Quarter 1

The starting five for the Cubs was Mason Butler, Neil Owens, CJ Jones, Anthony Lucenti, and James Keefe. The Cubs turn the ball over straight away after winning the opening tip but use their solid defense and size advantage to keep their opponents from scoring. The Cubs are dominating the glass before CJ Jones breaks the deadlock with a minute and a half gone from the opening quarter. The Cubs lead by three for several minutes before finally conceding a bucket with five minutes left in the first quarter. The Cubs clearly have both the size and skill advantage, but the team’s energy seems to be lacking. The team is making silly errors and allowing Los Alamitos to hang around when they are truly a much better team. The Cubs finally get their offense going by getting a few good, clean looks inside, taking advantage of the major height advantage they enjoy. The Griffins have virtually zero inside presence as the Cubs’ constant cuts are earning them layup after layup. The Cubs go on an 13-2 run, highlighted by an and-one dunk from Keefe, put the Cubs up by 13 early. The team is slicing up the Griffin defense methodically and have stifled Los Alamitos offense with an early block party. Not even the Griffin transition to zone defense can stop the Cubs as Colby manages to earn himself free-throws and extend the lead. The Cubs finish out the quarter strong with yet another stop on the defensive end.

Score 18-7

Quarter 2

The Cubs open the quarter with a very different squad from the starting lineup. Coach Adams opts for Grant Roquemore, Jared Cox, John Belardi, Colby Brooks, and Neil Owens to start the second quarter. The Cubs utilize a full court man press and still manage to win the rebounding battle, even with the smaller lineup. The Cubs finally commit their first foul of the game with six minutes remaining in the half but make up for it by forcing the Griffins into consecutive turnovers. The smaller team finally begins to show some signs of struggling on the glass, but their trailer trap has proven lethal. The Cubs open the quarter on a 7-0 run with the squad before Coach Adams decides to move back to the starting lineup. The starting five gets right back in the groove immediately as a steal leads to a transition dunk for Keefe. With a mere three and half minutes left in the half, the Griffins finally break their scoring drought with a pair of free throws. The Griffins seem to catch fire as they quickly get their total to sixteen, but the Cubs are able to match them bucket for bucket. CJ gets a three followed by a block and allows the Cubs to just eat up Los Alamitos in transition. The Cubs get Anthony Lucenti a layup and another CJ three and, all of the sudden, the Cub lead swells to 23. The starting five isn’t able to utilize the trailer trap to the same efficiency as the bench unit but is pretty lockdown in the halfcourt. The last possession sees Mason rise for yet another transition triple. The Cubs finish the quarter outscoring the Griffins 24-10 in the second quarter and building an almost unassailable lead.

Score 42-17

The key to the Cubs success has been the transition game which has been humming all night long and is a major reason that the team has built such a large lead. The team has also found its stroke from behind the arc, with four threes coming in the second quarter alone. The team has also been lockdown on the defensive side of the ball, with a stellar 17 points allowed in the half. Keefe has been dominant in the first half with 14 points and ten boards at the half. CJ has also been a huge factor contributing 9 points and a block.

Quarter 3

The Cubs start the second half with the same squad that started the game and clearly utilize a trailer trap in the half court. The Cubs also use the trailer trap in the full court to force yet more turnovers from the weak Griffin press-break. The team’s offense has slowed down but they still manage to make their presence inside known with various second chance opportunities. The deadlock is finally broken with a Keefe and one. The score seems to open the floodgates as the Cubs steal the ball on consecutive possessions to finally get something going offensively. The Cubs are managing to produce quality opportunities but are almost over-rotating the ball as they keep passing up good looks and fail to score on some occasions. The team still manages to build on their lead before a timeout is called with four minutes left in the third. The lead is 27 when the Cubs re-enter the hardwood. The team has subbed back a few of the second team contributors but the loss of a big presence inside has allowed the Griffins to go on a 7-0 run that takes the lead to 22. The Cub offense has begun to stagnate but Jared makes sure the Cubs stay on pace with a drive into the lane to end the run. Coach Adams calls a timeout with two minutes left in the penultimate quarter and a 24 point advantage. Out of the timeout the team is John Belardi, Colby Brooks, Jake Perfitt, Jared Cox, and Grant Roquemore. The team is playing at a pace even quicker than that of the starters but looks a little bit erratic as they turn the ball over on consecutive possessions, failing to get into a half court set. The team seems to finally wake up after they give up a three, the first points they’ve allowed. Colby hits a baseline jumper as a quick response, but the team gives up another three at the horn. The team lost the quarter and has their lead cut to twenty.

Score 54-34

Quarter 4

The team for the fourth and final quarter is John Belardi, Jared Cox, Jake Perfitt, Remington Rofer, and Grant Roquemore. JB makes a sweet pass to set up Grant for the opening points of the quarter before the Griffins respond with a stepback jumper to make the lead twenty once more. The new five has gotten into a lot more half court sets. They score a pair before Uriel Ferguson and Paul Hawkins come in for JB and Grant with five minutes remaining in the game. After the Cubs give up a three, James Nugent comes in for Jared and Andre Parris comes in for Jake Perfitt. The Cubs commit foul after foul and put the other team into the bonus and the lead gets cut to fourteen with three minutes left. The final unit finally gets on the board with a transition layup from Uri; the team gives up another drive to the hoop right away, though, keeping the lead at fourteen. The last unit is able to produce turnovers, unfortunately, they are prone to some of their own and struggle to convert off half court sets. The team also has a proclivity to foul as they send the Griffins to double bonus. Remington Rofer gets four off a half court set before Christian Suceveanu subs in for the final minute of the game. The Cubs close the game with a putback layup from Andre that seals the eighteen point victory.

Score 66-48

The team really slowed down in the second half but managed to maintain the massive lead they had accrued early in the game. Solid victory for the Cubs who advance in the tournament.