got the hint and decided it was time to switch up the game plan. The Sellers offense clearly ran through Jeff, but the Cantaloupe implemented a box and one approach that worked wonders keeping him contained, and really just dared other players to step up which evidently was not in the Sellers game plan. Of course though, defense is just one part of the game, and if they wanted to win, the Cantaloupe knew they’d need to execute on offense…They did not.

Well at least not until later in the first half. Joey B came out of the gates hot, knocking down two early three’s but the Cantaloupe simply could not take care of the ball in the early going giving up turnover after turnover and oh my goodness don't get me started on the free throws (44% from the line as a team). With the offense struggling, O’Neill went to Ryan Deal off the bench who immediately came in and helped facilitate some easy looks and before we knew it, the offense looked to have found a rhythm. Now rolling on both ends, the Cantaloupe built what looked like a strong lead with just a few minutes left in the first half and the fans were loving it.

Any sense of comfort would be short lived though, after the Sellers knocked down a couple of back to back three’s causing a nervous hush to fall over the crowd as the Cantaloupe now found themselves ahead by just two heading into halftime. The second half started off with more of the same, streaky offense and plenty of back and forth. The lead changed hands several times as Jeff and Ryan gave fans the show they wanted, seemingly going shot for shot for a good portion of the half. Ryan led the Cantaloupe with 24 points and 5 rebounds, but the biggest standout was his defense. Welsh, not at all known for his defensive prowess came up with four steals in this one, three of which coming late and leading to some easy buckets. Joey B and Ryan Deal were the next leading scorers with 8 and 7 respectively.

Ball movement at a minimum for the Cantaloupe, they really had to grind for most of their points fighting tooth and nail in the paint to come up with some second chance opportunities. Shoutout to Tim, Torney, and Anthony who held it down all night coming down with some grown man rebounds. Tim and Torney had 4 a piece while big man Anthony led the team with 6. Disappointed by his last outing, team officials told us the younger Butler bro spent a lot of extra time in the weight room this past week with Aldrin, the teams strength and conditioning coach. Alday had been coming under fire as of late, garnering some blame for the teams general lack of ‘gains’ but it looks like he just might be ready to start serving his purpose to change that.

Back to the action though, this one really came down to the wire. The Cantaloupe holding a six point lead with less than ten to go, enter Jeff. He had never lost to the Cantaloupe and wasn’t looking to start tonight. A couple of dribble moves around his defender led into a picture perfect step back three followed by a heavily contested three from deep the following possession. Just like that the Cantaloupe lead was gone in the blink of an eye and another nervous hush fell over the crowd as O’Neill called a timeout. With the defensive focus now almost entirely on Jeff out of the timeout, the Cantaloupe were able to capitalize off of a few missed shots in the form of some crafty finishes at the rim by Ryan Deal and Ryan Welsh to put the Cantaloupe back up by three. Tim and Torney converted some late free throws and that was all she wrote for the Sellers. With tonight's win, the Cantaloupe turn right around tomorrow for a quarter final matchup with the two seeded Rated PG-13 (7-1). Second round action tips off @ 7pm on court 2 as the Cantaloupe's quest for another title continues.

Written by: Jonathan Abbott

March 8th, 2022