MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The Goon Squad edged out the Ready Group 48-40 during intense intramural basketball action at IronWorks Gym here Monday.
While both teams came out fast and furious, the Ready Group just didn’t make adjustments as well as the Goon Squad.
Despite some sloppy play on both sides, once the Goon Squad shut down the Ready Group’s 3-point shooters and began penetrating the Ready Group’s zone defense late in the second quarter, the Goon Squad was able to run away with the win.
A few well-timed threes by Goon Squad’s small forward Nathan Daniels and aggressive net crashing by point guard Quincy Palou gave the Goon Squad a 6-point lead by the final minute.
In the first half, both teams were rushing up and down the court generating a lot of ball movement, effort and turnovers without putting much on the board.
Perhaps defense was tight on both sides, but neither team held back its three-point chucking.
The Ready Group earned 18 of its 24 first-half points from beyond the arc, while the Goon Squad garnered 12 points of it’s 24 from trips.
While the Ready Group took a quick initial lead, mainly due to performances from the arc by shooting guards Paul Torres and William Chatman, the Goon Squad evolved its defenses.
“We started weakening our defense, they started tightening theirs up and we let them box us out,” said Chatman of the Ready Group’s performance in the latter of the first half.
Going into the half, the Goon Squad had managed to tie things up at 24-24.
Again, both teams came out in a flurry and moved quickly.
Perhaps too quickly as the frequent turnovers, quick 3-pointers and generally spastic movements under the net on both teams didn’t yield many points.
Despite what seemed too fast a tempo, neither team attempted to slow the pace as they raced up and down the court, throwing up shots from the arc after a couple of passes.
To the Ready Group’s credit, they did seem to be making an effort to move the ball around the perimeter and get inside the paint, but the Goon Squad met them nearly every time, virtually locking down the area inside the arc.
Although Chatman had identified boxing-out as an area where the Goon Squad was hurting his teammates, the Ready Group’s players were less successful in the second half at pulling down boards.
As a result, Goon Squad players had multiple shot attempts and were able to capitalize with a number of inside buckets.
As well, the 3-point shots were not dropping for the Ready Group as they had been in the first half, and with the Goon Squad controlling the boards, the final 5 minutes swung in the Goon Squad’s favor.
“They were killing us with those three-pointers,” said Ricardo Torres, Goon Squad shooting guard. “I had my guy start guarding their shooter at half-court to stop that.”
The Ready Group was able to trade blows for awhile, but the Goon Squad began moving the ball more to slice through the Ready Group’s zone defense.
“Ball movement,” said Ricardo Torres. “You gotta get a man inside, especially with that two-three zone.”
Once the Goon Squad began penetrating, a few deuces from Palou and Ricardo Torres, coupled with two trips from Daniels and only a 2-point response from the Ready Group gave the Goon Squad a six-point lead with one minute remaining.
Two fouls later and the Good Squad pushed its lead to eight, establishing the final score, 48-40.