By Ryan Spitz
After a slow start to the season, the Renegades got their first win in blow-out fashion over the Avengers, 93-45.
“We tried to get down low and play in the hole,” Renegades’ Joe Hattani said. “Tried to get away from the three ball, we weren’t doing too well there.”
Coming into the game, the Renegades were shooting an abysmal 5 for 47 from downtown. However, they learned from their previous mistakes and only shot 19 threes today, making 6 and most when the game was out of reach for the Avengers.
Aaron McAlpine got back on track shooting 67 percent from beyond the arc, ending with 20 points. Despite McAlpine’s solid performance the story of the game was the performance of Ty Reed.
Reed absolutely dominated from start to finish, taking advantage of the Avengers’ lack of any inside, big-bodied presence. Reed had 29 points on 65 percent shooting, 18 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 blocks; truly stuffing the stat sheet.
Reed truly set the tone with his acrobatic dunks, thread-the-needle passes, and fearlessness on the glass.
The Renegades really needed a spark after two straight poor showings in a blowout loss to Run TMC and a fourth quarter collapse against Light It Up.
Aside from scoring an efficient 93 points and dominating offensively, the Renegades clamped down defensively, shutting down The Legacy Leagues’ third leading scorer, sharp-shooter Zach Shapiro.
Shapiro was limited to 12 points and only shot 22 percent from downtown, despite coming into the game averaging 24 points per game, on 60 percent shooting from three.
“Every week, every minute, every game, we are relentless.” Hattani said.
The Renegades will look to continue their momentum next week against Stranger Danger, while the Avengers will look to rebound against Red-Emption.
