I was sitting in the lobby of the venue, helping one of my scorekeepers/players with some math, when I looked at the scoreboard on the Mountain Court and saw that Flashback was down to Sleeper Squad by five with 20 seconds left. That would have been an upset, but not a huge one. A few minutes later, I saw Aaron Anderson walking by with a smile on his face. I asked, "You won?!" He nodded. Apparently, it was a whirlwind of craziness--big shots, missed free throws, a weird offensive rebound and putback. And finally, an unlikely 63-62 victory.

There were several nailbiter wins on Sunday. Sneaker Squeakers beat Mi Familia, 62-60. Los Barberos got by Team Lace-Up, 67-63. White Men Can Jump beat Slime Time, 82-79 and Buzz Boys slipped past Pippen Ain't Easy, 56-52. Streets hit a late shot to send their game with Prestige Worldwide into overtime, then scored the first six points in OT to hang on for a 56-52 win.

In something of a shocker, Team UGLY knocked off the defending top-level champion team, The Vets. It was a game that included more shit-talking than a plumbers' convention, but it was played at a high level, hard but clean. There were several lead changes in the game, but UGLY hit a couple big threes, including one right before a shot-clock violation, to open it up late. 

But the performance of the day came in the Above Average - Below The Rim game. (Get it? Above vs. Below.) I don't know how old Below's Keith Decker is, but I'm certain that he remembers when Jimmy Carter was President. Decker hit nine monster, NBA-distance three-pointers to first put his team in the lead and then keep them there the rest of the game. Every time Above made a run, Decker would slam the door shut with a three. It was amazing!

Finally, I had it all planned out perfectly for us to have 30 semifinal games on Sunday, with the 15 championship games on May 5th. But, sticking with the theme of this season, it was not to be. The will be four semi-final games--Fleet/AZ Knights, Average Joes/Enter Team Name Here, Marana Monarchs/Black Mambas, Boys From Vail/Streets--on May 5th, with the winners of those games playing for their Division championships on May 19th. (We will not be operating on May 12th because it's Mother's Day.) All eight of those teams played this past Sunday, so it's bad, but not horrible. 

The Summer season is going to be much better. Thanks.