The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

[studbucket]

It’s time for the Northeast Conference tournament, and the 3^rd game kicks off in Moon Township, Pennsylvania as St. Francis takes on Robert Morris, Oggy’s alma mater, for the third time this season. In his first matchup, the Red Flash suffered a disappointing loss, 74-61, but rebounded in a big way for a 21 point victory at home. Dinko clearly remembered what got them that victory last time – attacking the basket and feeding the post.

Elsewhere, Wagner beat Mount St. Mary’s and Fairleigh Dickinson upset Central Connecticut to advance to the next round. The winner of this matchup will likely face off against Sacred Heart, who takes on Monmouth at the same time.

While the matchup was one Dinko preferred, he was disappointed about 1 thing: this “neutral” 4vs5 matchup was at Robert Morris’ home court. He was hoping the Flash fans would travel well and that they could quiet down the home fans.

Early on, the Red Flash looked to pounce on Robert Morris and try to keep seniors Will Frandsen and Galen Attaway from controlling the game. It worked at first as they were up 8-1 and the Colonials couldn’t get any good looks.

After St. Francis nailed a three, the Red Flash fans erupted and Robert Morris took some time to compose themselves, and things turned South for St. Francis from there. A few unlucky misses and bad shots later and the game was 8-8.

The rest of the first half was a close affair, with limited impact from Zygis Keita until the very end, with Will Frandsen and Tommy Zwikker having the strongest games for Robert Morris. At half it was 31-28 and anyone’s game. That didn’t change in the second half.

The Colonials kept a small lead until Tobias Roberson managed to get fouled and make the layup on a breakaway to tie the game at 42-42. After that, it was an extremely back and forth game with neither team taking a lead larger than three, which St. Francis managed to have twice. Once after a Casey Tyler three and then again after Muhamed Payne and Noah Almond combined for a steal and a fast break with 2 minutes left.

However, Robert Morris quickly responded with 4 points to take a 1 point lead. From there, the score ping-ponged:

1:00 - Muhamed Payne grabbed his 3^rd offensive rebound of the game and put it back to go up 1 (58-57)
0:50 - Robert Morris gets a layup (58-59)
0:40 - Muhamed Payne hits 2 free throws (60-59)
0:25 - Robert Morris misses a 20 footer (60-59)
0:04 - After several fouls (to try to get St. Francis to the line), Casey Tyler catches the inbounds pass and dribbles out of bounds, giving the ball back to Robert Morris (60-59)
0:00 - Will Frandsen hits a 16 footer as time expires to win the game for the Colonials (60-61)

Robert Morris hits the dagger to eliminate Dinko and the Red Flash

What a gut punch. The Red Flash were in position to win and gave the ball back and then couldn’t stop the full court pass. Dinko’s face was just blank as the game ended; he was unable to process what had just happened.

Keita had a solid game for St. Francis, and Robert Morris started doubling him in the second half, but he did well passing out of it. He and Payne combined for 6 offensive rebounds, compared to single offensive board from the Colonials.

While Robert Morris moves on to face Monmouth (who shocked #1 Sacred Heart 74-73), the Red Flash are done for the year. Sitting in the locker room after the game, he looked at the disappointed faces around the room. “Boys,” Dinko paused for 10 seconds “that sucked. Let’s not sugar coat it. That is not what we wanted to happen and how we all expected this to go. We have to be honest. But,” Dinko raised his voice in volume and in octave, “it’s going to make us better. Almost all of you are coming back next year. I’ll have a second year as a coach and I’ll do a better job. Next season we are going to compete for the conference title. Noah, Casey, and Tobias are going to be our ‘splash brothers’ and nobody is going to work harder on the boards than Zygis and Muhamed. Take some time, process this, and then let’s get started on being better. The coaching staff and I have a list of things we’d like each of you to work on. We’ll get some time with each of you, and let’s make next season awesome.”

[kibaxx7]

Noooooooooooooooo the worst way to lose... hopefully next year will be better, stud. Fuel to bounce back.

[trekfan]

Oh, what a gut punch loss -- a critical, backbreaking turnover at the worst time.



I think the team will come back stronger for it, but that loss is gonna be in the back of their minds all next season.

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by spiderxx7

Noooooooooooooooo the worst way to lose... hopefully next year will be better, stud. Fuel to bounce back.

Quote: Originally Posted by trekfan

Oh, what a gut punch loss -- a critical, backbreaking turnover at the worst time. I think the team will come back stronger for it, but that loss is gonna be in the back of their minds all next season.

Yeah, it was killer. Really rough. Hopefully the new recruit(s) are good enough to start or play off the bench next year, because the team should have a solid starting 5. If Dinko gets the big man he wants, they can even move Keita to the 4 and put Tyler or Roberson on the bench as a 6th man.

I haven't played Oggy's game yet, hopefully it goes better. May be able to get to that tonight.

[XxVal_MarXx]

Incredible story, really a shame it ended like this, I hope the next year is better

[dfsJunkie]

Noooooooooo! What a way to end it. That's a heartbreaker.

[Careless Whisper]

What a heartbreaking loss. That adds a little fuel to the RMU/SFU rivalry for next season.

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by XxVal_MarXx

Incredible story, really a shame it ended like this, I hope the next year is better

Quote: Originally Posted by dfsJunkie

Noooooooooo! What a way to end it. That's a heartbreaker.

Quote: Originally Posted by Careless Whisper

What a heartbreaking loss. That adds a little fuel to the RMU/SFU rivalry for next season.

Thanks! While it sucked to lose that way, it is certainly good for the story and I totally agree with the RMU/SFU rivalry comment. They already had a bit of a friendly rivalry because it is Oggy's alma mater, but given the way the 3 games have gone this season, there's definitely going to be some additional motivation next year.