The heat is on in the San Diego Hoops Basketball league with two of the top teams in the league – second place Moby Dick’s and third place Fusion – going into the night, losing in two upsets.

“I knew at the beginning of the season that it takes a little while for most of the teams to gel,” said David Valenzuela, coach of Moby Dick’s. “Unfortunately we gelled really early and now most of the teams are catching up. It’s going to be a run to see who ends up where. It’s going to be fun, I think the playoffs are going to be very interesting.”

Moby’s faced number six ranked Brians’/Hummingbird in the first game of the night. Brians’/Hummingbird mixed up their defense to take on Moby’s and it proved to be a smart move as the two teams ended the first half in a 25-25 tie.

“We had been playing a 2-3 zone most of the season, but I decided to change things up and go to a man-to-man defense for specific assignments and it seemed to pay off,” Brains’/Hummingbird coach Randy Miller said. “Considering that they were in first place and we were tied at half time, that just gave us a boost of confidence that we could play with them. We knew that if we kept our defense tight and rotated on defense like we talked about then we could beat them.”

In the second half, Dwight Dunn got on a hot streak with seven minutes left in the game to get Brians’/Hummingbird into the lead.

“Dwight kind of plays within himself and when he knows that he’s got a feeling to take over, he’s going to take over,” Miller added. “That’s why he is the reigning MVP. He took it and when he drives the ball to the basket people are going to slag off on him and then he started getting the rest of us involved.”

With time wearing down, Moby’s tried to get back into the game, and facing a 55-48 deficit they got into the double bonus in the final minute of the game but failed to capitalize on the advantage, missing five free throws in the final minute of the game.

“It was a well contested game,” Valenzuela said. “At the get go we missed some easy lay-ups and in the second half what really killed us was that we couldn’t hit the side of a barn with our free throws. It was pretty bad. I think we missed a good 15-16 free throws and it gets frustrating.”

At the buzzer it was Brians’/Hummingbird over Moby Dick’s in a 57-48 point game.

In other week 12 basketball action, Kickers kept their four-game win streak alive with a 50-43 win over Pecs. The win, combined with Moby Dick’s loss, puts the two teams in a tie for second place with 8-3 records. In game three of the night, Morgan Stanley easily beat the struggling Powerhouse Gym 67-37 to maintain their lock on first place in the league. And in the final game of the night, The Loft upset Fusion in a 37-32 ball game that drops Fusion into fourth place with a 7-4 record. The Loft, with a 5-6 record, is currently in fifth place.