By Victor Dawson Jr
All season, the Brotherhood has been dominant and superior, and Tuesday night validated just that. Between Michael Davis winning the Most Valuable Player Award, and his team earning a spot in Thursday’s playoff matchup against ZewCrew, it seemed as if the night was theirs for the taking.
Russ Payton, and Tyrhon Coward both combined for a big 51 points, but overall, it was a team performance with everyone besides Derrick Davis and Kevin Rivera scoring in double figures. The Brotherhood’s intensity and discipline on the defensive end was the main factor the game was already over once again by the end of the first quarter.
Everyone already knows about The Brotherhood’s ability to run-and-gun, and make highlights out of people, but their defense has been equally phenomenal. They full court pressured And-1 as soon as they inbounded the ball, kept moving their feet, and used quick hands to cause deflections on nearly every play. Michael Davis and Jibril Chisholm, made sure their teammates were in the right spots, forcing And-1 into 33 turnovers.
“Well, we were going to come out here as soon as the playoffs came, and teams weren’t gonna score 30,” Fibril Chisholm said. “They [And-1] got 46, so they got lucky. It’s playoff time.”
Coward, talked about the importance of their Most Valuable Player, Michael Davis. “We got the MVP of the League so that’s like Lebron James, and we just fill in the blanks, ya know.”
The talent of The Brotherhood is well known, and it was expected to overcome whatever an inferior And-1 team had in the tank, but filling in the blanks behind their MVP speaks a lot to the overall team cohesion within the group. Yes, we know they have the best player of Legacy Leagues, but the camaraderie and chemistry was what got them within arms reach of the Finals.
However the same couldn’t be said about And-1 and their performance after getting booted out of the playoffs in blowout fashion. Aaron Smith did as much as he could, finishing with 19 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and two steals, but his nine turnovers alone, along with the other 24 by his team, really destroyed their hopes of shocking the world and advancing.
Even though And-1’s season came to an abrupt end at the hands of The Brotherhood, they played hard regardless, which is all a fan could ask for.
Meanwhile, The Brotherhood will live to destroy another day, and has circled ZewCrew as their next target.
