The Waterboys end Dyme Pieces' 17-game win streak in the Green Valley Rec League

Cris Cockrell

When long win streaks end, you expect them to end in dramatic fashion. A memorable one to me is when the Bulls ended the Heat’s 27-game win streak in 2013, which is still one of the best regular season NBA games I’ve ever seen.

At the Ultimate Hoops level, the most memorable would be X Over ending Ball So Hard’s 25-game win streak and their chance at a fifth straight national title, which happened in the same gym where Dyme Pieces fell last night.

UH Las Vegas even recently saw another long streak ended last season, 21 miles away at the Summerlin Life Time, as BTE lost to Ball Stars 91-89 in overtime to end BTE’s 14-game winning streak.

The point is, when these thing end, it typically takes a battle. It takes game-winning shots; it takes overtime; it takes Kirk Hinrich tackling LeBron James on a fast break and hitting his head on the floor.

That was not the case for Dyme Pieces, as they got absolutely smoked by the Waterboys 104-57.

This game had been hyped up since the start of the season, as the Waterboys lost to Dyme Pieces 90-68 in the rec championship last season. The Waterboys were looking for blood and they came out and got their revenge…and then some.

All of their starters scored 13 or more points and shot 50% or better from the field. They ended up shooting 53% from the field, 43% from deep and a perfect 7-7 from the free-throw line. Dyme Pieces were the exact opposite, as they shot 30% from the field, 18% from deep and 42% from the free-throw line. They only had one player shoot over 50% from the field and their leading scorer had 14 points.

Cris Cockrell led the way for the Waterboys, putting up a triple-double of 17/11/10 while shooting 8-12 from the field. Austin Welch led all scorers with 23 points on 8-15 shooting, burying seven 3s.

No one ever wants to lose, especially during a long win streak, but it didn’t seem to bother Dyme Pieces GM Nick Lombardo too much last night.

“Congrats Waterboys on winning the Week 3 regular season championship, you guys deserved it. We prefer to win the City Championship in Week 12, the one that matters,” Lombardo said in a comment on a live stream of the ending of last night’s game. “I slept like a baby last night and have already forgotten about you guys. Championship-caliber teams don’t stress about Week 3 wins or losses. Just remember there is a reason every team is chasing us and wants to beat us.”

We’ll see what happens if there’s another rematch in the playoffs this season.