KANSAS CITY – As the weekend began to settle in place, so did the competition of the Nike EYBL (Elite Youth Basketball League), tallying several close one-possession games and even some game-winners.
Following an intense ending to the Team Durant (Maryland) 75-73 victory over the Indy Heat Gym Rats (Indiana), Team Thad (Memphis) and the Meanstreets took the floor of court two looking to keep the same intensity; if not, higher than the previous matchup.
Posted up to receive a pass from an inbound, Joshua Hubbard released a short jumper with confidence to set an early tone to put Team Thad on the board first.
Team Thad’s offense ran on fastbreaks and transition offense which started on the defensive end of the floor by flying around, harassing the ball, and heavily contesting shots to gain quick momentum before running the ball the other direction to finish at the rim.
Trailing early to Team Thad 10-3, the Meanstreets couldn’t find their comforts offensively, which caused them to reach into their bag of tricks and put their silent assassin to work.
From a missed Jaylan Lee layup, the Robert Taylor of the Meanstreets picked up the loose ball to push the other way full speed before stopping at the wing to use a Miles Rubin screen to knock down a stop-and-pop jumper at the top of the key with contact but no whistle to get going.
With active hands and quick feet on the defensive end of the floor, Taylor forced a missed Team Thad corner-three to fill in the lane while getting back on offense. Running to the corner with his hands ready, feet set, and prepared to shoot, Taylor scored his second consecutive shot to gain their first game lead, 11-10.
Spectators knew Taylor had the hot hand early in the contest after sinking a halfcourt bank shot as the first quarter ended. The shot did not count, however.
The intensity of the contest began to ramp up a notch in the second quarter as both teams swapped bucket-for-bucket, creating a high physical caliber of play.
Late in the second quarter, Team Thad’s defense began to show fatigue and would be punished by leaving Taylor wide open to spot up for a three-pointer to open a six-point Meanstreets lead at the half, 23-17.
Being talked to at the half by their sponsor and current Toronto Raptors power forward Thaddeus Young, Team Thad opened the second half shooting the ball with confidence to score five consecutive points.
The same five-points Team Thad scored needed to double to tie the game, but the Meanstreets prevented the knot from happening.
After an easy layup and the ball back in the Meanstreets possession, Taylor would be left on an island in the backcourt, demanding the ball. Christian Moore closed out hard on Taylor to take away the option of an easy three-pointer, leaving no choice but to work for the bucket.
Signaling for a Rubin for a screen, Taylor came off the screen tight for a snake dribble for an elbow jumper to maintain the five-point lead over Team Thad.
The final two minutes of gameplay worried Team Thad, hoping for a victory, but did not lay down so easy. Down by six, Moore would attack a gap to the rim for a left-handed floater, but the ball would rim out. Under the rim, Javar Daniel grabbed the offensive rebound for a putback layup before forcing a turnover for a layup on the other end, cutting the deficit to two points.
Moore’s difficult crossover stop-and-go contact layup tied things up at 49 with 45 seconds left.
Playing with an extreme sense of urgency, Dalen Davis penetrated downhill hard to his left to be rejected by Daniel. Rubin was at the right spot to grab the rebound for a putback layup to regain the lead for the Meanstreets, 51-49, with 28.6 seconds remaining.
The Meanstreets defense kept Team Thad out of the paint and unable to get a shot off until Hubbard called for a screen to open the lane for an easy layup, reknotting the contest at 51 with 5.6 seconds left, resulting in a quick Meanstreets timeout.
Davis wasted no time getting to the cup with the ball at halfcourt. Spinning off his defender, Davis drove hard down the middle of the court to embrace contact, finishing at the rim as the buzzer sounded to save the day for the Meanstreets, 53-51.
Taylor and Daniel each finished with 14 points for the Meanstreets, while Hubbard scored 23 points for Team Thad.
Commentaires