Men's Division 1

SB Battle 75 – The Academy 66

SB Battle - Clay Crellin: 18 pts Joel Haywood: 15 pts

The Academy - Graeme Mccallum: 25 pts

In an executive decision, the schedule was moved around to create the most competitive matchups possible. SB Battle poses a problem for all opponents looking to matchup against them. They are loaded from top to bottom, and have recently redubbed from SB Battle to “South Beach”! In honor of the loaded Lebron James led Miami Heat teams, SB battle added Joey Haywood from Sonic Boom making their team even more “Avenger” like!

The Academy would only have 5 people to go up against the defending champs who were loaded from #1 to #11. Graeme McCallum and Bret Macdonald would try to fill the void left by a freak accident by Doug Plumb in the preseason scrimmage.

This game was very close up until 4-5 minutes left in the game. The Academy had a great showing despite having no subs. In the end, the depth of “South Beach” was too much, and SB won by 11.

Underwater Squad 126  – Coquitlam Boys 90

Underwater Squad - Tommy Nixon: 44 pts, Abubakar: 29 pts, Andrew: 24 pts

Coquitlam Boys - Accom Azimi: 27 pts , Clarence Choong: 18 pts

In a last minute switch in schedule, the Coquitlam Boys found themselves in the crosshairs of the Underwater Squad. Led by Tommy Nixon, Underwater would look to put this game away early. In the beginning, the Coquitlam Boys hung tough with Underwater Squad with a barrage of three pointers.

Underwater Squad would take over the game midway through the 2nd half, led by Tommy Nixon’s league high 44 points. A good showing for the Coquitlam Boys despite the score.

Stallions 75 – Sonic Boom 68

Stallions - Elliot Mason: 31 pts

Sonic Boom - Derrek Mooney: 32 pts ,Gabe Gibbs: 26 pts

The multi time champion Stallions team would face a newly updated roster including Derrek Looney and Gabe “G2” Gibbs! Derrek and Gabe put a lot of work in throughout this game. With Derrek putting pressure on the Stallions defense, and Gabe Gibbs taking it to the rack for an early Tomahawk dunk, the Stallions started off slow.

They would pick up the pace in the 2nd half led by Elliot Mason’s long range shooting. Sonic Boom would get lost on a few assignments which led to the Stallions scoring on those lost opportunities by Sonic Boom. The Stallions would move to 2-0 without Roger Shueng, and put themselves on a collision with the top spot in Div 1!

Blues 73 – Toonsquad 74

Blues - Niko Mottus: 16 pts , Whitman Mclallen: 11 pts

Toonsquad - Jadon Cohee 30 pts

This game came right down to the wire! Toonsquad led by Seattle University standout Jadon Cohee, had all they could handle, while the Blues looked like they were going to pull the upset win out. Toonsquad was resilient in handling the ball down the stretch and doing just enough to secure the win!

Vancouver All Native 100 – HillToppers 0

Men's Division 2

Western Union 74 – Soulgood 48

Western Union - Ryan: 19 pts

SoulGood - Adi Baybay 32 pts

This matchup would see two teams that feature long time Metro League players, but would see a shorthanded team versus a loaded team! Even with the game high 32 by SoulGood’s Adi Baybay, Western Union was nearly unbeatable on this day!

The early race for the top of the board is looking good for Western Union, and bad for Soulgood.

StepBrothers 40 – B.O.B. 98

B.O.B. - Andrew Morris: 31 pts

Stepbrothers - Williams: 13 pts

B.O.B. has established themselves as a team to be reckon with! B.O.B. would jump all over the StepBrothers team early and often! The only question in this game is if the B.O.B. defense would let up before the end of the game! Almost hitting 100 points in Div 2 is a good sign that the team in questions has a lot of firepower!

YMCMB 61 – Cloverdale Brodies 51

YMCMB - Jack Ho: 23 pts

Cloverdale Brodies - Paanus: 15 pts

YMCMB started slow like they have in the last few seasons. Losing a tough opening week game, they looked to bounce back vs the Cloverdale Brodies. One key ingredient to the success of the YMCMB attack is their leading scorer… Jack Ho! Well…. Jack was back for this game, and it made a big difference on the offensive end!

Even with the lack of height, YMCMB has always matched that deficiency with tenacious defense and stamina draining pressure! YMCMB would flex their experience in this game to get their first victory of the season. This will also keep them within striking distance of the leaders early on in the season!

Ball So Hard 63 – B2B 65

Ball So Hard - Gibran Sewani: 26 pts

B2B - Tony: 27 pts

This game was marked as a Game of the Week candidate! Both teams are packed full of talent, and both teams have a massive amount of experience in the Metro League. B2B has been a main stay in the Spring edition of Metro League almost from the beginning. Ball So Hard have established themselves as title contenders in recent seasons, and are always dangerous opponents for anyone they face.

This game was a game of runs. Each team took turns enforcing their will on the other. B2B continued to use their height to get inside buckets and second chance scores. Ball So Hard used their attacking style and kept B2B off balanced, which made for a great, competitive game. B2B was able to hold off BSH in the end, and escape with a 2 point victory!

The Party 61 – Core 64

Core - Tyus Batiste: 18 pts

The Party - Chris Loreth: 21 pts

As the seasons have carried on, one thing has been consistent in Metro League. That would be my constant badgering of the Core squad! Nearly in the vein of Chris Paul not being able to make it out of the 2nd round of the Western Conference semi finals, Core as loosely followed in those footsteps. Yet every season, I have hope that they will turn it around and be the juggernaut that they potentially could be!

Core’s tilt against The Party would be more of a battle than they anticipated! Just as Core thought they had The Party put away several times in this game, The Party would grind out possession after possession on their way to a mild upset bid. Core would use their experience and height to secure the win at the end by 3!

WH 72 – Emperors 59

WH - Brandon: 18 pts

Emperors - Frankie: 19 pts

WH has come into Metro League league stomping on their first two opponents, in a bid for respect and a threat to the Metro League title!  The Emperors would be led by long time Vet Frankie Liu, and the last I checked….Frankie doesn’t like to lose!

WH seemed undeterred by that notion, and went to work on the Emperors! This game was not as close as the score would indicate, as WH would score from all over the court!  Their team attack was too much for the Emperors, who looked to be attempting to get their chemistry together.

WH is putting themselves in the “contender” talk in their first two games in the league!

Sofa King Good 65 – Flight 38

Sofa King Good - Gurjit Pooni: 22 pts , Antonio Jhuty: 21 pts

Flight - Ali: 12 pts

Since their title game appearance a few years ago, Flight has struggled to stay healthy. With the lack of health comes the eventual sub .500 record.  Metro League is no place for injured “Gazelles”! With that said, Flight entered the game with not one, but two players injured! Sofa King Good could have cared less.

Sofa King Good went right to work on Flight, stifling them at every turn. Lowlight of the game: RJ Base jammed his thumb near the end of the first half. It wasn’t just jammed, but the thumb nail bent upwards and away from the skin! With the efforts of the Metro League/Oval staff and others, RJ went back in the game and hit a three! The effort was futile, as Sofa King Good had their way with Flight!

Even though, they threw up a few airballs, it was more than enough to ground Flight.