By Mike Ainger
In the early morning hours of October 8, 2009, a long-standing pillar of the Huntsville community was reduced to ash, after being enveloped in flames that reached up through the night sky.
Nearly a quarter century later, a stalwart of the Huntsville sports landscape met a similar demise. Just as the Empire Hotel crumbled in the 2009 inferno, Team Black’s legacy of dominance in the 705 Spruce fell to a similar fate. On a different trajectory, Team Red rose like a phoenix from the cellar of the league, drawing easy parallels to JT’s Tavern – a persistent smell of stale alcohol mixed with bad decisions that somehow yield positive results.
While the site of the Empire and JT’s is now a scraggly vacant lot that bookends the downtown core, the future of Team Black appears just as rocky. Team Red, however, adhering to the words of Rocky, demonstrated that “every champion was once a contender who refused to give up.”
Regarding actual play, referees seemed content to put their whistles away early letting the players determine the outcomes of games for the evening. Attention to physical conditioning continued to produce tangible and observable benefits, with all starting players remaining active throughout the evening. Shooting accuracy proves to be an Achilles heel for many players, with mid and long-range percentages dropping to all-season lows. On the positive side, with so many missed shots, rebounds per player rose to an all-time high.
Games for the evening were representative of very evenly matched teams. Team Red were the winners of three games, Team Black was victorious in two, with Team Mismatch winning one and coming up a mere basket short of a second.
There were no reportable injuries for the evening.
Play in the 705 is scheduled to resume next Wednesday, as the first half of the regular season draws ever closer to its conclusion. While there is still much basketball left to be played, the playoff picture and front runners for the revered Emu-Cup is beginning to come into focus.
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