Javion's Week 2 Recap

The 2025 BBAL season is just two weeks in and already has developed some controversy, key takeaways, and worrisome fans on the outside, looking in. This week was not counted for attendance but surely looked like some of the most fans we’ve seen in recent years of a BBAL Sunday! What a week to witness and let’s now dive into all the action, in case you missed out!

CHERRIES AND TITANS

 I call this the ‘Fruit Ninja matchup with the Titans attempting to build a 2-0 record by slicing the ‘Cherries. Very physical game on both sides and emotion was definitely a factor. The Titans were without their very vocal, star PG, Makai-Ortiz-Gray. His presence immediately made an impact on our afternoon opener in Week 2. The CherryPickers just seemed like the more fluent team offensively and defensively, their “wall-up” strategy was disrupting the many interior buckets we’re used to seeing from the Titans. Despite the Titans' struggles early on, there were two bright spots that made this game come alive in the second half. Chase Yarberough's return to the ‘Sport Court unannounced started off quite stellar. He led this Titans squad with 35 points and 7 rebounds, while shooting 50%. And of course, Johnny Besecker accumulated 22 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. The ‘Pickers guys certainly didn’t stuff the stat sheet but, their late game clutch factor and smothering defense early on, propelled them to this win. Rookie Justin Baker had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, starting his career strong through 2 weeks. Chase Broderick was solid with 13 points. Overall, the Titans came up short from slashing the Cherries, losing, 65-68, thanks to an overall team win in the Cherries books with stifling first half defense.

Huskies vs 

Gremlins 

This was a better game than I expected, if I’m being honest. The Gremlins came out with some fight and hunger to win, while it took the Huskies some time to settle in before getting punched in their teeth in the first half. Ryan Saers. Through two weeks, I absolutely love this guy. He fits the dynamic of this league and is definitely not a bad piece for this Gremlins team to build off. He was a key piece to the amount of time the Gremlins possessed the lead. Ryan scored 20 points, with 6 of those being threes, Just one three shy of tying our 3 point leader of the week. Aleer Gonzalez with 3 threes and 13 points and two others above the 10 point mark. I said it on the broadcast, I would like to see more shot attempts from our #1 pick. One shot throughout the whole game just won’t cut it. The Huskies on the other hand, knew they had to wake the wolf pack up and Timmy Edwards did just that. His resume speaks for itself as he continues to climb the MVP ladder with 34 points this week, our newest season-high, while also shooting 74% from the field. Jordan Tyson had a solid 12 points with usual defensive intensity added with 3 steals, showing up for a quiet Eli Washington. Timmy’s dominance lifted the Wolf-Pack ahead of the Gremlins, 79-64.

Lanc Show vs Tropics

The Lanc Show were absolutely battered and bruised this week. No Engle Bros, no Luke Pierson, and no Nas McFadden. I mean this left the Lanc Show with no depth, an abundance of pressure on the ‘Energizer Bunny— Ajani Simmons. The Tropics, however, have looked like a developing dynasty so far. The mix of veteranship and young dominance is unmatched with the talent level in the BBAL. Through one draft and a few trades last year, this team has solidified themselves as a legit contender. This game started off even for the majority, until teams slowly figured out ways to combat opposing gameplans. At this rate, it was about, who was going to execute more effectively? Towards the second half is when things started to shift… Like last week for the Tropics, their size became an issue for the opposing team. The Tropics leading scoring, yet again, Ethan Benne with 21 pts and an impressive 58% from the field as a rookie. Brad Atkinson was not far behind him with 18 pts, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists, a near triple-double. Others like John-John and Elie contributed offensively as well. For this Lanc Show team, what else could they do? Ajani contributed with 20 pts, despite having to shoot 20 times. Jah Greaves pulled off a solid performance as well with 28 points and 8 rebounds, however this was not enough to climb this heavy tropical storm that the Tropics are forming as the Lanc Show lost, 67-95.

Bullies vs Dragons

Arguably, Game of the Night with this one with game of the year contention. This game is in the name. Dragons and Bullies, what more could you ask for? This game started very one-sided as I expected. The Dragons are a very experienced, battle tested team with brotherhood-like chemistry. And the Bullies are likely the most talented on paper, in terms of resume but, having your two MVP candidates not play in the BBAL since last year and mix and match with a few new guys they’ve acquired could take some weeks to adjust too. This game started off looking like a flood. The Dragons were pretty efficient to start the game, while the Bullies struggled to find the bottom of the net early, which felt destined for the Bullies throughout the game. Elijah Terry was key to his team's lead being 20 plus points at a point of this game. At these points, hope was lost for the Bullies until they started to chip away from the charity stripe and forcing turnovers that created points. This game with under a minute looked like the Bullies could completely steal this game, nodding it at 57. A clutch inbound score from Ricky Cruz gave the Dragons the lead, 59-57, with the game coming down to one last possession caused by a missed Ricky Cruz free throw. The Bullies then pushed the fastbreak up ahead to TopFloor who scored a lay-up 3 seconds after the buzzer. Initially, chaos had surfaced the ‘Sport Court' with the bucket being called good, which was overturned by review shortly after. Terry ended his night with 22 points with 4 threes. Alex Makrides, being the secondary scorer, had 15 points, shooting 58%. The Bullies were led by Topfloor with an underwhelming 14 point performance and Marquel Wansley with just 12 points. Players of their caliber you can guarantee them to turn it around soon but, nonetheless, the Dragons squeezed by the Bullies 59-57.

                        Prime Time: 8 Balls and WoodPeckers

          The return of the reigning MVP, Jason Kuntzelman has arrived. With the ‘Peckers looking to bounce back from their week 1 struggles. No Aiden Sands for the ‘Peckers or Devonne Pinkkard once again for the 8 Balls.  The 8 Balls cruised by with their first win of the season without Kuntzelman and Devonne Pinkkard. They looked to roll through the league through two weeks thus far. The Peckers needed their leaders Devin Atkinson and Elijah Eberly to take charge in willing them to victory in order to earn a one in the left column. Like the common theme of this week, this game started off fairly even on both sides. 8 Balls would go on a run, then the Peckers would go on a run. But, once Jason Kuntzelman heated up, he would not look back. It just felt as though every three he attempted in the second half would drop even if it didn’t. He was reading the floor full-court which is what we’re used to seeing from him and Julian Collazo, as well as helping his teammates get in a groove. This high level performance earned him close to a league-high 32 points, 8 rebounds, taking 17 three point shots. Julian Collazo scored 18 points with 2 steals, with the addition of Jeff Espinal behind him with 13. A very impactful player thus far for the 8 Balls. For the WoodPeckers, very commonly, Elijah and Devin were at the top of their box score combining for 31 points and 19 rebounds. But after them, the box score took a quality dip and their defensive efforts just weren’t enough for the volume of the 8 Balls scoring depth, resulting in an unsettling loss for the Peckers, 69-73.