As Week Four of Athletes Unlimited Basketball gets underway, the leaderboard is shaping up for an all-time finish. Odyssey Sims and NaLyssa Smith have separated themselves from the rest as Season Two nears its finale. Firstly, Sims has been a captain every week this season while Smith has led a team for the last three weeks. That being said, let’s recap games 19 and 20 that kicked off Week Four.
Game 19: Bellock Comes Up Big in 93 – 90 win for Team Smith
Here, this game truly heated up in the fourth quarter as it came down to the final shot of regulation. Guard Evina Westbrook drained two shots from the charity stripe for Kierstan Bell’s squad to tie the game at 90 a piece. When Smith’s team had the rock with four seconds remaining, Kristi Bellock drained a three to give them the victory. Bellock scored 14 points overall, grabbing five rebounds.
To the surprise of no one, Smith had another double-double, scoring 23 points with 18 boards for her team. Guards Sydney Colson and Kelsey Micthell had 20 and 18 points, respectively with Colson adding eight assists as well. Colson is the third player in Athletes Unlimited Basketball history with 10+ games with at least seven assists.
In this case, she joined Sims and guard Natasha Cloud, who has 12 such games. In addition, guard Lexie Brown scored 12 points, going five of nine from the field.
Despite the loss, Team Bell had a 31-point effort from forward Isabelle “Izzy” Harrison, and Westbrook had 21 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. What’s more, Lexie Hull and Air Hearn each contributed 11 points as Hearn hit three of her four three-point attempts.
Game 20: Sims is Golden in an 80 – 72 victory over Hillmon’s squad
Unquestionably, Sims goes out there and delivers for her team, this time leading all scorers with 25 points. Forward Jasmine Walker had 22 points in 33 minutes of action to help Team Sims. Also, Crystal Bradford notched another double-double with 14 points and 13 caroms, shooting 85.7 % from the field. Sims’ squad won three of the four quarters, going over 50% from the field as a team.
Naz Hillmon and her team kept it close as Hillmon was a board shy of a double-double, getting 19 points and nine rebounds. Allisha Gray added 16 points while Cloud had 13 of her own in the loss. Additionally, guard Veronica Burton was perfect from the free-throw line in this matchup, scoring 11 points. She made the team’s lone three-pointer in the second quarter.
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