Shoot First Moran

The Championship

Championship time. No bigger moment. This is what we play for. Shoot First Moran and Wise Shots. The two favorites coming into the playoffs finally met up to compete for it all. The first thing we noticed was that Dainis Klavins was not at the game. A huge obstacle for Wise Shots to overcome with Klavins shooting being SUCH a huge part of their offensive strategy. Could they overcome missing Klavins?

Shoot First Moran came out firing with two missed threes, one each from Luke Alotbelli and Scott Moran. Jamil Ball was not to be outdone and missed a three of his own. Eek. SFM quickly righted the ship with a Moran drive to the hoop and an Altobelli three off a feed from Ball. 5-0 SFM. Drew Debari got on the board with a scoop drive. Another bucker from Debari and a bucket from Shawn Wise gave Wise Shots an early 6-5 lead. They pushed it out to 8-5 off a beautiful Tyrone Mullings feed to Wise. After another Altobelli three we were knotted up at 8-8. But, we were already about half way through the first half. Lots of shot were rimming out on both sides. There weren’t a ton of offensive rebounds. Just a lot of tough contested shots missing and rebounds being pushed the other way for a tough contested shot. At one point Mullings looked like he had an easy layup but he passed it out Ben Simmons style and Wise Shots missed the jumper. Debari yelled at Mullings to go up strong next time. So, Mullings did on his next possession, got fouled and made both free throws. After a Joe Epperson putback, Mullings scored on another tough drive. Clearly taking Debari’s message to heart. Mullings added a block to his stat sheet when Charles Bansoro tried to drive to the hoop. Making up for the near block he had earlier in the half on an Altobelli drive. For SFM, Moran couldn’t make a three so he took the initiative to drive to the hoop, tying the game up at 12. An Andrew Yuen feed to Wise countered by an Epperson drive knotted the game up at 14 with about 2 minutes left in the half. Back on defense, Altobelli had an aggresive steal that he took coast to coast for 2 and then hit a three the next time SFM had the ball. After a nifty euro step from Epperson it was 21-14. A nice little 9-0 run by SFM. They looked like they were going to have all the momentum but Debari drove the lane, drew the defense and kicked the ball out to an open Corey Fein who hit a three at the halftime buzzzer. 21-17 SFM at half. 

Both teams had a lot to talk about at halftime. Debari really couldn’t make a shot, some weren’t even close. Wise Shots would need Mullings to be more aggressive as he was their best chance to generate offense. For SFM what was up with their namesake Scott Moran? 0-6 in the first half shooting from three. 

We started the second half with Ball finding a cutting Joe Martin who was fouled and made one of two free throws. Then a funny exchange where Martin stole the ball but that ball was immediately stolen by Joe Maalouf for Wise Shots. Back to back Joe steals! Back to back to back if you count the 2020 election! (I kid, I kid, relax). The most important moment early in the second half was Debari picking up his third foul. With only six guys tonight Debari needed to be on the court. Moran, clearly aware his shot was off, attacked the basket again and scored to give SFM a 24-17 lead. Shawn Wise countered with a nifty little post move to cut the lead to 24-19. Joe Martin scored to push the lead out to 26-19 but then Wise Shots went on a 9-0 run of their own. Wise scored, which was followed by Andrew Yuen scoring which was followed by Maalouf hitting 3, followed by a Debari drive. Desperate to stop the bleeding, Moran made a hard move to the basket and went up for a layup, which he missed, but he landed awkwardly and immediately had to come out of the came. Moran wasn’t play particularly well but if he would be unable to return, that’s a HUGE blow for SFM. Charles Bansoro finally stopped the bleeding himself with a great feed to Epperson to tie us up at 28 with about 14 minutes left in the game. Wise got busy from the mid range with a smooth jumper to make in 30-28 and then Debari added a floater to make it 32-28. Timeout SFM. 

SFM wasn’t as sharp as they were in the first half and for some reason had gotten away from letting Altobelli go to work. Would be interesting to see how they came out of the timeout with Wise Shots having most of the momentum.

Altobelli took control coming out of the timeout with a nice feed to Chris Whitney for 2. But Maalouff hit his second three of the half to push the lead back to 5, 35-30. Epperson had a nice putback to make it 35-32. Then with about 9 minutes left, Debari picked up his fourth foul trying to take a charge. Yikes. Following the blocking call Altobeli had a nice little post move where he scored but a frustrated Debari came back with a two of his own. Altobelli was locked in now though. He hit a three on the next possession for SFM to tie things up at 37. Mullings had a drive where he scored and then a drive where he found Wise for an easy bucket. 41-37 Wise Shots. However, a Mason Gloudemans score and an Altobelli three flipped the lead to SFM for the first team since it was 26-23. Now up 42-41 the momentum was shifting to SFM’s side. Wise Shots had an inbounds under the basket they were scoring out and Jamil Ball was all over that inbounds pass stealing possession for SFM. Up one and trying to take control of the game with the ball, what should SFM do? How about another three from Altobelli? Sure, count it. 45-41. Debari missed two free throws and then Bansoro scored on a drive to the hoop, 47-41. Now there was just minutes left in the game. SFM was in complete control thanks to Altobelli’s scoring outburst.

Mullings wasn’t about to go down easily has he stole the ball and cut the lead to 47-43. After a Whitney jumper Mullings hit a three. 49-46. Unfortunately the next time SFM had the ball, Debari was called for a foul. The ref may have thought it was an intentional foul since there was less than 2 minutes left but based on Debari’s reaction you can tell it wasn’t. I forget who shot the free throws but they made one of two. Wise Shots were down four with the ball but Debari was on the bench. Mullings made a move towards the basket, drew the attention of the defense and kicked it out to an open Yuen who made the three. Wise Shots immediately called timeout only down one with 15 seconds left. The inbounds found Moran who was fouled. He missed the free throw. But on the other end Wise was called for a travel. Ball back to SFM. They gave it to their main playmaker for the evening, Altobelli. He was fouled and made both free throws with 5 seconds left.

Wise Shots still had a timeout in their pocket but elected not to use it. Mulling took the inbounds, raced up court and got off a pretty clean look that rimmed out. The buzzer sounded. Game over. Your champions are Shoot First Moran. 52-49.

Wise Shots has to be disappointed. They were the one seed heading into the playoffs, won an incredibly close contest last week against Hoopa Loompas and had some good momentum here in the second half. And that was without Klavins. An incredible season where they fell just short. 

For Shoot First Moran, they really were the most complete team all season. But the win tonight really goes to Altobelli. His shooting in the second half finally broke the game open for SFM. He’s your finals MVP and gave us a great performance to close the season with. Congrats to everyone on SFM. Jamil Ball, Scott Moran, Chris Whitney, Joe Epperson, Joe Martin, Charls Bansoro, Mason Gloudemans and Luke Altobelli. Every player on this team made at least one crucial contribution in a game this season that helped this team win. Everyone played their role perfectly and you can see why that’s important on a night like tonight when a guy like Scott Moran, who’s shooting was so vital in so many of their wins, just didn’t have it. But, because of the team around him, they still got the win and the 5v5 Draft Winter 2024 title. Hell of a season guys. You deserve it.

Hope to see everyone back in a couple weeks for the spring session. I’m still nursing a rib injury so I won’t be playing but I’ll be back on the books. So please, don’t make me learn a bunch of new guys’ names. Sign up!

If not, it’s been a pleasure watching everyone this season. Thanks for all the great feedback on the writeups. As someone who’s an accountant by day, getting a chance to do some writing and just hanging out watching hoops is a much needed reprieve. 

Lastly, GO SOX!

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