Commish's Playoff mini-recaps from 3/11 posted

3/11 @ Potrero Hill (SF)
(rest of 3/11 recaps here)

#1 Hyphy 76, #14 Lions 68 (boxscore)

• Not an eyewitness account here, but Jon McClain was a DNP for the Lions. On paper, it's amazing they lost by only 8 points.
  
  
• Lions kept it close throughout. Big-time step-up by Vince Morales who had 24 points. Maybe the absence of 6'3" Nate Dungca for Hyphy helped out.
  
  
• 16-and-12 by Hyphy's Conrad Mendoza and 30 points for Mike Payongayong, but the Lions actually led on the boards, 33-30, and had three guys with double-figures.

My notes: Unfortunately, both Jon and Eric were DNP's due to spring break plans. The outcome probably would have been much different had they been present...I don't necessarily think it's amazing that we "only" lost by 8. It's a testament to our improved chemistry and play. We really started to gel as a team towards the end of the season...props to the Commish for giving me a shoutout. I finished w/ 24 points on 71% FG (12-17), 8 boards, 3 assists and a steal. I personally don't think Nate Dungca being out made much of a difference. He's not much of a defensive post presence as he likes to operate from the high post...Hyphy PG Mike Payongayong (3-4 3pt, 12-18 overall) was lights-out throughout the game despite ballhawking D from Lic and was draining NBA-range 3's. I guess it was just his day...a bit of erroneous info on the recap - we actually had 4 players in double-figures, not 3 (Derrick, Rob, Lic and myself)...Derrick had a "typical" game by his standards: 12 points on 55% FG (6/11), 2 rebounds, 3 dimes and 2 steals. Scoring just comes naturally to him...Rob had a strong game w/ 15 points on 58% FG (7-12), 9 boards and 3 assists...while Lic didn't have his greatest shooting day w/ 13 points on 35% FG (6-17), he pulled down 9 boards (pretty remarkable considering he's our PG), dropped 4 dimes and had a steal.

Updated brackets up (as of 3/14)

As you can see, we play the Big Gamerz this Sunday. If we win that matchup, we're going up against Hyphy again 30 minutes later.

It sure is gonna be good to have Jon and Eric back again this weekend.

I'll have a playoff synopsis up on the Dream League AAA-P site by Friday. Watch out for it!

AAA-P Playoff update by the Commish

MARCH 6, 2007 -- Hyphy remained undefeated and the Lions stayed on their tear in the playoffs, setting up a much-anticipated battle between the "die hard" Lions led by strong forward Jon McClain and pointman Chris Liclican, and the runnin-n-gunnin Hyphy led by versatile tall guard Marco Escalambre and the hard-nosed ballhandler Andrew Matawaran.

In the Losers Bracket, San Miguel staged a 4th-quarter comeback against the Ole Dirty Bastards, then carried the momentum to a 28-10 lead against #2 SVU, only to see Jim Wang shoot the lights out and end the San Miguel dream. Got-Em beat Aball, which beat Grey Goose.

This means we have #2 SVU, #3 Got-Em, #4 SFFA, and the #10 Big Gamerz in the Losers Bracket. Even though the highest seed is supposed to play against the lowest seed in the Losers Bracket, SVU has already played the Big Gamerz in the playoffs, so to mitigate the irrelevancy of that first meeting, SVU will play against the next-lowest seed, SFFA, which leaves us with Got-Em vs Big Gamerz. The winners of these games will play against each other, from which on 3/18 the winner will play the loser of Hyphy vs Lions in the Last Losers Bracket game, from which the winner will then play the winner of Hyphy/Lions for the championship. If a repeat championship is needed, it will be played on 3/25.

Wow...I can't believe SVU came back from a 28-10 deficit to beat San Miguel. Since San Miguel was coming of a doubleheader, did fatigue kick in later in the game? Or did they just not respect the shooting skills of SVU? Man...I've said time and time again, SVU can straight-up shoot. That Jim Wang guy lit us up when we played them (and we were playing man on them!).

In other league news, Kurruption defeated SloJams in the Lower Bracket Championship capping a 3-game win streak in the Playoffs. I don't know much about them other than they're made up primarily of a bunch of young, Filipino players...but I've gotta hand it to them for knocking out the #1 and #2 seeds on their way to winning it all.