Playoff Race Stays Tight Heading Into Final Week of Season

The Fighting Cantaloupe picked up a huge win Monday night, taking down the 6th seeded No Boundary 60-55. Despite being down two starters in Lou and Pondo, the Cantaloupe came out swinging in this one hitting shots and minimizing turnovers early. Tightly contested throughout, the Cantaloupe found themselves trailing at the half but a clutch three from Kev and a few successful trips to the line from Tim capped off a second half rally to get them the win.

There were plenty of storylines in this one, but none more concerning for Cantaloupe fans than a possible knee injury to G/F Nick Welsh. Welsh if you recall had carried the struggling Cantaloupe offense for much of October but following a modest performance last week, Welsh had another tough night on Monday. Finishing with just 4 points on 1/5 shooting from the field and 1/2 from the free throw line, Welsh tweaked his knee early on but given the team was already short handed managed to gut it out. Though team doctors don’t believe it’ll be enough to keep him out of next weeks regular season finale, it was clear that he struggled to find his rhythm after the injury and will be something to pay attention to in next weeks pregame warmups.

On to better news though, Tim followed up his 12 point performance last week with another big game finishing with a team high 17 points and 6 rebounds. His 6 boards were second only to Kevin who finished with 7 in addition to 10 points and 3 assists. Ryan Welsh was the last Cantaloupe to reach double digits dropping 16 along with a team leading 6 assists while Ryan Deal got it done on both ends leading the team with a pair of steals, throwing in a couple rebounds and 9 points on 4/5 shooting from the field as well. Anthony and Torney only combined for one point but held it down in the paint in Pondo’s absence combining for 7 boards. Last but certainly not least we have Chris who fans were hopeful would have a big night after his season high 16 points last week. Well, O’Neill went to him off the bench to try and spark some offense but after back to back turnovers Coach Sean had seen enough as Butler found himself right back on the bench. Chris never quite found his rhythm after that finishing with just 3 points on 1/4 shooting from the field but he did bring some tenacious defense while helping clean up the glass with 5 boards.

The win secured a fourth straight winning season for the Cantaloupe, but when we asked Coach Alday about the historic mark his only response was: “ON TO THE NEXT ONE!!!” (Yes, he did in fact yell this at us). Despite the big win, the playoff race remains tight. With the Brick Layers picking up a huge win over Balboa this week, the standings heading into the last game of the regular season are as follows:

Jeff and the Scraping Ants have locked in the 1 seed with a record of 6-1. The 2 seeded Win or Booze also sit at 6-1 but their loss came at the hands of yes, you guessed it, the Scraping Ants. After that is a 3-way tie between the Cantaloupe, The Brick Layers, and Balboa who all enter the final week of the season at 5-2. With two massive prime time matchups, you really couldn’t script this week much better. The Fighting Cantaloupe are set to square off with Balboa Wednesday at 8:30 pm but not before Win or Booze and The Brick Layers duke it out in Monday nights feature game. With a playoff birth on the line, the time is now gentleman. The Cantaloupe faithful will have the Fruit Basket rocking and the opportunity is yours for the taking. Will you step up to the plate?

Written by: Jonathan Abbott

November 11th, 2021