Vancouver Metro Basketball League

Thursday, Feb 26

Canada One – Bullets, 101-76
3D – East Van Mutineers, 81-57
Swat – Run ‘n Gun, 82-81 (OT)
EA Sports – Celtics, 83-62
Sonic Boom – East Van Warriors, 74-60

Feb 26 Box Scores

Game of the Night

Swat 82 – Run ‘n Gun 81 (OT)
A close game throughout, but Swat pulled away in the 3rd quarter.  Some aggressive play by Run ‘n Gun’s Jordan Yu (24) earned him some trips to the charity stripe to take the lead over Swat.  The key to Swat’s success had to be their strong defense on Mark Tasic (who still netted 23 points), but they kept him scoreless in the extra minutes.  Swat had the size advantage with big play from Jeremy Alexander (25), Sherlan John (23), and Monjeff Peters (13). 

Canada One 101 – Bullets 76
Big scores again from Mr. Randy Nohr (40) – perhaps he is inspired by the play of his TBirds (who play tonight @ 7pm at War Memorial). Pasha Bains added 21 to continue Canada One’s unbeatened streak.  The Bullets were definitely missing Jamie Robinson, but Ben Lee continued to fire away with 24 points.  Ian Sheffield battled from the wing for 13.

3D 81 – East Van Mutineers 57
3D took the win over a tenacious Mutineers team, who hustled until the dying minutes.  3D looked a little disorganized for the first time this season, but with outstanding hustle from Cody Fox and the quick hands of Taylor Cherris-Wilding they found their rhythm.  The hot hands of this match was Mutineers Jay Glover (18), Graeme McCallum (18) and Jason Hubbs (16). 

EA Sports 83 – Celtics 62
Celtics’ struggled to gain all the offensive threats on EA Sports last night, with great outside shooting from EA’s Matt Mahar (23), Matt Ng (17) and inside hustle from Phil Sinnot (19).  Celtics Melvyn Mayott (24) continues to impress with smooth takes to the hoop and nice strokes from beyond the arc.  Allan Flores (Celtics) had his best game of the season with four 3’s, totalling 14 points on the night.  EA had this game in hand, but Celtics great team chemistry forced EA to continue to earn every point.

Sonic Boom 74 – East Van Warriors 60
A big contrast in team chemistry last night and the Warriors unselfish play almost caused the upset over Sonic Boom.  Despite their lead, Sonic Boom was frustrated by the hustle and team defense of the Warriors.  Huge long-range buckets from Cesare Martino (24) and stealthy post play by Srdjan Vujovic (21) kept the pressure on their opponents.  Igor Dutina was aggressive on offense with 38 points to secure the win for Sonic Boom.

After 6 weeks in Metro League,  there are two clear front runners and it’s a tight race for 3rd.  Canada One and 3D are both undefeated so far in the season with significant point spreads over their opponents.  Mark your calendars for March 12th, when these two powerhouses face off!  The race for 3rd is a battle between 5 teams – the next games will be crucial to solidfy their standings!

With just 4 games left in regular season, it’s time for teams to get their full rosters on the court and earn the top seeding for playoffs!

League Standings – Week 6

Thursday, Feb 19

Canada One – Celtics, 123-83
East Van Warriors – East Van Mutineers, 74-67
3D – Run ‘n Gun, 109-92
Bullets – Sonic Boom, 75-73
EA Sports – Swat, 78-63

Feb 19 Box Scores

Game of the Night: Bullets are down one point and Ben Lee nails a 3 to take the win over Sonic Boom.  75-73

Thursday, Feb 12

Canada One – East Van Mutineers, 105-55
Swat – Celtics, 75-59
Sonic Boom – EA Sports, 67-52
3D – Bullets, 71-55
Run ‘n Gun – East Van Warriors, 98-63

Box Score – Feb 12

Game of the Night – Sonic Boom over EA Sports.

EA was missing Matt Mahar and Mike Baxter and Sonic Boom was firing on all cylinders!  Big plays from Boom’s Stacey Barton and Igor Dutina.  Igor swatted away 2 big shots and Stacey also had a big rejection – they also connected on offense with Barton lobbing up a beautiful alley-oop to Dutina for a heavy dunk.  Working together for the play of the night, I’m tempted to give them co- players of the night, but Stacey Barton edges out Dutina due to his charitable contribution to the shoe drive!!  Thanks Stacey!

The Globe and Mail, January 16, 2009

Check out Vancouver Metro Basketball League mention here

Another great night at Metro League!!

The predicted Game of the Night lived up to the hype and it was a heated battle between 3D and EA Sports.  Run N Gun stepped up (with big buckets from Jordan Yu) to take the win over Bullets.  Sonic Boom and the Celtics hit the floor for another good match while Canada One and Swat easily rolled on to victory! 

Highlights:
Block of the Night – East Van Mutineers John Sirmul
Assists of the Night:
Corey Wee (Swat) alley-oop lay-in
Josh Booy (3D) touch pass give-n-go

Game of the Night

3D  75 - EA Sports 66

It was a battle of the big men last night and Josh Booy of 3D instantly set the tone with a massive block to start the game.  Blocks became a recurring theme on the night as Booy had a few rejections on the night, with Graeme McCallum (3D) and Matt Mahar (EA) both swatting shots away.  3D’s team work earned them a comfortable lead at half (33-22) with big scores from Graeme McCallum (21), Jason Hubbs (19) and Taylor Cherris-Wilding (15). 

EA refused to go gently so Mike Baxter and Matt Mahar took over the 3rd quarter – each earning 25 and 16, respectively.  Baxter stepped up his game again and nailed two consecutive 3’s to give EA the lead for the first time in the game.  With just over 5 minutes remaining,  tempers began to flare and the refs handed out a couple T’s to very unlikely candidates (Baxter and Hubbs).   Some tight calls sent the teams to the line,  forcing them to stay in the game one point at a time (3D hit 70% of their 26 free throws, EA hit 60% of 22).  3D pulled away with the tough win on the night with their characteristic unselfish offense and smothering defense despite the heroic efforts of EA’s Baxter and Mahar.

Canada One 117 – East Van Warriors 84

The Warriors all tried to battle the league giants with good scoring coming from Dennis De Vita (18), Gary Haywood (18), Andrew Millard (16), and Cesare Martino (15), but the League Champs controlled the game from start to finish.  Eric Butler (18) and Sean Maxwell (19) had great games, but the night was dominated by another big performance from Navi Sekhon who gathered up 39 points.  Howard Kelsey had a big night with 22 points to ensure the win.  Randy Nohr was notably absent (curious to know what he will do after his 61 point night last week), but I’m sure he’s busy preparing the UBC Tbirds bball team for their last home game of the regular season (Sat night 8pm). 

Sonic Boom 59 – Celtics 43

The game stars in this match-up were definitely Sonic Boom’s Paul Rother (20) and Igor Dutina (19).  Celtics kept in this game despite missing their big man Melvyn Mayott and late arrival of David Toljanich.  Toljanich (10) added 5 buckets along with Rannel Ramos’ 12 points.  Big defenders Dutina (2 blocks) and Connor Rockandel (8 points) forced the Celtics to shoot from long range, but they couldn’t convert enough 3’s to close the gap.  However, Pat Caffrey continued to find his way through the trees to nab buckets from inside for 8 points.

Run N Gun 95 – Bullets 77

Run N Gun’s new recruits have dramatically increased their scoring power – even against the experienced Bullets.  Ben Lee (22) and Jamie Robinson (25) produced big buckets, but the Bullets could keep pace with Run N Gun offense.  Jordan Yu (31) and Mark Tasic (28) both had big nights, forcing the Bullets to defend both inside and out.  Yu lit it up from 3-point range, tallying seven treys. 

Swat 78 – East Van Mutineers 40

Swat had a rocky start in the late game, but quickly regained their energy with sneaky Corey Wee at the point and a hard-slashing Monjeff Peters (17).  The biggest swat of the night honour goes to John Sirmul of the Mutineers who might be getting the call to play beach vball with that big swinging block.  Jay Glover was ignited by his cheering fans to score 16 points on the night, but Swat’s Sherlan John found the inspiration to score four 3’s and earn 23 points for his team.  Stefan Avall hit some key buckets to swing the momentum back to his team and a beautiful alley-oop from Corey Wee to Monjeff Peters was a definite crowd-pleaser.

Thursday, February 5

Canada One – East Van Warriors, 117-84
Sonic Boom – Celtics, 59-43
Run N Gun – Bullets, 95-77
3D – EA Sports, 75-66
Swat – Eat Van Mutineers, 78-40

Feb 5 Box Scores