Uptempo 50, Huarache 48

Just like a boxing event, the final game of the night between Uptempo and Huarache proved to be the main event. All forty minutes were filled with hard and passionate basketball. You would have thought it was the playoffs the way those two squads battled.

Round one definitely had to go to Uptempo. Behind Nick Blatchford's hot hand, Uptempo jumped off to a 10-0 start. Last week, it was all Scott Williams who was doing the damage. Even though he scored 34 a week ago, he struggled finding a rhythm and the team ended up relying on Blatchford and Danny Millian aka Kevin Love for points. Huarache was able to fight back into the game with the strong play of Terence Takyi and Billy Dobson.

In the second half, things started to get intense. Both teams were starting to go for rebounds and loose balls harder. Fouls were harder and the trash talking got louder. After Williams finally started to get going, Uptempo all of a sudden jumped to a 10 point lead midway through the second half. A frustrated Dobson got a technical foul after fouling Uptempo's Terrence Chin on a three-pointer. After Chin was awarded five free throws, the lead grew to 14. The ref's calls at times was questionable, and both teams were getting more and more frustrated with the refs as the game went on.

Just like last week, LeKeith Taylor was the spark plug for Huarache. Upset he wasn't getting calls, Taylor took it to the rack strong and got a layup plus the foul. That cut the lead to 40-31. From there, the team went on an amazing 10-0 run and the game became a seesaw match until the final play. Down by just two points, Eric Raymundo from Huarache was able to fire off a last second 18-footer that would have tied the game, but it rimmed out. Uptempo escaped an upset and won 50-48.

Williams led Uptempo with 18 points and 4 boards and Millian had a monster game himself with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Although he doesn't score a lot, Darius Broadwater for Huarache has been opening my eyes with his hustle and toughness. He is always there battling for boards and playing hard. He finished with 12 rebounds and 6 points.   

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