Last evening, on 21 November 2016, the Heat and Bombers - both 5 and 3 - reported to North Highland Assembly of God's Church gymnasium to show their worth to the rest of the league.  The Bombers started the season with a lot of force.  They looked like a team that would dominate the season until they got a taste of defeat for three times.  The Heat has been a very quiet/sleepy team.  They accrued five wins without anyone paying attention to their worth as a formidable opponent.  Well, both teams got the opportunity to show us what they were made of when they met at half court for the first half of the game.

The first half started with the Bombers winning the tip-off and scoring the first two points by (#5) Keith Bridges.  The Heat responded very quickly with a two-point score from (#15) Johnny Sanchez.  From there, the battle was on as the Bombers held on to the jersey of (#32) Cleotis Brown to lead them with 15 points and the Heat did the same as they leaned on Johnny Sanchez to lead them with 13 first half points.  Though five other players scored for the Bombers, they failed to score more than 3 points.  The Heat also had five additional players to score, but they were able to get nine (9) points from (#3) Michael Brown and seven (7) points from (#31) Felton Scott.  The Heat and Bombers exchanged leads three times and tied the score one time during the first half.  The Bombers started out with an early lead that the Heat erased, tied, and erased again by 12:45 left in the first half.  Then, the strangest thing happened when the Heat's coach sent in substitutions that would unintentionally slow down their momentum.  That was a brave move considering the size and caliber of talent on the Bombers' team.  That is not to say that the Heat doesn't have size and talent, either.  I am referring to the coach's decision to continuously obstruct the flow of the game.  What stood out most was that the players stayed focused and did not question the coach's decisions.  That focus and excellent defense allowed the Heat to lead the Bombers, at the half, 34 - 26.

The second half was filled with more questionable substitutions, from the Heat, that kept allowing the Bombers to recover.  The Bombers' Jimmy Foster and Shederal Hughes combined for 15 points - all from 3-point shots.  Cleotis Brown was held to three free throws for the entire half.  No other Bomber scored more than four (4) points in the second half.  As for the Heat, the team continued to let Johnny Sanchez do his thing while he was feeling it.  Sanchez scored 12 points in the second half, as well.  Norman King (#11) scored eight (8) points from fast break points and Donald Brophy (#13) scored six (6) points as a result of rebounding and hustle.  With 14:11 remaining in the game, the Heat were holding on to a 40 - 39 lead with momentum switching to the Bombers.  The Bombers fought back at took the lead at 42 - then the Heat's Alphonzo Jukes scored on a 3-point shot to regain the lead at 43.  The Bombers retook the lead at 45 and held it until the Heat obtained their final lead at 51 along with a 12 point run to defeat the Bombers 63 - 54.

The scorers for the Bombers were:  (#3) Tony Moses with 2 points, (#32) Cleotis Brown with 18 points, (#5) Keith Bridges with 2 points, (#10) James Dix with 6 points, (#12) Jovan Ingersoll with 6 points, (#22) Jimmy Foster with 12 points, and (#38) Shederal Hughes with 8 points.

The scorers for the Heat were:  (#3) Michael Brown with 9 points, (#11) Norman King with 10 points, (#15) Johnny Sanchez with 25 points, (#13) Donald Brophy with 6 points, (#31) Felton Scott with 7 points, (#50) Tracy Cohen with 2 points, (#17) Alphonzo Jukes with 3 points, and (#24) Sidney Dowlen with 1 point.