July 21, 2018 | Liam Blutman, CBN
Well Big3 fans, we have reached the halfway mark of this our second season, and week 5 went down in Miami, Florida with much excitement. The fans were spoiled with some very good games, especially the final two of the night’s slate. Tri-State dominated Ghost Ballers 51-40, Killer 3’s pounded the Ball Hogs 50-38, Power topped Trilogy in a thriller while 3 Headed Monsters took down 3’s Company in one of the best games all season.
Tri-State moved to a 4-1 record with their win over Ghost Ballers. While it was a lopsided affair, Ricky Davis and his 22 points did manage to keep it closer than it looked. Credit to Ricky for always fighting and competing hard every game despite his teams misfortune as they fall to 0-5. For Tri-State it was the unlikely MVP candidate, David Hawkins who balled out yet again. This man dropped 25 points while he collected 10 rebounds and drained another 4-Pointer. Hawkins is on fire and has been a joy to watch this season. Fellow teammates, Amar’e Stoudemire and Nate Robinson scored 10 and 9 respectively.
With the Killer 3’s dub over Ball Hogs they move to 2-3 while the opposition fell to 1-4. This game featured a very interesting first half but a surprisingly uncompetitive second half. Killer 3’s came out the gate with a 9-0 lead yet trailed at the half 25-18. The Ball Hogs caught fire and played superb defense. Then we saw Stephen Jackson do Stephen Jackson things. Stak nailed 3 3’s on 22 points and also collected 8 rebounds. Also reaching double digits were Alan Anderson (12) and Metta World Peace (10). Andre Owens put up very solid numbers with14/5/3. Josh Childress was excellent as well, collecting 10 points, snagging 8 rebounds, and blocking 4 shots. These were two great performances by these Ball Hogs but unfortunately no win to show for it.
Tonight, Trilogy received their championship rings from last years undefeated season. They put up a fight and led for awhile but ultimately they fell to Power and dropped to 1-4 on the season. Power players, Corey Maggette and Glen Davis were incredibly motivated to win this game tonight after Trilogy received their rings with Corey tallying 13 points and adding 9 rebounds while Glen put up 10 points and 8 rebounds. With the W, Nancy Lieberman and her team moves to 4-1. As for Trilogy... the reigning champs are in some serious trouble. To make the playoffs they’ll likely need to win out to become 6-4 and will need some luck as pieces need to fall their way. Rashad McCants scored a cool 17 which featured 3 3’s. Big man, Al Harrington tallied a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
3 Headed Monsters just keep winning without Rashard Lewis. They beat 3’s Company (who was without Baron Davis) 50-47. I must speak upon Jamario Moon first. Moon made his Big3 debut this week and impressed us all with 24 points and 5 rebounds, including 4 3’s. But the way the night ended was the shot we all will talk about. Trailing by one, Jamario hit a four-point bank-shot to keep the undefeated season going. With all that said, Jamario Moon is my Big3 player of the week. I wasn’t only impressed by Moon but 3’s company really impressed me as well playing so well despite not having Baron Davis. Although hey fell to 3-2 after the loss Andre Emmett and DerMarr Johnson were awesome tonight. Andre had 18 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals while DerMarr added 13 points.
As always, the Young3 made some more noise tonight. Many tickets were given out to the youth and multiple kids got to shoot on the court at halftime of the first game. The autograph line was packed as Nate Robinson, Marcus Banks, Robert Hite, Jerome Williams, Erin Thorn, James “Hollywood” Robinson, and Desmon Farmer signed for fans as well as posing for pictures.
The Big3 made another strong impression with another fantastic week. Next week we go International as we head to Toronto, Canada for some more exciting 3 on 3 basketball.
Liam Blutman is a first-year student at Santa Monica College bringing a series of articles and editorials about collegiate athletics and young athletes in professional sports. A natural Bruins/Angels fan and solid sports gamer, look for more content coming soon and follow Liam on twitter. It's a pleasure to have him join our writing team.