By Mohammed Ramzanali

Week 1 of the Rec Ball Preseason Power Rankings were once again proven wrong . This was evident Monday night at Gibbons Middle School when fifth seeded Team Ruhl took on the ninth seeded Team Smith. Team Smith was completely slept on. Everyone underestimated their size and their depth, but one thing no one took into account was their chemistry and it showed among Cord Callahan, CJ Smith, Luke McGrath, Ryan Shufflebarger and Declan Gardner.

Almost all of Team Smith hit three pointers and they all had pretty good individual games with each of them recording at least five points and five rebounds. The thing that stood out the most was their passing and cutting. After one would pass, they would cut which made another man come to the ball which forced another man to cut and with all these moving parts someone was always open and they found him every time. Callahan scored 16 points and Smith added a solid 13 to take the game 45-37. They did have quite a few turnovers throughout the game which Team Ruhl took advantage of.

Team Ruhl is described as one of the best rebounding teams in the league.  This was definitely proved Monday as they grabbed multiple boards on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Sadly, they couldn’t convert on most of those rebounds. Matty Ruhl and Kevin Flahive both scored ten points with most of those points coming from fast breaks. Lobby-O’s very own reporter Mohammed Ramzanali also added a couple of scores including a three pointer. With most of their points coming through transition offense, they would often cut the lead to one or two points or they would take the lead, but Team Smith got into stretches that propelled them to victory. Both teams still have a lot to work on but the season has just begun.

The latter game of the doubleheader was a walk in the park to say the least. With Team Nagi leading at halftime 42-23 against Team Mac and Joe Fitzgerald scoring a cool 26 points, it was inevitable that they were going to win. When talk about Fitzgerald came up, all anyone knew was that he was tall and athletic but no one could’ve predicted what happened Monday night. He went off. It’s surprising to know that he went in the second round. Spencer Nagi scored nine points and underclassmen Eli Richman scored 12. Team Nagi was ranked tenth but after seeing a performance like that, they are easily a top five team.

Team Mac fought hard in the second half but it wasn’t enough with the final score being 66-45. Ben Horsfall had 15 points off the bench but that is really about it. “If this team does not shoot well they will not win. It is as simple as that,” said senior rec ball analyst Luke McGrath and he was correct. Team Mac didn’t have a great game from the outside as everyone intended them to. Also with their star point guard Jack Walthall getting a technical foul in the first quarter didn’t help their cause. He had to sit the rest of the game. Hopefully Team Mac can bounce back next week to get their season on the right track. As for Team Nagi, one can only pray for their opponents as putting up 66 points in a rec ball game is an impressive yet scary feat.