Aniq Iman's buzzer beater highlights a wild night in Tempe
Aniq Iman
Business is boomin’ in the the Tempe Draft League, as it has 12 teams this season. That gives the league six games per league night, opening up multiple chances for something crazy to happen each week. When you combine that many teams, with that much talent and that much parity, great things are going to happen.
Last night was a perfect example of this, as there were multiple game-tying shots, a game-winning shot, an overtime thriller and many amazing performances. Let’s breakdown the top three craziest things to happen in Tempe last night by looking at three different games.
Team Alkaline - 90, Rim Jobs 87
This was easily the game of the night, and it’s already being crowned as the “most epic finish in Tempe draft history,” by Arizona regional coordinator Chris Walker. This game had the ultra-rare combo of a clutch game-tying shot and a game-winning buzzer beater. The only comparison I can think of off the top of my head is the 2016 NCAA national title game between Villanova and North Carolina. In the final 13 seconds, Marcus Paige hit an off-balance 3 to tie the game at 74-74, then Kris Jenkins came down and hit a buzzer-beater to win the game and the championship.
The stakes in this game were not quite as high, and the biggest difference is that the game-tying and game-winning shots were made by the same team. I can’t tell how much time is left from the video posted by Walker in the UH Arizona Facebook group, but Casey Day hit a 3 in Steve Bertrand’s face to tie the game at 87-87.
The next video we see comes with 2.5 seconds left, the game still tied 87-87 with Team Alkaline in possession. Derio Parker, a lethal scorer, is the player to inbound the ball. They use Day as a decoy, as two defenders shade his way on a fake pass by Parker. That opens up a sliver of space for Aniq Iman in the corner, who catches, turns around, shoots while fading away and beats the buzzer to secure the three-point victory for Team Alkaline.
Parker said after the game that he drew the play up in the huddle during a timeout before the inbound play. Day came up near Parker for a possible quick look, with Jay White cutting down the baseline and to the opposite corner of Iman, freeing up space for him to hit the clutch shot.
Hand Down, Man Down - 88, No Names - 87
It’s hard to say that a game that had a game-tying bucket with less than a second left in regulation, forcing overtime, would go down as the second-best game of any league night, but welcome to the Tempe Draft League.
The weirdest thing about the game-tying shot in this game is how similar it looks to Iman’s game-winner. The play itself is completely different, as LaRon Sutton receives the inbound pass with 8.4 seconds and dribbles at the top of the arc, looking for options. Eventually, Omar Duran runs from one corner to the other, ends up in the exact same spot that Iman hit his game-winner from, then nails the jumper while slightly fading to his left, just as Iman did.
Gabe Sandoval shooting a floater
The shot forced overtime, but unfortunately for Duran and No Names, they would go on to lose by one. Dakota Fleming led the way for Hand Down, Man Down (ironic name for a team that let a shooter get open to send the game to overtime), as he scored a team-high 26 points on 7-14 shooting from the field, adding six rebounds and six assists.
Drop Of A Dime - 137, Effortless - 107
As you can tell from the final score, this game clearly didn’t have the drama to match with the first two. The reason I’m showcasing this is because of the absurd stats that were put up on both sides.
Seven different players recorded a PPR of 25.0 or higher
Five different players recorded a double-double
Each team had one player that recorded a triple-double
Each team had a player that scored at least 50 points
Here were the top performers from each team, ranked by PPR:
Effortless - Tyree Turner: 52/5/6 with shooting splits of 55/61/100 (PPR of 36.7)
Drop of a Dime - Gabe Sandoval: 24/10/10 with shooting splits of 82/100/100 (PPR of 39.6)