The San Diego Hoops basketball league tipped off their 2004-05 season last week at the Golden Hill Recreation Center with four exciting games, including one that went to double overtime and ended in a tie. In addition to a great night of basketball, the opening night featured the debut of the league’s two newest sponsors, Colorworks Painting and AAA Mortgage Market. A number of new players played in their first league games as well.

“I would say most of the people who came out to the open gyms over the summer, half of them were brand-new people,” said David Valenzuela, the commissioner of the San Diego Hoops basketball league. “They had heard about us by word of mouth; had seen it in the paper – just friends of friends who played in the league. Of course we are missing a lot of guys this year that played last year… we are missing a good chunk of our regulars.”

Valenzuela went on to say that with all of the new faces it could be an interesting season. “This year, we’ve pretty much got an interesting new group,” he said. “It was fun playing open gym this year because there was no familiarity with all of the players, so it made for a good open gym and I was very happy about seeing all of these new players.”

League play started off with Brians’ Hummingbird taking on Moby Dick’s. Throughout most of the first half it was a neck-and-neck game. As time expired in the first half, Rick Kilgore of Moby Dick’s dropped two freethrows to pump the team’s lead up to 21-18.

The second half started with Moby Dick’s attacking both underneath the basket and beyond the 3-point line, taking an 8-point lead early in the half. Brians’ chipped away at the lead, though, and as the final minute of the game approached, Moby Dick’s clung to a 41-40 lead. Brians’ took to fouling Moby Dick’s to keep them from wearing down the clock, but in the end, Moby Dick’s took the game 41-40.

“I was a little nervous because we didn’t have our point guard, one of our guards didn’t show up tonight, so that’s why I was playing outside; because I usually don’t,” said Moby Dick’s team captain, Eric McDaniel. “We have solid players who are back from last year so I really wasn’t worried about anything defensively.”

Even though they were on the ropes for a good part of the second half, Brians’ hung in to make it a solid game and prove that they weren’t going to go down without a fight.

“Defense, we just came in and played hard,” said Brains’ team captain, Robert Wiggins, about the comeback. “We kept trying to rebound with them; they are a good rebounding team. But our defense helped us out, switching from man to man back to zone and that sort of thing really helped us.”

He also noted the rookie performances of Seth Makechnie, Michelle Mannisto and Katelyn Pearson. Wiggins was Brians’ Hummingbirds’ lead scorer, with 19 points. McDaniel was Moby Dick’s star player, with 22 points.

Game 2 of the night featured The Loft and Colorworks Painting. Colorworks came out with hot hands, firing baskets in the first half and establishing a 13-3 lead. On their heels, The Loft tried to reorganize with a timeout and get the momentum going in their direction, but Colorworks came back out firing from beyond the arc, sinking five 3-point shots before the end of the first half. In the second half, Colorworks added another 10 points to their lead while maintaining their great passing game and awesome defense. In the end, Colorworks kept The Loft from scoring any points in the second half and took the game 43-21. AJ Matthews held the lead scoring for The Loft, with 10 points. Lead scorer for Colorworks Painting was Randy Williams, with 17 points.

Game 3 of the night proved to be the nail-biter of the evening, with Pecs facing AAA Mortgage. In the evenly matched game, Pecs fell behind in the first half, trailing AAA 22-19 at the buzzer. The second half started with AAA attacking underneath the hoop. Pecs adjusted to the AAA strategy and countered with great passing and ball handling. Pecs showed that they were not the same team from last season by tying things up late in the second half. The game stretched out into double overtime before being called a tie at 53-53. Pecs’ high scorer was Bryan Robbins, with 16 points. AAA Mortgage Market’s high scorer was Dan Taylor, also with 16 points.

Opening night came to an end with Morgan Stanley facing Kickers. Morgan Stanley came out firing from all sides, playing like a well-oiled machine even though it was only their first night on the court as a team. Kickers hung in to end of the first half trailing by 5 points. The second half started with great defense on both ends of the court. Kickers picked up their games and started moving the ball up and down the court quicker, but with 10 minutes to go, Morgan Stanley pulled away with a 14-point lead. As the clock ticked down, there was no stopping Morgan Stanley. The final for the game was 34-54 in favor of Morgan Stanley. Kickers’ high scorer was Robert Simmons, with 15 points. Morgan Stanley had three players in double digits, but the high scorer for the team was Sergio Villegas, with 16 points.