RxBridge Takes Down ENS

Going into this past Saturday, ENS appeared to not only be the B.R.I.C.K. League title favorites but seemed set to walk through the league. 72 hours later, the ENS team saw their undefeated regular season slip through their fingers as they blew a 16 point lead to Silver Lining. Then they followed that up by being bounced out of the Final Four in Monday’s matchup with RX Bridge, losing 87-78. Going into this game, the “Big Three” we all had our eyes on, was the three of ENS. Boo Osborne, Wendell Davis and Wes Russel had been on a tear this tournament and didn’t even play poorly tonight with the collective bunch scoring 45 of the team’s 78. However, RX Bridge had their own three-headed-monster that stole the show and led the team to the best-of-three championship where they will take on the Outta Townerz.

Cody Ballard (B.R.I.C.K. League founder) scored 20 and seemingly made it his personal mission to stifle one of the most prolific scorers in this tournament in Boo Osborne. Sure, Osborne got his 20, but it was on much more shots than we had been accustomed to seeing him take. Ballard answered with what felt like an effortless 20 of his own, but was far from alone on the floor and the entire team played their most complete game of the tournament. Andy Bosley finished one rebound short of a double-double and Jamel Morris came in midway through the first half and was hotter than Klay Thompson in the three-point-contest. Morris scored 22 and would have scored more had RX Bridge not taken their foot off the pedal in the second half.

With the exception of a four minute stretch early in the second half, where ENS went on a 13-2 run to cut RX Bridge’s lead to 45-41, the outcome never seemed to be in doubt. RX Bridge quickly went back on a run of their own pushing the lead back to 12 and the ENS team had no answers.

While the early playoff exit came as a surprise, the ENS team left quite the impression on the league and we may very well see and hear from their players more going forward. They had five different players in double digit scoring tonight, which just goes to show you how impressive the RX Bridge team was. What has been easy to forget in this resurgence by RX Bridge is how they got here and who they have to beat to hoist the hardware. In the opening game of this tournament, RX Bridge overcame a four point lead with five seconds left, largely due to a controversial call made on a deliberately missed free throw. RX Bridge was awarded free throws with under a second to play and pushed that game to overtime where they eventually won. Had RX Bridge lost that game they would have missed the playoffs. Their opponent that night, the Outta Townerz, who they will meet again in the championship best-of-three. That’s sports baby!

Catch game 1 of the B.R.I.C.K. League Championship series and our special pregame show Wednesday evening at 7:45 P.M. on scoreonair.com