Ballers beat buzzer and Bullets for first win of season

The defending champion Green Dot Ballers are off to a slow start in defense of their Winter League title. A week one loss to new entry The Squad, combined with a much deeper field this year, put a premium on beating the Bullets. Order had seemingly been restored to the world as the Ballers jumped out to a 17-3 lead behind 6 points apiece from Will Harris and LJ Bowling. The Bullets responded with a 10-2 run of their own and set the stage for a game that would feature a series of runs by both teams throughout the game. GDB nursed a 33-28 lead into halftime, while looking to control the tempo in the second half.

The Ballers once again came out on fire with a 13-0 run that seemingly should have put the game away. That would prove not to be the case as the Bullets stormed back with a 10-0 run that snowballed into a 27-6 run that had them in front by 2 at 55-53 with 3 minutes remaining. A Will Harris drive (game-high 20 points) was followed up with a Mike Reamy 3 pointer to regain the lead at 58-57 with 1:45 to play. A Bullets basket and a missed three by Reamy had the Ballers staring an 0-2 start to the season in the face with 1:15 to go. On the ensuing possession, the Bullets were expecting the Ballers to give the foul, but a trap by Chris Larson and Danny Abatemarco, forced a turnover and gave the Ballers one last chance to pull out the victory.

GDB ran held the ball for a minute and called timeout with six seconds left to set up the final play. The BLOB (Baseline Out of Bounds) play was drawn up as a winner as Larson (game-high 10 assists) found Reamy in the corner for the game winning three pointer as time ran out. The win avoided a deep hole to dig out of, as the Ballers face the rival Joy Boys next week in a matchup of last year's finalists who are both off to very slow starts this season.

FUN FACT

This is the second time in his career that Mike Reamy has played beat the clock against the Bullets. On March 25, 2014, he hit a 3/4 court shot off a missed free throw to give the Ballers a 54-51 victory.

Mike Reamy lets fly with the game winning buzzer beater.