Jerry Shanley Leads Elevate to a 2-0 Start to Season 13

Elevate picks up their second impressive win to start the season, while D-Block captain loses his mind and gets ejected from the league.

Buffalo, NY-  Season 13 is off to a blazing start.  The drama is almost uncontrollable.  Both League’s A and B appear to have a near perfect level of parity.  The old saying of ‘any given Sunday’ is definitely applicable in Champions League action this season.  Speaking of any given Sunday, Henny Given Sunday looked to build off their Week 1 win in a contest against Ray, who also stood at 1-0.  This one was a defensive battle reminiscent of the Heat versus Knicks games of the 90’s.  Henny Given Sunday carried a slim 19-17 lead into the half behind the strong play of Dion Bolden (12 points), but let it slip away in the second half as Ray Williams (15 points) and Mike Bennett (12 points) came through in the clutch to lead Ray to a 2-0 start to the season.

Coming off their big win against Monki Business on opening week, Elevate looked to continue to make a mark in their inaugural season in a matchup against 2 Live Krew.  This one was a lot closer than last week as they couldn’t possibly have matched their shooting percentage from Week 1, but they did pull out the 72-67 win behind the strong play of Jerry Shanley, who led all scorers with 16 points and Dave Lineman who chipped in another 15 points.

Monki Business looked to get back in the win column after taking a shellacking in Week 1 against Elevate.  Big-man Brian Conley, still riding high after leading Team Rodney to the championship in the Air Canada Centre Tourney, recaptured the magic that he brought to Canada, scoring 21 points while leading Monki Business to a 56-49 win over Edvin Ramulic and Ball Hard.

It was a very sad showing for the league in the 3:45 pm game as D-Block took on the defending champion Toon Squad.  Longtime league veteran and captain of D-Block absolutely lost his mind, was ejected from the game, harassed the opposing players and referees and refused to leave the building.  D-Block managed to win the game, but their captain earned a lifetime ban from all Knights of Columbus and Healthy Buffalo activities.  As all league participants know, there is zero tolerance for that kind of behavior.  It’s a privilege to play in our leagues and players are expected to maintain a certain level of class and good sportsmanship while playing in our leagues.  Violate that code and realize you will forever give up the opportunity to play in Buffalo’s top men’s leagues.  With the win D-Block moved to 1-1, while the defending champs fell to 0-2.

Family First got back in the win column against United Hoops.  Chris Fernandez had a good night shooting, leading United Hoops with 15 points, but it wasn’t enough to slow down Family First who looked sharp after falling to Norfolk N’ Chance in Week 1.  Kyle Cunningham led all scorers with 20 points, while Jeff Curry chipped in another 15 points to lead Family First to a 78-53 win.

Half Men Half Amazing could not continue their heroics from Week 1 as they fell to the Buffalo Braves 71-54.  Mitch Reese (19 points) and Jeremy Rowe (17 points) led the Braves to capture their first win of the season.

Triple Threats stayed hot in the second game of their title defense with a 82-66 win over We All We Got.  Aswad Jones (18 points) and Uchenna Gigi (18 points) put forth a strong effort in the game, but it was not enough to overcome the one-two punch of Jerome Matthews (22 points) and Raysean Johnson (29 points) as the Triple Threats picked up their second win in a row to start the season, 82-66.

It was an absolute one-man show for Team Fitness as Isaac Allen (38 points) put on a clinic.  He scored 67% of his team’s points in the 57-54 win, as Team Fitness picked up their first win of the season.  White Men Can’t Jump fell to Slime 65-55 in the 8:45 pm game as Keon Paris led Slime with 26 points.

In the 9:10 pm game League B uber-team the Gladiators looked to stay hot against Grind Time.  There was a nice post-game ceremony in tribute to Will Castro as he was awarded his lifetime achievement edition Healthy Buffalo jersey.  Castro is the Champions League’s number six all-time leading scorer and has played in virtually every Healthy Buffalo league over the years, including the TBGC 4-on-4 league,  APEX League, and NBCC A League.  The Gladiators stayed hot behind the strong play of John Bowen and David Keil who scored 20 points a piece in the 63-50 win.

The final game of the night was an absolute nail-biter as The Worst Team In The League surprised the Rodagues with a 54-53 win.  Mike Jones led The Worst Team In The League with 18 points as they jumped out to a 2-0 record to start the season.  If they continue this streak it will be unlikely they will catch many more teams off guard with their tricky moniker.

The action continues next Sunday at 1 pm!  Stay tuned to y2t.e80.myftpupload.com and our facebook page for breaking news, league coverage, and weekly pictures of the action!

(Editors note: Last week’s recap incorrectly stated that Edvin Ramulic was a 2-time scoring champ.  After a careful review by the Healthy Buffalo stats crew it was confirmed that Ramulic is actually a 3-time scoring champ).