By Kat McKay
It’s been ages since I’ve seen a basketball or written a
ranking. Thanks to Nemo and February break, House play has been suspended for a
while. This is late, but here are the official, YMCA-sanctioned end-of-season
standings:
1.
Hoosiers, 7-1
2.
Huskies, 7-1
3.
Blue Devils, 5-3
4.
Sun Devils, 5-3
5.
Tarheels, 4-4
6.
Bears, 3-5
7.
Cavaliers. 1-7
8.
Wildcats, 1-7
House playoffs run a double elimination scheme. The first
place team plays the eighth ranked, and then inwards from there, with teams who
lose entering the losers bracket (each game there is sudden death) and teams
who win remaining in the winners bracket. Last night, Monday, February 25, was
the first round. There were no upsets. (Except for me. I was upset. But more on
that later.)
Instead of doing a regular ranking, I’m going to do a game
analysis for each match. There were only four, and they all went as I would
have predicted.
Hoosiers v Wildcats:
The Hoosiers are the best team in this league. It isn’t even a question.
Congratulations for the millionth time to Kristy Gilbert and Riley Sousa, whose
team scores more than everyone else combined (almost.). Their performance,
while exceptional, was not really unorthodox. What’s more surprising is that the
Wildcats ended their season on such a poor note, and ranked beneath the
Cavaliers. I haven’t seen this team personally since week one back in December,
so I don’t remember much about what their playing style is like—all I have are
their results, which are somber. They scored a fair number of points against a
highly successful defense, so they could possibly do all right and survive
another round depending on whom they play and how much energy they can bring.
RESULT: Hoosiers W, 57-35
Huskies v Cavaliers:
First of all, can I just mention that my team did not come in last overall
(!!). Okay. This game was sort of slow, which was disappointing considering
what is at stake. The Huskies are very
tall—Emma Hamilton and ALexa Sheldon don’t let anyone else get rebounds,
because nobody else can reach the ball—and that works to their advantage. It
was a slow scoring night all around, but overall not too one-sided.
Result: Huskies W, 24-15
Blue Devils v Bears:
The Bears laid down this one. The Blue Devils are this year’s comeback team.
Their third place finish in the regular season is indicative of how much they
have improved since adding Caylee Waters to the roster. I still think they are
underdogs, though, compared to the winners of the previous two games, so it will
be fun to see how they fare against better teams than the tired-seeming Bears.
RESULT: Blue Devils W, 30-18
Sun Devils v
Tarheels: On paper, this is supposed to be the closest game of the league—
both middle-ranked teams with potential, the Sun Devils and Tarheels each had a
legitimate chance to keep themselves in the winners bracket. But because this
initial round of playoffs was very
typical, the Sun Devils came away with the win. It makes me nervous that the
Tarheels are in the losers bracket, because I think (for now) they can dominate
it. On the other hand, the Sun Devils will probably find serious competition in
the winners bracket. A lot is riding on that upcoming game for them—they can
show everyone they were meant to be in the top 3, which they just barely were
edged out of by their Blue relatives.
RESULT: Sun Devils
W, 23-13
That’s all for the
first round. The YMCA is speeding up the whole event, so the second round is
tonight (winners games I think) and tomorrow night (losers games, such as my
own). Until then DHS--!
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