Just a week and a half earlier the Arizona Desert Storm walked off the court after and 82-76 road loss feeling like they let one get away. However, despite that feeling, even with hindsight, they couldn't quite put their finger on why they lost the game. The stat box indicates they won the game in just about every way but the final score.

With back to back home wins to get back on track before a monumentally important road game against the leagues only undefeated team, 10inch Vertical (5-0 coming in), Arizona knew the task of righting their road woes would be hard against this quality opponent.

Not only did the Vertically Challenged come in with the leagues best record, but they boast the toughest and deepest front court in the league. Arizona was a double a digit underdog coming in, and knew that even if they played exceptionally well, a win on 10inch's home court would be unexpected.

Arizona started strong matching 10inch basket for basket. After the two teams finished tied at 26 at the end of the first, Arizona took control of the the game, and all of a sudden, their confidence clearly picked up as they were the aggressors and setting the tone for the game. Midway through the 2nd quarter though, and holding a 6 point lead PG Danila went up for a layup, and was knocked down trying to score. His head hit the court, and he didn't return. The lead grew to 9 after Danila's exit, before inexplicably Arizona Coach Mahody put backup center Ruiz in at PG. Sharpshooting 10inch guard Sampaio made them pay for that hitting 2 3 pointers in the final 45 seconds of the first half including one at the buzzer to cut an 8 point lead to 2, and gave the home team the momentum going into the break.

At halftime, knowing Danila was gone, everone was pretty much writing Arizona off, expecting 10inch to dominate the 2nd half. However, Arizona came out hot in the 2nd half, quickly building a 12 point lead. Once again, Center Ruiz went back to the point, and 10inch made them pay scoring at will.

10inch made a final push near the end of the game cutting a 10 point lead alll the way down to 2, before Arizona sealed the game at the free throw, gaining an improbably 87-83 win, and drawing within a game of 1st place 10inch rather than falling an expected 3 games back.

This was a strange game to say the least. Much like the box score that Arizona stared at in disbelief 10 days earlier when they lost a game they knew they should have won; they now look at this box score knowing that somehow, despite all the odds, despite the fact they were dominated statistically, they pulled out a tough road win that they should have lost.

Arizona fans feel the pain the 10inch fans are experiencing right now, and the hope in Phoenix is that the team uses this unexpected victory to propel them to greater things as the season progresses!

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By: tough
To: Jason

254468.2 as reply to 254468.1
06/07/2012 02:00:57

nice job man, nice job

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