Hoops Hangover

Last night at the Y, the Curran brothers (via Stoneham, not Dublin) celebrated St. Patrick ’s Day early by powering Howse Corp past Origins Unknown 76-57. According to the quickscores site (link on right), Richie and Dennis Curran each netted 23 points in the win. But, this writer thinks Dennis was probably closer to 30. Of course, the only evidence I have is the running-in-my-head-constantly memories of his 10 lay-ups and 20 free throws (felt like it anyway).

A frustrating game all-around gave a new definition to “March Madness”… and left the OU bunch just-plain mad.

OU got off to a quick start, taking an early 10-point lead through some good ball movement and knocking down their open looks. Pete Martin knocked down a three-pointer, Shu Patel hit two short jump hooks in the lane and Stretch Hogan once again commanded the paint. The quick start seemed to deflate Howse for the first 8 minutes, but unfortunately, the lead was short-lived as Howse clawed back into the game through their balanced attack and solid defense. Contributing to the Howse comeback, OU missed a number of open lay-ups and short shots and ended up trailing by 2 at the half.

In the second half, we seemed to lose our legs a bit on defense, and fell into an eight point hole pretty quickly. The game felt close, but to be honest it was a bit of a blur, and the next thing I knew, we were down 15. We fought back, briefly, and cut the lead to eight again, but that is as close as we could get. Some costly turnovers and defensive miscues ultimately helped dismantle us, but the key to me seemed to be the hesitancy and lack of flow on offense. My guess? We simply lost our “game-legs” and ran out of gas. While we were able to contain most of the Howse gang, Dennis and Richie pounded it down low and played a great game overall.

OU is 2-2 in league play, while Howse is now 4-0. This was Howse’s first victory over OU in the past 4 meetings.

Two memorable quotes from the game… Dan Fisher reminded me that with Stretch at the foul line, we're down 10 or 12 in the second half and I walked up to him at the 1/2 court line and said "Fish, set me one and I will toss up a 3-Bomb." Honestly, I might have been delusional at this point in the game – I don’t even remember saying that… yikes. The second quote was when we got their lead down to eight with four minutes left. I remember yelling “Let’s go blue”, to which Richie Curran responded “It’s too late”… Ouch.

OU is back in action against AJM next week at 8:30. AJM is new to the league, and their record currently stands at 2-2. The league talent is at an all-time high, and games are closer than ever.