SABL Season 3 Week 6 Results

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Sunday, 07 December 2008

Jamaica High School Strong Island defeats Titans 10:30 game the Titans coming up against the undefeated Strong Island team were do intimidated that they were unable to muster the courage to face them. Perhaps the thought of facing Neil and company in the post for 40 minutes was a bit unnerving. SWAT defeats the Desert Eagles 65-64 The 12:00 game proved to be one for the ages as SWAT came back for the fourth consecutive game to beat their opponent. Desert Eagles big man Sean Corrigan exploded for 26 points 15 rebounds and 4 blocks, but it wasn't enough to beat SWAT as they pressed the Eagles in to submission. SWAT was able to avoid the middle and had some huge threes by Arif Manu Hussain and Sajid Mithaiwala that broke the Eagles zone that until that point was proving to be so effective. this game featured another monster game by Tarek HitMen defeat MKA-Ny The 1:30 game found the HitMen showing up with their usual short roster. They suited just 6 for this game. They took on a fully loaded MKA-NY team. The dynamic duo of the HitMen Maz Begawala and Triggy C lit up the MKA-NY backcourt in the first half. But MKA came out firing in the second half connecting on 4 consecutive 3's and going on a 14-0 run to climb back and take a 2 point lead. This game seesawed until the HitMen were able to get second opportunities and some big plays by captain Prince down low resulted in the HitMen win. Basketballers defeat the Panthers Lack of attendance and lack of bodies really cost the Panthers against the Basketballers this weekend. The Basketballers literally ran away with this game in the first half. The three guard line up that captain Naveed Ahmed is putting out week after week seems to be paying dividends as Jamaica High School was ooohing and ahhing as every made basket of the Basketballers seemed to come off of an assist from either Omair Siddiqui, or Sajeel Haque. The recipient for most of those passes was the speedy Suleman Tariq who followed up his career high 28 point showing against the Assassins with another solid game. The Panthers had only 6 suit up for this game and had their co captain Davinder Singh foul out with 17 minutes left. Luckily Jimmy Singh showed up with 8 minutes to play and sparked a last minute come back that had the Panthers climb within 3 points. The Ballers put it away with some free throws for the victory. HUMANS defeat the Assassins 68 - 38 Flushing HS- Humans v. Assassins. The night recap started off with two teams heading in opposite directions. Humans, winners of 3 in a row, against Assassins, who have lost 4 in a row and were blown out by the ‘Ballers last week. Assassins only dressed 6 guys and once again came with a very undersized lineup. Humans’ were missing Mahdi Macbahi but got their big man, Khurram Shahzad, back from a hand injury. David Aziz had a big game as he appeared to be playing volleyball under the rim with multiple second chance points and looked unstoppable in the post. With the ref’s calling a very tight game, Kashif Zeb drove to the basket at will and was fouled by one Human after another as Humans were in the penalty with 3 minutes left in the first half. Assassin’s tried making a run towards the end of the first half by cutting the lead down to 10. But Osama Ahmed of Human’s hit back to back 3’s to push the lead back to 16 and Human’s never looked back. Dynasty defeats the Ravens. The last game of the day was between two teams still trying to figure out what their future holds. Dynasty still has the experts scratching their heads as they’ve beaten good teams like HitMen and MKA-NY, but their 3 losses have come by an average of 23 points by the hands of Humans, ‘Ballers, and Panthers. Raven’s, on the other hand, are being called ‘the most athletically bad team in the league’ by many experts. How can a team with so many guys who ‘look like they can play’ just have 1 win? The best game was definitely not saved for the last as these two teams showed a display of poor execution that had the spectators pulling their hair and shaking their heads. Both teams missed easy layups, free throws, and committed more fouls and turnovers than field goals. The first half was more of a contest on which team can play less sloppy and commit less turnovers as the game was still tight at the half. Second half however was all Dynasty as captain Sonu Singh ran the offense through Angel Hernandez with Tim Crane was dominating the defensive end. Raven’s weren’t hitting their outside shots and a few blocks from Tim were enough for them to penetrate to the hole and kick it out to someone else who would rather get blocked. As bad as the Raven’s played, they were still within striking distance with 4 minutes left in the game. However, Dynasty slowly pulled away with tight defense and fast break points.

 

SABL Season 3 Week 6 Previews

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Saturday, 06 December 2008

SABL Season 3 Week 6 Previews Titans have announced that they have forefit this game as they do not have enough players for this game For those of you who can wake up early the early morning match up at 10:30 between Strong Island and the Titans should prove to be a classic. The Titans were undefeated until they ran in to a hot HitMen team. That and the traffic on Grand Central Parkway. The HitMen with the dominant guard play of Triggy X showed the achilles heel of the Titans. Up comes Strong Island a dominant team that has been plagued with injuries. Strong Island happens to have very strong guard play. What can't be discounted from the Titans perspective is the Titans going up against former Titan Raman Kohli. What will transpire on the court? One thing is for sure is that the Titans are going to be coming on time and in full force to take out the only undefeated team in the SABL. The winless Desert Eagles take on SWAT at the 12:00 mark. SWAT comes off an impressive gut checking win against the Ravens. Desert Eagles are the only winless team in the SABL. The only problem is that the Eagles have proven over and over again that they are a much better team. The lack of depth on this team is apparent as they fail to finish out games that they lead for the majority of the game. SWAT hasn't looked impresive this season, perhaps the mish mash of players have yet to gel, or perhaps the league has improved that much more from last year. MKA-NY takes on the HitMen at 1:30. MKA is coming off of a heart breaking loss against Dynasty. The same Dynasty team that ran the HitMen out of the gym. The HitMen are coming off of an impressive win against the Titans. This is going to be an intersting match up as MKA with their crisp passing and outstanding guard play are going to go up against the HitMen backcourt of Triggy X and Maz Begawala. Maz and Triggy looked excellent last week. The question remains how will the HitMen counteract the size of Anas inside? This game could become the suprise game of the week. The last game of the day at Jamaica High School will feature our favorite Basketballers the carriers of Baller Nation against the Panthers. The Panthers are coming off of a decisive loss against Strong Island. In that game Gurpreet cemented himself as one of the players to watch in the league this year. The Basketballers have been plagued week in and week out with an undermanned roster. That being the case the Basketballers have begun to turnaround their season and have gotten an impressive win against Dynasty and a blow out win against the Assassins. The Panthers seem to be one notch above those two teams in competition. So will the undermanned Ballers show up? Will they be at full strenght? Either way this is going to be a game with a lot of runs and a lot of physical play. In our night cap the Assassins are going to be taking on the HUMANS. The HUMANS are going to look to do what the Basketballers did to the Assassins last week. What will be interesting to see is what Assassin team shows up? Is this the team that took SWAT and the Titans to the wire or the team that got blown out by the Basketballers. The Assassins don't have the luxury of some of the other deeper teams. They need a full roster to be competitive. Unfortunately for them they are taking on the deepest team in the SABL the HUMANS. Muneeb and company are going to be looking to put the smack down on the Assassins this week. In the final game of the weekend the Ravens will be taking on Dynasty. Dynasty coming off of a huge win against MKA last week. The Ravens losing in the same fashion that Dynasty won last week in the last few seconds. Ravens are going to be driving in the ball on every possession. Dynasty will have Tim Crane standing in the paint looking to swat any and every Raven shot. This should be an interesting match up. If the Ravens are able to get Tim away from the basket or in foul trouble, they may be able to take this game. If they don't have an answer for Tim Crane and company this could be lights out for the Ravens.

 

SABL Season 3 - Week 5 Results

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Wednesday, 03 December 2008

10:30am HUMANS defeat Desert Eagles 63 - 40 The Desert Eagles the only winless team in the SABL came in with some momentum. They had taken their last few opponents to the brink, and every team came away saying how can this team have no wins this year? The HUMANS knowing this came out full throttle. Muneeb Ahmed led the HUMANS with 17 points and player of the game Kamran Syed had 12 points all on free throws. The Eagles were led by Walid Hariki who had a season high 16 points. The Eagles were undermanned to start this game and it cost them in terms of points. That hole was something that the team couldn't climb out of. 12:00pm game Dynasty defeats MKA-NY 64- 62 Dynasty took an early 11 point lead against the MKA group. Dynasty was being led by the blazing speed of Oliver and the shooting touch of Angel. MKA though didn't back down led by the interior presence of Anas and the hot shooting of Khurram and Farhan were able to claw back and actually take the lead at the half. In the second half Dynasty made another run but again MKA battled back and the lead changed back and forth. With a few seconds to go Dynasty was able to score a put back for the game winner. MKA called a time out and weren't able to get a last second shot off as Dynasty intercepted the long pass. Dynasty was led by Tim Crane who had 18 points and 13 rebounds, Sonu who had 14 points, Oliver with 12 points, and Angel with 18 points.. MKA was led by captain Khurram who had 17 points, Farhan with 12 points, Anas with 13 points and 7 rebounds, and finally Kashif Chaudhry with 12 points. 1:30pm game Basketballers defeat the Assassins 91-42 The only thing that can be said is that the Assassins were assassinated by the Basketballers. The Basketballers and Assassins were playing undermanned but the Baksetballers ran away with this game from start to finish. The Assassins looked lost by doing a lot of 1 on 3 and turning the ball over frequently. The back court of Sajeel Haque (20 points) and Omair Siddiqui (15 points) were driving at will. Nadeem Khan was manning the point with 12 points, 19 rebounds, and 7 assists, most of the football pass variety. Suleman Tariq led all scorers with 28 points in one of those most lop sided victories in the SABL this year. 3:00pm HitMen defeat the Titans 62-53 The Titans came late to the game and began with only 4 men. The HitMen went to work early and took advantage of this. Rookie Maz Begawala had 19 points and couldn't be stopped with his drives to the basket. His backcourt partner Triggy X torched the Titans for 31 points 6 rebounds and assists. Triggy put on a clinic for the SABL this past weekend. The Titans made a come back to cut the HitMen lead and even took a brief lead, but the HitMen made a 2nd half run that toppled the Titans. Lejoe had 17 points and Tommy had 10 points in the loss for the Titans. 7:00pm game SWAT defeats the Ravens 42-39 SWAT eked out a win against the Ravens. This game was defined by two teams who were committed to take every possession to the hole, get fouled and then miss their free throws. SWAT finished 12-22 from the line. Stanley Thomas making his season debut was the only player that SWAT had that finished in double figures. Stanley carried SWAT with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Stanley also chipped in with 4 blocks. Stanley was fouled with just a few seconds left and hit both free throws to ice this game for SWAT. 8:30pm game Strong Island defeats the Panthers 77-63 The Panthers came in short handed against a very strong Strong Island team. With the Titans loss earlier in the day Strong Island found themselves being the only undefeated team in the league. Strong Island came out guns a blazing vs the short handed Panthers. Strong Island was led by Richard Reyes who had a double double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Mark Pollard chipped in with 7 assists to go along with 10 points. Raman Kohli was named player of the game as he added 15 points and 6 rebounds. The Panthers were kept in this game by Gurpreet Multani who was 2 steals shy of a triple double. Gurpreet finished with 14 points 11 rebounds and 8 steals. Captain Davinder also had a double double for the Panthers who were missing some key players for this game. The undermanned Panthers hung in there with Strong Island and should be a force to be reckoned with as the season progresses.

 

Power Rankings (as of Week 5)

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Saturday, 29 November 2008

#1 Titans (4-0): The Titans dominated out of the gate last season as well, but them doing it again with a tough early schedule in a tougher league is even more impressive. They lost two all-stars in Stanley and Raman, but added the likes of T-Rex and Thomas Job to more than compensate in addition to adding more depth at nearly every other position. There's even early reports that Titans have Chuck Norris on their team now. Titans are once again the early favorites to win it all. #2 Strong Island (4-0): As the only other undefeated team in the SABL, Strong Island has been winning games with an incredible amount of hustle and balance. They've got 5 guys scoring in double digits, two of the best rookies, and all-stars Lamba and Shaun still recovering from injuries on the sidelines. Strong Island, representin'. #3 Humans (3-1): The Humans are one of the deepest teams in the SABL and they've been wearing opponents down on a weekly basis. Their only loss has come at the hands of the Titans, in a 2-point game that could have gone either way. Muneeb is once again showing why he's one of the best players in the league, with an ability to score from all areas of the court. There's no doubt that the Humans are contenders and that they are better than last season. #4 Panthers (3-1): The Panthers could easily be undefeated right now as well, if not for some late game heroics by Davis of SWAT and suspensions. Some have argued that the Panthers have had an easy schedule early on, but that doesn't account for the team's incredible size, depth and athleticism. Those factors will lead to W's even on nights when the shots aren't falling. #5 Basketballers (1-3): "No respect, no respect at all," is what the 'Ballers have been complaining about lately. They not only made it to the finals in '07, they actually won the darn thing in '08. What else do you want? Some wins would be nice. In the 'Ballers defense, attendance and a challenging early schedule has made things difficult. The 'Ballers still have one of the most athletic squads in the league and one of the most unselfish. With '07 MVP Abdullah added to the mix, the 'Ballers are contenders once again, plain and simple. #6 SWAT (2-2): With a whole new roster and a challenging early schedule, SWAT stumbled out of the gate with two early losses to Strong Island and MKA. The team's recent come from behind victory over the Panthers gives them the edge over the other 2-2 teams for now. With ROY candidate Tarek Yasin dominating both ends and the likes of Davis, Sijo, and Kunal adding support, SWAT has the talent to make some noise come playoff time. #7 MKA-NY (2-2): When the long range shots are falling, MKA-NY is tough to beat, but when those same shots are rimming out, this team has little else to fall back on consistently. The interior game has to improve for MKA to help open up the shooters more often, especially against the top teams. The season is still young and this team has the tools to get even better. #8 Hitmen (2-2): It's been a rollercoaster season so far for the Hitmen with a roster that has been changed more times than you can count. They've seemed to have found the right mix of late, however, with the Begawala brothers torching opposing teams' backcourts and some interior size to complement them. The '07 champs are a totally different team now and will have to find a way to leave their mark on the league with their newfound talent. #9 Assassins (1-3): The Assassins have been riding the coattails of guards Kashif and Tim Ahmed but without any real inside presence, they new they had to bulk up in a hurry. They added 2-3 big men which seems to have balanced the roster and given them a fighting chance most nights, but will it be enough to get them into the playoffs? The Assassins are the youngest team in the league so there's room to grow. #10 Ravens (1-3): The Ravens were supposed to be a fusion of some of the best parts of the Force and Spartans of last season, but the early reviews are disappointing. Chemistry issues and line-up problems seem to be holding this team back. Who is the go-to guy? Who is handling the point? The offense has struggled most nights and the defense hasn't been able to get consistent stops. It's not too late, but the window of opportunity could be closing fast. #11 Desert Eagles (0-4): They're the worst team in the league, right? Wrong. The Eagles have finally squared away their early roster woes and now have enough weapons to compete each and every week. They've taken the Hitmen and Strong Island to the brink these last two weeks and could soon be picking up W's once they learn how to close out games. The Eagles may scratch their way into the playoffs at the expense of the other bubble teams. #12 Dynasty (1-3): The season started with so much promise. The Dynasty, led by captain Sonu, practically added every promising free agent he could get his hands on and a game one rout of the Hitmen made things look as though this could be the first Dynasty team to make some noise in the SABL, but an 0-3 record since and off-the-court issues have worn off the early sheen this team had.

 

Top Ten

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Friday, 21 November 2008

The SABL has improved year after year. But this year we have gotten a huge influx of new players. Who are these new players? Well here is the first in a series of Top Ten. Here are your Top Ten new players that have joined the league. Tarek Yasin (SWAT)- 25 points per game plus his 16 rebounds per game. Farhan Ahmad (MKA-NY) - 23.3 points per game plus 3 assists and over 5 rebounds Thomas Job (Titans) - 23 points per game and almost 3 assists and almost 5 reboudns per game Lejoe Endanattu (Titans) - 18.7 points per game and almost 3 assists and 7 rebounds per game Tim Ahmed (Assassins) - 18.3 points per game to go along with over 3.3 threes made per game Khurram Bajwa (MKA-NY) - 18.0 points per game 6.3 assists and 9.3 rebounds per game Zeeshan Hazara (Desert Eagles) - 17.5 points per game along with 3 rebounds per game Richard Reyes (Strong Island) - 14 points per game and 14.3 rebounds per game Mahdi Macbahi (HUMANS) - 11.5 rebounds per game and along with 1.5 blocks per game Mark Pollard (Strong Island) - 12.7 points per game 7.7 rebounds per game 5.0 assists per game