Hyperflight 51, Terminator 52

First off, congratulations are in order to Terminator’s GM Tony Chan. Last Thursday night, after Dan “The Man” Gladstone hooked up the whole League with tickets to the Knicks vs. Raptors game, Mr. Chan proposed to the future Mrs. Chan during halftime on the Jumbotron… and she said YES! When we went over to his section to congratulate him, he was already gone, clearly out on the town poppin’ bottles.

So probably still overwhelmed with the changes in his life, Chan was not on hand for tonight’s matchup with Hyperflight. And they definitely could have used him early. Coming out hot from the jump, Hyperflight – sans Niko Klansek and Lou Miguel – look determined to correct their misguided ship. Getting back to the basics, and what they were doing correctly when they started the season 3-0, they managed to build a 15 point lead in the first half.

Jeremy Siler was proving why Hyperflight spent their first round pick on his last season, as he was a monster on both ends of the floor, while Jay Corbin (despite taking a lot of shots) was hitting from all angles. Despite Terminator’s size advantage, their man-to-man defense just wasn’t working against the determined members of Hyperflight, as Derrin Woodhouse picked apart the defense knocking down jumper after jumper.

But then something happened: they switched to zone. At the start of the second half, not only did Terminator drop back into a 2-3, but they also were throwing double teams right at half court to make it hard for Hyperflight to get into any semblance of a rhythm. With careless turnovers which led to fast break points, Hyperflight’s lead evaporated and Terminator had the upper hand.

But Hyperflight fought back, cutting it to one – 52-51. They called timeout, drew up a play, and were able to get Jed Berger (who’s leading the NRF in charges taken with 1.0 per game) the rock right under the basket. While clearly he was hammered, the refs didn’t call it (which was a theme throughout the game), causing Hyperflight to have to foul and put Terminator on the line. After making both, they drew up another play to try and knock down the three to tie, but with under three seconds left, a broken in-bounds pass ended the game.

Final score: Terminator wins, 54-51.

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