Mailmen Shoot Well, Win Big

The Mailmen improved to 6-1 on the season after a 61-39 route of Darice.

Brandon Hunter returned to form, somewhat, scoring 21 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. He only hit on 5 of 16 shots, but filled it up from the line going 9 of 11.

"It was good for me to get back on track," Brandon said, "I still didn't shoot as well as I would have liked, but I got a lot of calls tonight going to the basket and took advantage there."

Pat Cripple had the best game of his season, scoring 16. But most of those points came off of steals at the top of the 2-3 zone. Crip, Mike Giardina, and Jason Hunter suffocated the Darice offense up top, tipping passing, creating double-teams and turnovers. This led to fast break points and easy lay ups, which exhausted the opposition in the second half. Giardina and Cripple had a 4 to 5 possession stretch where passes were tipped, balls were stolen, and lay ups ensued.

"We've been locking down defensively the past few weeks," Coach Jason Hunter (8 points) said afterward, "When we can't score, we defend. We are starting to create easy baskets, which helps us greatly. We have struggled the past few games percentage wise, but the free throws and lay ups...you just don't miss those."

The team shot 42% from the field, 38% from three. The Mailmen had a tremendous night at the line, 15 of 20, way above their season free throw percentage (55%).

The Mailmen have an off week next weekend for the Super Bowl. Play will resume for the team February 12th, when they go up against Jammin Japaleno's. They were 5-1 as of this writing. The team has some unfinished business with the Jalapeno's as they were the team that ultimately eliminated the Mailmen, who were the Reignmaker's then, from the playoffs last year.

Kempf says "4", only finds basket once
Andy Kempf wanted everyone to know he was going in big time this past game.

"I said I was going to score 4 tonight," Andy smiled, "but I didn't get the ball where I needed it...with opportunities...to score."

That's when Brandon Hunter yelled from across the locker room, "Yea, when he dribbles coast to coast, it's never an opportunity to score!"

Kempf laughed, "I'm not a ball handler."