The Best Game That Almost Wasn't

The Fighting Cantaloupe etched out a dramatic week 6 win last week, and what a night it was. Start to finish, there was drama at every turn, and it all started pre game when the Cantaloupe showed up to a court that had only two opposing players on it. Not looking to take the easy forfeit, the Cantaloupe agreed for the short handed Here We Go Again to pick up a few players from the earlier games. When that still didn’t give them enough players, current Cantaloupe alternate Lou, who happened to be in the crowd decided to trade in his Carolina Blue for Graphite Gray.

Now we know what you’re thinking, a Cantaloupe member playing for the other team? He’s obviously going to try to lose on purpose, right? Wrong. With rivalry week right around the corner, Lou opted for the old ‘iron sharpens iron’ approach. Despite a general lack of defense from both teams, Lou tortured his fellow Cantaloupe members, racking up steal after steal and handing out a few tough buckets throughout the night. If that wasn’t enough, one of the only real members of Here We Go Again who historically would have been a non factor evidently decided to have the game of his life dominating down low. A performance so uncharacteristic one of the refs pointed out to Coach O’Neill that it was the most points he’d seen him score in the previous three seasons combined so shoutout Here We Go Again’s center I guess.

Back to the action though, with Jordan officially on IR and Chris in health and safety protocols, we got to see the Welsh Bro’s back in action for the second time this year. If you remember the last time the two were on the same court back in week 4, it was not too pretty. The Cantaloupe suffered a brutal 76-48 loss, and Nick went just 5/18 from the floor. Luckily, the poor performance seemed to light a fire in Nick and he was not going to squander another opportunity to help his team. The Welsh Bro’s absolutely carried the offense in the first half- well most of the game really, but especially in the first half that ended with the Cantaloupe holding a narrow one point lead heading into the break. The scoring continued in the second half but the lack of defense from the Cantaloupe and a couple of back to back steals from Lou saw Here We Go Again take a late lead up seven with about four minutes remaining. That's about the time Tim finally decided assert himself, converting his next several attempts after a fairly cold night of shooting up to that point. The gap now closed to just three, time was running out. With seconds left on the clock, the ball got kicked out to Nick a few feet behind the three point line and without hesitation the shot went up. As the shot soared through the air you could see players and fans alike holding their breath and as the seconds ticked down- 10, 9, 8, ‘swiisshhhh.’

The crowd erupted and the Cantaloupe began celebrating as they set up to defend the inbound pass. With the both benches screaming out instructions, Ryan Deal came up with a huge steal off the inbound but with all of the commotion one of the refs somehow charged the Cantaloupe with a timeout that simply was not called prior to the pass. So it all came down to this, with the game tied and just enough time for Here We Go Again to get one last shot off, it was time for the Cantaloupe defense to step up. With 4.6 seconds left on the clock, Here We Go Again managed a decent look, but the last second heave clanked off the rim sending the game to OT. Before Overtime started, Coach O’Neill emphasized the playoff implications that were at stake and that seemed to be all the motivation the team needed. The Welsh Brothers continued to shoot the lights out and Tim stayed aggressive down the stretch converting a couple more tough takes including a clutch AND1 that all but sealed the game as the Cantaloupe won this one by a score of 76-73.

Again, we know what you’re thinking “76 points, wow! Everyone must have been filling up the stat sheet.” But again, you’d be wrong. With the Welsh Bro’s combining for over 2/3 of the teams total shots, Tim was the only other player with more than one bucket. Converting his last five attempts, Tim finished with 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3 blocks. Tyler and Ryan Deal were the only other players to score each knocking down a three, though Deal did manage to set a franchise single game record with 7 assists. An impressive feat on its own, the bulk of the assists were thanks in large part to the shooting of Ryan and Nick. To go along with his late game saving three, Nick finished with 26 points, 2 assists and 5 rebounds, all but one of his shot attempts coming from beyond the arc. We managed to catch up with Nick postgame to get his thoughts on the big night and he explained that his poor performance in week 4 really left a bad taste in his mouth. He went on to talk about all of the extra hours he’s been putting in the gym to get his shot right and when the game started and he heard the crowd cheering them on everything just started flowing like poetry in motion. Meanwhile, Ryan continued his hot streak finishing with 31 points, 1 assist and 5 rebounds, going 12/17 from the floor. When we caught up with him postgame, the only real words he had were that he was feeling great so Jeff had better watch out next week. We asked Coach O’Neill after the game why he didn’t try to space out the ball on offense a little more, his response was simple:

“When the Welsh Bro’s are shooting that good, you keep feeding them.” Hard to argue with that logic, but will it be enough to propel the Cantaloupe as they close out the regular season with a couple of huge rivalry matchups? With their win this past week, The Fighting Cantaloupe head into week 7 ranked #7 as they sit just one win ahead of Jeff and the Sellers who are currently in a five way tie at 3-3 with Washed CYB Athletes, Pippen Ain’t Easy, Splash Family, and The Last Dance. The playoff race is past the heating up point and with just two regular season games left, it’s a full fledged nail biter. With every game from here on out having massive playoff implications, get your popcorn ready and tune in this Wednesday when Lou rejoins the Fighting Cantaloupe who will be looking to douse Jeff's playoff hopes as they take on the Sellers in a West Coast prime time matchup, tip-off set for 10pm est. Total Turf Court 1.

Written by: Jonathan Abbott

February 21st, 2022