Austin- A Big Week in Basketball (U)

We’ve had a week off here at Take Charge, and it was a pretty significant week for basketball of all levels. Let’s start at the bottom. First of all, the Alden Varsity Basketball team had 3 playoff games this week. Nick Kibler had his best game of the season, scoring 17 points (career high) and grabbing 9 boards (season high). Alden beats Dunkirk at home by 30ish points. The following night, The Bulldogs travel to City Honors High School in downtown Buffalo to face off against the Lafayette Violets and their Puerto Rican point guard Lester Diaz, who leads Western New York in scoring with 31 points a night. The Bulldogs came into the night sending all-WNY free safety Brian Stoldt on Diaz, and it’s safe to say that Stoldt got the job done. He held Diaz to 12 points, his lowest outing of the season, en route to the Bulldogs upset victory. Dylan Dussault recorded career high numbers scoring, with 35 points. He also had 2o rebounds on the night. The Bulldogs then traveled to Tonawanda on Friday night, for a grudge match against the Warriors. Tonawanda had a 2-0 lead in the season series. Just 8 days prior, these teams met in the same gym, and the Warriors won by 25 points. There weren’t many similarities this night though. The deafening silence in the locker room pre game hinted that the fans were in store for a different, sort of smash-mouth basketball team. The Bulldogs played lock down defense, holding the high scoring Warriors offense to just 6 points in the first quarter, and only 17 in the entire first half. However, the 17-10 half time lead was too much for the Dogs to overcome, and they ended up falling short of a hopeful trip to Buffalo State once again, continuing this streak to a 16 year mark.

Next we turn to the NCAA. It’s been quite the week here as well. We saw #1 Syracuse lose 2 games in a row following that insane buzzer beater win against Pitt. First, the Orange were upset by the Golden Eagles of Boston College. Then they faced the Blue Devils in Duke and lost on a controversial finish. With a minute remaining, CJ fair drove the base line, and scored through contact. The referee broke 2 unwritten rules in the situation. First, in basketball, especially in close games, the tie goes to the offense, and calls like that aren’t made in game decisions. Next, when legendary coach Jim Boeheim expressed his opinion (probably more than he should have) he received a double technical foul and was ejected from the game. In my opinion, this was a disrespectful decision. But it’s over with. Here’s how the standings look in terms of significant teams; 1 is Florida, 2 is Wichita St, 3 is Arizona, ‘Cuse drops to 4, North Carolina is 19, SMU is 23. UConn and Gonzaga dropped out of top 25. Syracuse plays Maryland tonight, a must win game, and then they play Virginia later on this week.

In the NBA, All Star weekend passed by. John Wall was the leading dunker in what’s considered the worst dunk contest ever. Marco Belineli won the 3 point contest.  Cough cough who cares cough cough. The NBA All Star game was rather boring until the 4^th quarter. Melo was hot from deep, and Kyrie Irving was named MVP. Drummond was named MVP for the rising stars challenge. In conclusion, I am almost absolutely convinced that the NBA All-star game has one solo purpose, and that’s for NBA players who are on the trading block get a chance to talk to their buddies and find a new home. The End.