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Welcome to the newly refurbished STEAMROLLINGJUGGERNAUTS.COM! Complete with awesome T-rex icon!!! Born of hellfire and intestinal fortitude the Steamrolling Juggernauts were spawned at the George C. Taylor School of Law at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 1993 were reborn at the Hamilton Place YMCA in Chattanooga in 1998 and made their triumphant return to the Knoxville City Recreational League in 2001 and are still kickin' butt and chewin' bubblegum except they're all out of bubblegum in 2009! ROLL JUGGS!!!
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2008 Juggs l to r: Anthony Martin, Duane Adair, Josh Braden, Cap'n, Ed Bayer, Kristie Johnson, Assassin. Juggernauts 2009 Tournament Recap Game 1 v. Old School “Zo Knows Defeat!” or “Ant gets a frosty.” The last Juggernaut tournament win was in 2005 when Chris Cain was still on the team. The Juggs looked to reverse their fortunes at Milton Roberts gym on Asheville Highway (Home of the 2001-2002 Juggs) against powerhouse Old School. Old School featured former pro boxer Alonzo “Big Zo” Butler. Also on the roster were two on the Juggs’ favorite redneck homeboys from the R.O.C., Fat Bastard and High Socks. The R.O.C always gave players nicknames. That’s how the Assassin became the Assassin. The Cap’n was deemed “The Move.” Fat Bastard was always Dreiser’s favorite player to hate and was named by Dreiser in the heat of the moment, “Watch it you Fat Bastard!” High Socks is the only player I’m aware of to get thrown out of a game for punching his own player in the face. He actually left the court during play to punch a player on the bench. In true Juggernaut fashion, the team tried to self-destruct hours before the game began. The Assassin, Justin, Ant and the Cap’n were not going to miss the game. The Juggs almost had to draft Kristie to stand on the court for the opening tip. Always prepared, the Cap’n listed her in the scorer’s book every game. Jared has relocated to Indiana. Patrick was keepin’ it real managing the Weigel’s. T-Mank apparently had better things to do. Drieser was attending his mama’s 65th birthday party. Blake called and left a message on the Cap’n’s answering machine that he had an 8:00 intramural game and would be late to the 9:00 Jugg game. The Cap’n awoke from his pregame slumber and alertly called Shannon to find that Shannon and Barry were riding with Blake. Turns out Barry was a no show due to another intramural game. Shannon got a ride from a pledge to the Cap’n’s house and the Cap’n and Kristie drove Shannon to the game. Throughout the first half, the Juggs played with five. Justin was elated. The Juggs debuted a 3-2 zone on advice of Belk Kingdom III’s King Noah. Shannon played the top and Justin and the Cap’n played the middle. Zo and his buddies like to shoot the three. Ant won the tip against a much taller opponent who tipped the ball to the Assassin. The Juggs took early 11-2 and 13-4 leads. The Assassin and hit jumpers while Shannon slashed to the goal. Shannon may have had 12 of the first 15 points. Justin stole the ball and went the distance to score a layup with a posse of Juggs in tow. The Juggs added another steal and layup that Old School didn’t attempt to defend. The points dried up for the Juggs as Old School went on an 18-4 run to take a 22-17 lead. Tall, white #3 banked in some shots. Guard black guy hit jumpers. Zo hit a 3 and jumpers. Older thick black guy huffed down the court. The ball was taken at Justin early giving him 3 fouls by halftime. The Juggs changed to a 2-3 zone with the Cap’n in the middle. Ant picked up 3 fouls as well. The Juggs battled back and got a last second shot from Shannon to lead at halftime 23-22. As the second half was to begin, Blake appeared, donned his jersey and took the court. Old School took a 28-23 lead. Then, it was Blake’s turn. Knowing of the Move’s prowess in the paint, the Cap’n, drew the biggest defender, while Blake was left to abuse Fat Bastard and other smaller players for points including a beautiful Eric Carlsonesque reverse layup. The play was very physical from Old School’s tough defense, but Blake and the Cap’n were effective playing tip drills off the board until one of them scored. The Juggs took the lead under Shannon’s direction. Shannon stole the ball and instead of throwing the ball all the way down to the sneaky Assassin standing under the basket. Shannon escorted the ball all the way to the goal. The Assassin commented, “I guess he didn’t want the assist.” Old School stayed in the game with a barrage of three pointers. The Assassin, Shannon and Ant responded with three pointers of their own. The Juggs maintained a 5-6 point lead for most of the last 5 minutes with Old School coming as close as 2 points. The Cap’n, who missed too many shots in the paint, redeemed himself somewhat with some key late rebounds and icing both 1 and 1 freethrows for a 5 point lead. The Juggs’ freethrow average was greatly improved hitting 10 of 16 freethrows. With under a minute to go, Shannon hit the Assassin with the only assist that mattered. Old School had just capped a 3 to cut the Jugg lead to 2. The Assassin coolly answered with his own three to give the Juggs a 5 point lead. The Assassin and Blake added 4 freethrows to ice the win. The Juggs didn’t choke down the stretch and answered every Old School challenge. Zo fouled out (after 6 fouls) by plowing through Ant on a charge. Kudos to Ant for giving up his body and now probably fractured finger for the cause. Justin had an exceptional night on defense playing the whole first half and subbing for Ant in the second half. Justin also had a fine assist to the Cap’n. The Juggs had a fairly balanced scoring attack. In attendance were Kristie who videotaped the affair and Superfan Dan Korth who cheered the Juggs to their first tournament victory since 2005. Juggs won 53-47. Fat Bastard was pissed. Shannon was the victim of excessive trash talking that did no good in rattling him on his way to a game high 19 points. The Cap’n suffered a self-inflicted gash on his forehead. Ant coasted into the gym parking lot literally on fumes and needed a lift from the Cap’n to the gas station afterward. The Cap’n awarded Ant’s fine game with a chocolate frosty at Wendy’s. Although a veteran Jugg, this was Ant’s first city tournament victory. Come enjoy a Jugg double header on Thursday. Juggs play their quarterfinal of the winner’s bracket game on Thursday at 6:00 at Milton Roberts gym. Depending on the outcome, the Juggs will either follow up with an 8:00 or 9:00 game at the same location. Roll Juggs! H: 23-22 Juggs. F: 53-47 Juggs. Rec: 7-2. Tourney Rec: 1-0 STATS: Shannon Weiner – 19 pts, 3 ptr, 4/8 fts; Assassin – 9 pts, 3 ptr, 2/4 fts; Cap’n – 8 pts, 2/2 fts; Blake – 8 pts, 2/2 fts; Ant – 7 pts, 3 ptr; Justin – 2 pts. NOTES: Thanks to King Noah and Belk Kingdom III for the scouting reports. The King and his court won their first postseason game ever against A league dropout, Clownbabies. BK3 won at the buzzer 55-53. The King bested the Cap’n’s best by a point with 27 points on the night. Congrats to Thy Kingdom.
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Pictured above the 2008-2009 Juggernauts Squad, back row: The Cap'n, Blake Littleton, Tim Mank, The Assassin, Justin Martin, Jared Martin; front row: Shannon Wiener, "Backflip" Barry James, Anthony Martin, Patrick Veals. Game 4 v. Sun Trust Juggs defeat corrupt banking industry. Barry and T-Mank made their tournament debuts in the Juggernauts’ Elite Eight showdown with Sun Trust. Each of the 4 leagues had 2 representatives in the final eight. Each team was either the best or second best regular season team at their respective gyms except for Sun Trust who was the 6th best team at Cecil Webb. The Juggs were not about to lose to a bunch of young punks. The Juggs started the Cap’n, the Assassin, Ant, Justin and T-Mank with Barry coming off the bench. The Juggs employed the 2-3 zone. T-Mank won the opening tip over an opponent with 6 more inches of reach. The Cap’n corralled the tip and fired it to Ant who blew the banked layup off the unkind triple rims of Cumberland Estates. Justin drew first blood scoring a point from the freethrow line. The Juggs took an early lead on the strength of the Assassin’s perimeter shooting, Barry and T-Mank’s hustle, Ant’s drives and the Cap’n’s blue collar work in the lane. Sun Trust had a couple of big boys including a rangy 6 and a half footer who blocked shots in the lane. The Assassin didn’t care as big boy was not long enough to reach to the three point line. The Juggs rolled into halftime with an 11 point lead. The Juggs led by as many as 14 points and Sun Trust could come no closer than nine points as the Juggs finished the posers off with ease. The ice skating rink floor caused problems for both teams. The Cap’n managed to do the splits due to the icy floor during a breakaway layup attempt. The slick conditions also resulted in a Sun Truster getting a bloody nose. The Cap’n got tired of getting blocked, so, since few fouls were being called, the Cap’n banged the big man for separation and scored over the rangy giant. The Cap’n also got a chiropractic adjustment by a Sun Truster who tried to backwards vault himself over the Cap’n under the goal for a better shot and grabbed the Cap’n around the neck to support his whole body weight when he lost his balance. The Juggs were aggressive in taking the ball to the basket and were awarded with several three point plays. Barry had some beautiful assists while driving the lane. Shannon, foot infection free, was unavailable for the first game of the night due to class. Blake also had a three hour class which would keep him from playing the whole night. The Assassin’s family came to cheer. H: 26-15 Juggernauts F: 44-33 Juggernauts Rec: 9-3 Tourney Rec: 3-1 STATS: Assassin – 18 pts, 0/1 fts, (2) 3ptrs; Barry – 8 pts, 1/2 fts, 3 ptr; T-Mank – 6 pts, 0/1 ft; Cap’n – 6 pts; Ant – 5 pts, 1/1 ft; Justin – 1 pt, 1/2 fts. Game 5 v. Ferguson Enterprises (the rematch) Not Bubbalicious, but 5th Place Ain’t Bad. Sun Trust, Triple Players, Belk Kingdom III, High Speed, Winless, Golden Knights, K-Town Bombers, Team Health, Mayhem, Bye, Forza, Bombs Away, Mean Green, Clownbabies, Old School, LLC, Rebels, High Life, Hops, Wranglers, Coulter & Justus, MVP, Aqua, Dynasty, V, Oblivion, Knickerbockers, Holston Gases You have just read the list of the 28 teams that finished below the Juggs in the 2008-2009 City of Knoxville Recreational Basketball League. The Juggs tied for 5th with the Demon Deacons (who stomped the point guardless Juggs in the tourney, but technically advanced no further than the Juggs). The top four teams were KAT, Lights Out, Ferguson Enterprises and Arminda. In the Juggs final game of the season against Ferguson Enterprises, the much anticipated rematch of the co-winners of the Deane Hill League, T-Mank swatted the ball against the wall on the opening tip. The Juggs took the early 4-0 lead with the Cap’n banging in the first 4 points. Even with the addition of Shannon for this game the Juggs’ offense was stagnant for the first half. Ant made some good drives and the Cap’n hit a runner in the lane for a Jugg first half total of 12 points. Ferguson faired no better against the smothering 2-3 defense of the Juggs managing only 14 points by halftime. Ferguson went on a short scoring spurt after half before Shannon went monkey sh*t scoring all of his 17 points including 4 contested three pointers in a row and a windmill circus shot through 3 defenders in the lane. The Juggs took a 30-26 lead. The Juggs were not outplayed in most aspects of the game. The Juggs simply made several stupid costly mistakes in the last 8 minutes. The Juggs threw away several inbounds passes with only one man pressuring the ball and let good defensive rebounds get ripped from their hands. Some Juggs also got utterly confused when subbing. The Juggs 2-3 zone unintentionally became a 3-2, a 4-1 and a bumble f*ck and 1. When Justin and T-Mank rode the pine at the same time, certain guards couldn’t figure out which block they were defending or if they were playing high or low and left one side of the court wide open on three consecutive possessions. The Juggs needed the assistance of a second true post player to assist the Cap’n; but, alas, Dreiser had sickness spewing from every pore and Blake had a class. The Cap’n shut down the muscular big center, but Marshall, the 6’2, slender, long armed black guy punished the Juggs for a triple double with 19 points, umpteen rebounds and a gazillion steals off inbounds passes and out of Barry’s pocket. Marshall banged in about 10 points in the lane and got the rest from the freethrow line late. What really hurt us was Marshall stealing several inbounds passes with very little pressure actually put on the pass. Marshall also raped Barry on consecutive possessions to turn good rebounds into steals and nails in the Juggs’ coffin. The Juggs had a good foul and score a layup system going late to cut the lead to 8 on several possessions. The Juggs kept turning the ball over though and started fouling Marshall the best freethrow shooter. Shannon was also ripped on an intentional foul call. The Juggs never gave up. With 30 seconds to go, Ferguson pointed out that it was probably time to quit fouling. The Cap’n replied that the Juggs had fouls left and they’d already paid for the league. The Cap’n was making the season last as long as possible as he bellowed for the Juggs to keep fouling until the final buzzer. The Cap’n fouled out with 9 seconds to go to join Shannon who had 5 as well. The Cap’n’s family came to cheer and transported Shannon. Ant, Justin and the Cap’n retired to Applebee’s to end the season on a good note and a sampler platter. H: 14-12 Ferguson. F: 57-43 Ferguson. Rec: 9-4 (Best Knoxville Jugg Record Ever). Tourney Rec: 3-2. Tourney Finish: Tied for 5th out of 34 (Best Knoxville Jugg Finish Ever) STATS: Shannon Wiener – 17 pts, 1/2 fts, (4) 3 ptrs; Cap’n – 12 pts; Ant – 9 pts, 3 ptr; Assassin – 3 pts, 3 ptr; T-Mank – 2 pts; Barry – 0 pts, 0/2 fts; Justin – 0 pts.
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Juggernauts 2009 Tournament Game 2 v. Demon Deacons The Big Ass Beating. The Cap’n woke up early Thursday morning with a smile on his faced overtaken by a feeling of great joy. The Cap’n knew this was going to be a great day for Jugg ball. Win or lose, the Juggs were facing a double header. Even the revelation that outstanding point guard Shannon Wiener had fallen prey to an infected foot eaten up by gangrene, tree rot and syphilis could not dampen the Cap’n’s spirits for long. During warmups, the Assassin could hit nothing but net in the dark gymnasium of Milton Roberts. It was to be a great day. The Cap’n started out like a house of fire scoring 8 of the first 10 Jugg points. The Cap’n would go on to his best game of the season scoring on spins in the lane, running one handed jump shots, freethrows and short range jumpers. Apparently the rest of the Juggs didn’t get the great day memo and the horrendous, massive ass beating of the Juggs commenced. The Assassin shot 1 for 13 from the three point line. The Juggs can always count on the Assassin to score 4 three pointers. It was not to be. Ant’s shooting wasn’t much better. The Juggs got Blake involved too late with him scoring about half what he should have. The Juggs 2-3 defense was a sieve. The Demon Deacons had some really good three point shooters. Some shots were from well beyond NBA range. They only hit 7 threes, but it felt like 20. The whole team also excelled at the mid range jumper. When Blake stepped up to guard the tall muscular black guy or the Big Country clone they would simply dump the ball to a cutting guard for a layup on the block or a 5 foot jumper. The dump almost always occurred on the side away from the Cap’n leaving him unable to cover. The Juggs switched to man defense late which wasn’t anymore effective. Each player on the Deacons scored 10-12 points. With the Juggs limited 5 man roster, the Juggs stopped worrying about defense and tried to bring life to the offense in preparation for the next game. Blake made some good shots in the lane. Dreiser and the Cap’n battled for rebounds. Dreiser sank four of the most beautiful finger rolls without even getting called for a charge. Ant drove the lane. The Assassin kept sucking. The game was not pretty. The Juggs suffered the worst ass beating that they have suffered in years. The Assassin’s family was filled with shame. Shannon could only watch in numb horror as his foot slowly rotted away from leprosy. Blake escorted him back to the colony as he had suffered enough. H: 23-13 Deacons. F: 75-41 Deacons. Rec: 7-3. Tournament Rec: 1-1 STATS: Cap’n – 14 pts, 2/3 fts; Blake – 9 pts, 1/3 fts; Dreiser – 8 pts; Ant – 7 pts, 1/2 fts; Assassin – 3 pts, 3 ptr. Juggernauts 2009 Tournament Game 3 v. Belk Kingdom III Juggdom v. Kingdom: There May Be Only One.
Banished to the bracket of losers, the Juggs jousted with their old buddies from Belk Kingdom III. Belk consists of the incomparable Kung Fu master King Noah, sharpshooters Cory and Lord Carter, Vince and Furious Freddie. Justin arrived at the game with a lame excuse about having a meeting with Apple about legal stuff as his reason for skipping the early game. What’s more important, Justin, the Juggs or Apple? It’s not like anybody’s buying Macs anyway. Blake controlled the opening tip. The Assassin opened the game with a 3 pointer from the corner matching his game total against the Deacons. The Juggs eschewed their 2-3 zone that the King had been scoping out and went to a man defense for the game. Blake volunteered to cover the King, Ant took Cory, Dreiser took Carter, the Cap’n took Vince and the Assassin took the feral mongoose known as Freddie. The Juggs offense was greatly improved with Ant driving the lane and the Juggs kicking to the Assassin and Ant for three pointers. Blake, Dreiser, the Cap’n and Justin hit the boards hard and put up points. Carter humbled Dreiser on two awesome threes from the top of the key. The Juggs adjusted by switching defensive guru the Assassin to Carter with Dreiser and the Cap’n floating on defense to pressure the three point shooters and help on player switches. Midway through the first half, the Kingdom took the lead at 16-15 prompting one of the King’s jesters to remark to the Cap’n, “We’ve gotten better haven’t we.” The lead was short lived as the advanced basketball mind of the Assassin deduced the best placement for Blake was as a dagger in the heart of the Kingdom’s 3-2 zone at the corner of the freethrow line. Blake made effortless moves for 6 foot jumpers and power layups to pull the Juggs ahead. Ant added more great penetrating drives. The Cap’n was the clean up crew for Blake’s misses. The Cap’n and Blake each scored over the others head off misses with the Cap’n almost getting decap’nitated on a put back by Blake. At the start of the game, Justin was on the outs with the rest of the pissed off, tired Juggs. However, Justin more than made up for his absence with the game of his life. Justin powered in shots, hit freethrows while wasting 30 seconds of clock shooting each in an elaborate knee bending ritual and ripped multiple rebounds. Justin ended the game with a power banked layup through three defenders resulting in the and one. Justin missed the freethrow which would have given him more points than the Cap’n. Justin actually scored as many points as the Cap’n, 6, for the first time in his illustrious career. The Assassin was back to form with 4 three pointers. Blake dominated the paint with 18 points. Ant drove in 14. Defensively, the Juggs kept Cory to 8 and the King to 11 but gave up 19 to Carter including 9 points off 14 freethrows. Justin gave Carter 6 of the freethrows off fouling him twice at the three point line. Even in his best game, Justin doesn’t disappoint with the bone head plays. However, with a 12-14 point lead late in the game, 3 freethrows does chew up a lot of time off the clock. Great job, Justin! The Cap’n concedes that Thy Belk Kingdom, the Third Reich edition, is greatly improved over its predecessors despite fielding only 5 players. The Kingdom won 3 tournament games this year and played tough until the end. They finished in the top 12 out of 34 teams eligible for the tournament. And there shall be great rejoicing in the Kingdom and on the hallowed docks of Belk. Their loss shall not be in vain as the Juggs march on to the championship. The Juggs have moved on to the Elite Eight and survived until the second week of the tournament. On Monday at 6:00 at Cumberland Estates gymnasium, the Juggs will face Sun Trust who had a losing record in the regular season but has managed some impressive tournament wins. Win the first game and the Juggs get a rematch later in the night with Ferguson Enterprises who the Juggs would not have lost to in overtime in the regular season if Ant had been in town, Blake hadn’t twisted his ankle before halftime, Dreiser hadn’t gotten ejected from the game and the Cap’n hadn’t had the plague. Get well Shannon. You have until Monday to cut the bastard off and have the bionics installed. The Juggs would like to congratulate the Cain Mutiny, a.k.a Aqua, for advancing to the championship game on Tuesday at Cecil Webb after dominating the competition in the lower tournament. H: 30-23 Juggs. F: 58-38 Juggs. Rec: 8-3. Tournament Rec: 2-1 STATS: Blake Littleton – 18 points, 4/4 fts; Anthony Martin – 14 pts, (2) 3ptrs; Assassin – 12 pts, (4) 3ptrs; Justin – 6 pts, 2/3 fts; Cap’n – 6 pts; Dreiser – 2 pts.
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Juggs 2007 Squad l to r: Ed Bayer, Anthony Martin, Assassin, Cap'n, Kristie Johnson, Josh Braden, Zach Rieser. Season Wrapup: The Juggs had their best regular season record and best tournament run ever tying for 5th out of 34 teams. In a shocking turn of events, Dreiser got the only technical and only ejection on the year for the Juggs which came on the same play. The Deane Hill League has had a calming effect on the Juggs who averaged over a technical a game and an ejection ever three games during the Chris Cain era at Cecil Webb and Milton Roberts Rec Centers. The Juggs had a three way tie for the regular season MVP award. Although Ant had a strong showing and gets an honorable mention with an 11 point per game average, the Season MVPs go to the Assassin, Shannon Wiener and Blake Littleton. The Assassin was consistent scoring 4 three pointers almost every game. The catalysts that got the Juggs over the mediocrity hump were the additions of a true point guard, Shannon Wiener, and a second dominant post player, Blake Littleton. The Tournament MVP goes to the whole Jugg squad who never gave up no matter the lineup for the game or how crappy they were shooting. All Juggs are invited back next year for another title run. Thanks to Tim Mank for an awesome recruiting job which gives the Juggs a strong team for the next two years. Justin thinks the key to victory next year is more Bubbalicious. Justin has sworn by his gum of choice since Old Schooler Alonzo “Big Zo” Butler tossed him a piece Mean Joe Greene style after the Juggs’ first tournament win. My apologies to King Noah for Kung Fu chopping his contact out of his eye in Tournament Game 3. Congrats to the Cain Mutiny, a.k.a Aqua, who was on winning the City Recreation A Tournament (the Juggs played in the AA tournament), the City’s version of the NIT. Winning the title after dominating the early rounds, Aqua can claim the titles of Champs and 29th best team in the City of Knoxville Rec League. Way to go, Aqua! Be sure to go support super heavyweight Blake Littleton this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 5-7, as he fights his way to the title in the SAE Boxing Tournament at the Golden Gloves Arena at Chilhowee Park. Other Late Editions: Against Sun Trust, T-Mank had a monster block from the lane that rocketed against the side wall. The Cap’n asked him to keep it in play next time. Before the final game, the whole team gave Justin a clinic on how to shoot a layup. What comradery. Ant, the Assassin, T-Mank and Shannon grilled Justin on the proper technique. Justin was jerked minutes into the final game after taking his shoot and turn jumper from the block and missing even the backboard. Justin was also schooled by Marshall one too many times. This doesn’t affect Justin’s contract for next year as he had an exceptional season. Featured Classic Jugg Game from 2004 Game 6 v. Kings (old rivals)
THE GREATEST JUGG GAME / COMEBACK EVER!
With Cain on suspension Krisite, Dreiser and Myriah handled point guard duties by committee. Jason had 3 mighty rebounds in the clutch and had a blocked shot. Justin blossomed at the power forward position with 9 points. Justin was always in position to score. His best was a 3 point play drive and cleaning up Jim’s blown layups. Justin, however, fouled out early. Solid play from Andy. The Juggs fell behind early at 8-21. At halftime the Juggs trailed 20-29, but fell behind 13 points at 20-33 with 14:30 to go. The Juggs just kept chipping away. Juggs defense held the Kings to 6 points in the next 14 minutes during a 19-6 run. During this run, the Kings have a break away layup that Myriah tracks down from behind and deposits it against the wall. Awesome! Nothing gets a guy down faster than having his ball swatted by a girl. Down 9 with 6 minutes to go, Andy and John began yelling at each other. In a primitive attempt at motivation Andy began yelling at everyone to get open after he had already requested several times that we give him the ball and clear out. Dreiser yelled at him to pick his head up because we were open! Jim called a timeout for the Juggs to collect themselves and go on the final run. The Juggs had lots of steals late in the game. The Kings kept floating the ball in the lane. Even Jim, not known for his quick hands, had 3 steals. The score seemed stuck at 33-39 forever. After a game of few turnovers, the Juggs threw away a series of balls. Tough D kept the Juggs in the game. In a sly coaching decision Jim had saved all 5 time outs for the second half. As we would find out, every second counted.
Down 37-39 with 1:15 remaining Jason ripped a defensive rebound. Dreiser hit a finger roll with :40 to go to tie at 39-39. The Juggs played tough D until :10 seconds remained and the Kings hit a layup and got fouled to go up 39-42. Jim called a timeout to set up the last play. The lineup – Jim, Andy, Dreiser, Kristie and Myriah. Dreiser inbounds the ball to Myriah. Myriahs options for a 3 pointer are 1) Andy in the right corner, 2) herself, 3) Kristie in the left corner. Jim roamed the block for the rebound. Myriah dribbled past half court with two defenders on her. Myriah dribbled to the right. Andy wasn’t open. 3 defenders converge on Myriah. Jim realizing there was trouble popped just right of the top of the key. Myriah sees Jim out of the corner of her eye and passes him the rock. Two defenders run at Jim. Jim grabs the ball, says a prayer and lets in fly. (Insert Jim’s Sports Center Moment). 0:00 on the clock. Swish. Score is tied. Jim is fouled. The crowd goes nuts. Jim lets out a blood curdling scream. Myriah jumps into Jim’s arms. Jason jumps off the bench and joins the fray. The Kings are in disbelief. If they had fouled Myriah, she would have been on the line for 2 and could not have tied the game. If they didn’t foul Jim, the worst would be overtime. Plus they faced being beaten by 2 women playing on the floor in the final seconds. Jim stepped to the line for the and 1. 2 dribbles, hands shaking very badly, 2 more dribbles, nothing but net. Juggs win 43-42. Juggs start to hoist up Jim, but decide he’s too heavy. The beautiful assist turns into a swan song for Myriah as she finds out the next day that she is pregnant, and takes maternity leave for the remainder of the 2004 season. Jim – 18 pt. (5/8 fts, 3 ptr, 3 pt play, 4 pt play); Justin 9 (3 pt play); Myriah 7 (Two 3ptrs, 1 blocked shot); Dreiser – 6; Andy –5; Kristie – 0; Jason – 0 (1 blocked shot).
The crowd included the champs (K-Town Bombers) and other teams who were scoping the competition. Jim was given the nickname “The Move” by onlookers for repeatedly scoring by faking the layup and spinning to the left for a short jumper in the lane. In a followup game with the Kings, whenever Jim received a mismatch down low, the little defender often said, “Oh sh*t, help! I’ve got The Move!”
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