Tensions Flair in Cantaloupe Season Opener

The Fighting Cantaloupe began their quest for dominance Wednesday night as they took on Certified Ballers in game one of the PlayMore Fall season. Tensions were high in this one as the jawing started early, when self-proclaimed 800-point scorer (yes, he actually pointed that out during the game) #0 on the Ballers made sure the Cantaloupe knew he thought they were too small after outhustling them for a couple of easy rebounds. The Cantaloupe came out a bit sloppy to start this one as they tend to do, but there’s nothing like a little smack talk to light a quick fire under your ass.

After a tight first half, Coach O’Neill told his team it was time to start taking all the jawing to heart and come out aggressive in the second half. Few players took this message as literal as Kevin who absolutely dominated the paint, spending most of the second half outmuscling the supposed former high school standout down low. The physicality of the Cantaloupe was clearly getting to the Ballers as their frustration boiled over after Lou ripped the ball from the opposing guard who then proceeded to shove Lou away leading to a technical. After the refs separated the two teams and sent a couple players to their respective benches, Lou, nails, knocked down both free throws to add to the Cantaloupe’s growing lead. The momentum didn’t last long though as a string of bad possessions and more sloppy play allowed Certified Ballers to make it a one possession game late. After some more back and forth, a few big threes and some late free throws propelled the Cantaloupe to their first win of the season, taking this one by a score of 56-41.

Tim closes it out with a pair of makes from the line

Despite coming off the bench, Lou was the team’s leading scorer going a perfect 3/3 from beyond the arc and finishing with 17 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds. Ryan Welsh also had a nice showing dropping 14 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. His 7 boards were the highest on the team followed closely by Kevin’s 6 to go with 8 points of his own. Nick struggled from the field a bit but was active on both ends finishing with 6 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds and a couple of steals. The big story though was the highly anticipated returns of a few longtime Cantaloupe in Trevor, Tim, and Torney. Trevor showed off that 3 point shot he’s been working on knocking down his only field goal attempt of the game from beyond the arc while grabbing 3 rebounds. Tim wasn’t overly aggressive in his first game back but he did have a cool 6 points including some late free throws to ice the game while adding in 2 assists and 2 rebounds. Torney unfortunately is still looking for that first bucket back but still managed to show up on the score sheet with 3 boards and a block. Pondo also made his return from injury last season with 4 hard fought boards and a big block while the Butler boys put up near identical stat lines, Anthony with 2 points and 3 boards, Chris with 0 points and 3 boards.

Even though it’s early, a nice win in a high intensity game should serve as a huge morale boost for this newly refurbished Cantaloupe squad. We caught up with Trevor postgame to see how he felt about his debut after taking a year off for health concerns and Markovich had this to say:

“Seeing my first shot of the season go in from 3 gives me confidence that I’ll be able to keep up with the high-level talent we’ll be facing this year in PlayMore’s C Division.” While Markovich won’t be playing next week, he says he’s already got the week 3 matchup against the cross-town rival Barndogs circled on his calendar. New Assistant Coach Aldrin Alday also had a press conference after the win, and when asked how it felt being back with his former team, he was all smiles saying that it was a great feeling to be back with the Cantaloupe. That he always knew deep down that even after his playing days were over his heart would always be with the Cantaloupe so when the call came to join the coaching staff there was no way he could turn it down. Being one of only a few to have won a ring with the franchise, Aldrin expressed that there’s nothing he wants more than to see this group of guys have that feeling of hoisting a trophy at the end of the year. In classic Alday fashion, he left us with this gem before departing the press conference:

“The road to Cantaloupe immortality is going to be challenging, but I believe this is our year. Cantaloupe then. Now. Forever.” The path to a championship continues next Wednesday @ 8 pm as the Fighting Cantaloupe take on Washed CYB Athletes who are also coming in fresh off a week one victory.

Written by: Jonathan Abbott

October 1st, 2021