Sherwood 61, Accordion 38
Despite having five players score at least six points, Accordion fell to Sherwood 61-38.

Sherwood took an early lead and led at halftime by somewhere between 7-10 points.

“I thought we played a strong first half,” said Sherwood’s Jeff Sohn. “We took an early lead and led at halftime by somewhere between 7-10 points.”

Sherwood then ran away with the game in the second half, thanks to the scoring of rookie Joseph Schnitzer, who finished with a game-high 28 points.

Before the game, Rak Reshet published an investigative report that found players had been sending money to Sherwood captain Sam Marlowe weekly in efforts to get Marlowe to cure their upset stomachs. Reached for comment after the game, Marlowe explained the money had been for the Thursday night “runs,” which this reporter has now learned refers to pickup basketball games and not bouts of diarrhea.

Accordion, meanwhile, was led by rookie Uri Pearl, who finished with a team-high nine points, and captain Tomer Langer, who scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots.

With the win, Sherwood improves to 4-2, tied for second place, while Accordion falls to 0-6 and is in danger of having to play a play-in game.

LDJ 70, DRG Talent 61
Harlan Reiss got off to a scorching hot start for LDJ as they built a first half lead of approximately 20 points, including the vast majority of his 26 points for the evening. Every time down the court in the first half, Reiss was seemingly able to pull up for a good look from 3, and hit 8 shots in total from behind the line. Beyond Reiss, the brothers Moskow combined for 20 points and 10 rebounds, staking their claim as the best brother duo in RBA. 

For DRG, with a shorthanded squad featuring multiple players from other RBA teams, it was a tale of two halves as they came alive in the 2nd half to make it a competitive game. Noah Dunn scored over half of the team’s points by himself with 36 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 4 assists to get his team back in the game, and is now one of 5 players in the league averaging over 20ppg. David Shephard continued his strong play for DRG adding 16 points of his own. 

Asked for the key to his team’s victory, captain Yaniv Lusana didn’t seem to hear the question and kept walking right by me, not even pausing to say hi. 

3G Capital Investments, LLC 81, Elite Pets 51
3G’s league-leading offense powered the Investment focused squad to their 5th straight win as they ran by Elite Pets with a balanced scoring attack.

Josh Wohl, Jacob “Most Improved” GA and Dave Roberts scored a combined 62 points to lead the 3G attack. GA added 14 rebounds and 3 assists to go along with his 20 points, and he is now the only player in the league in the top 10 for both scoring and rebounding. Roberts added 4 3s made in addition to 9 rebounds to help pace the balanced effort for 3G.

For Elite Pets, they were led offensively by Jared Scheff’s 22 points, including 3 from downtown. Scheff was hounded by Leo Weiner and Jeremy Gross all night long (or for the duration of the game at least) and often another help defender or two. Jake Hirsch added 9 points and 6 assists, the most in any RBA game this week, for EP in the loss.

Looking ahead to next week Elite Pets has a pivotal 8PM primetime showdown against Sherwood Lumber, with a chance to climb into the top 4 with a win, or potentially drop into the dreaded bottom 4 with a loss.

TurfTalentNFT.com 60, Verstolo 44
One week after picking up its first win of the season, TurfTalentNFT picked up its second win, defeating Verstolo 60-44.

“We’re going streaking!” said a TurfTalentNFT player who wished to remain anonymous.

The game went back and forth throughout the evening, but eventually, TTNFT pulled away thanks to a big second half from Jonathan Granowitz, who notched a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. A big three from Mitchell Silverman with about five minutes remaining was the ultimate dagger.

TTNFT guard Scott Scheff hit five threes, which somehow was neither a league-high nor a game-high, thanks to the eight threes from LDJ’s Harlan Reiss and the six threes from Verstolo rookie Emmett Stein.

Stein finished with 20 points and seven rebounds, but it was not enough to eke out the win.

TTNFT improves to 2-4 and will look to continue their win streak as they play DRG Talent this week. Verstolo falls to 3-3 and plays Brandgenuity.

Brandgenuity 55, Glasenglitter 51
Brandgenuity, playing without commissioner Eli Grossman, defeated Glasenglitter 55-51 to remain tied for first place.

Brandgenuity had a strong first half, taking an 11-point lead into the locker room thanks to the three-headed scoring attack of Jeremy Goodman (who finished with 17 points), Mark Abramovitz (15 points) and Willie Stern (13 points).

But Glasenglitter never gave up, and the team, led by captain Max Geller (22 points), Josh Rappaport (12 points, 3 favorable foul calls) and Ben Danitz (8 points), fought back in the second half to take a one-point lead with about four minutes left.

Goodman then remembered he had packed an extra big bag and put the team on his back, hitting a couple of clutch drives and free-throws to clinch the victory.

At one point, Brandgenuity captain Elan Kane was hit in the face with a basketball.

“I was wondering, why is that basketball getting bigger and bigger,” said Kane. “And then it hit me.”

With the win, Brandgenuity improves to 5-1 and will play Verstolo next. Glasenglitter falls to 2-4 and will play 3G Capital as they look to claw out of the dreaded bottom four spots.