Winning Fixes Everything.....Right?

After the brouhaha on the bench last week, the Cantaloupe were seemingly left in disarray as they suffered their second straight loss of the season. Heading into a potential trap game against the 0-5 Big Baller Club, many fans had questions going into this week about the teams chemistry along with their ability to bounce back. The Cantaloupes response? A casual 87 point performance in a game that was never particularly close. One week removed from a game 5 loss that only saw four players record a basket, Coach O’Neill took full advantage of his matchups this week making sure every player showed up in the point column as the Cantaloupe routed the evidently not so Big Ballers 87-49 setting a new single game franchise record for points scored.

Ryan Welsh was raining in 3’s all night, finishing with a team high 28 points on 6/8 shooting from behind the arc, but the big story on offense was Chris Butler who finished with a season high 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Butler who only had 10 points in his previous five games was on fire Wednesday night only missing on one of his shot attempts finishing 7/8 from the floor and 2/2 from three. Fans were also happy to see Tim get his rhythm back this week finishing with 12 points after failing to reach double in each of the last two. Lou and Kevin led the team in assists with 4 a piece while Torney dominated the boards, bringing down a team high 6 rebounds.

It was great to see the team firing on all cylinders but let’s be honest, the Big Ballers didn’t matchup, and Coach O’Neill was well aware of that in his post game presser when asked about the big win. “We did what we were supposed to do.” O’Neill stated plainly, adding that the team needs to keep the momentum rolling as these last few weeks are going to be big if they want to stay in the playoff picture.

The Cantaloupe (4-2) are currently tied for the #4 seed with The Brick Layers who close the season with a couple of tough matchups against two 5-1 teams in the Balboas and Win or Booze. The Cantaloupe will also take on the Balboas for their last game of the year but not before their Week 7 matchup with No Boundary who at 3-3 currently sit just one spot behind the Cantaloupe in the standings. Will last weeks win be enough to squash the locker room tensions we saw rise in week 5? Can the offense continue to stay aggressive and convert their open looks? It’s time to put up or shut up as the end of the regular season draws near with tonight’s highly anticipated matchup set for 7:30 pm.

Written by: Jonathan Abbott

November 8, 2021