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Season 3 - Week 8 Recap

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Week 8 had big implications, with the Legends looking to defend their championship and become the 1st team (3rd ever in GBBL history) to get the elusive Dynasty title.  With such a big target on their backs, the round robin games all came down to the wire.  The final game on the night pitted the Legends vs. the Mambas.  A Mambas win would create a 3-way tie based on wins and ties for 2nd; a win by the Legends and the Wolves would get the tie breaker and get to the finals.  With the Mambas already beating the Legends once on the night, they came out gunning for a finals spot and beat the Legends for a 2nd time, setting up a 3rd meeting between the 2 teams in the finals.

The finals saw the Mambas franchise take on the Legends for a 2nd straight week.  With so much at stake, most of the spectators were rooting for a Mambas win since the Legends winning would give the Dynasty and additional GUT points.  The Mambas were led this week by Captain Adeel Qureshi.  Adeel was dealt a big blow hours before tipoff, with his first pick Uzair Munda pulling out.  Uzair wasn’t feeling well and decided to stay home as precaution, and we pray for a speedy recovery for him.  Subbing in for the Mambas was a GBBL OG in Zain Malik.  Zain was joined by Umair Vanthaliwala (making his GBBL finals debut) along with bro in laws Fahad Ilyas and Omar Uddin (the original captain of this Legends Dynasty team).  On the flip side, all 5 Legends returned from last week and looked to not have to rely completely on Bilal and have other step up.  Step up did they…. The Legends took the lead right off the bat with buckets by Jav Ahmed, Umar Ilyas and super sub Suhaib Ibrahim all getting involved.  Within a blink of an eye, the Legends were up 5-0 and looked to have already locked in their win.  The Mambas would not go away without a fight and got some big buckets from Zain and Umair, while Adeel and Fahad knocked down a couple of 3’s to bring the score closer.  Umair had a great showing for his first finals, and led all players with 7 rebounds, doing everything he could to will his team to a win.

The champs on the other hand were getting solid play from everyone.  Mo Kala was crashing the boards and making all the important plays that may not show up on the scoresheet, while Jav was flashing his brilliant dribbling skills.  With Umar Ilyas hitting 2 big time 3’s, it was only a matter of time until MVP frontrunner Bilal Ilyas came to life.  Sinking a big 3 along with his signature baseline floater, the boys in blue were now up 3 with 30 seconds to go.  The Mambas did everything they could; Zain had 2 3’s rim out while Fahad had another 3 just fall short.  With that, time ran out and the Legends did it.  The first Dynasty team of the 2021-2022 season and 3rd in GBBL history, the Legends fought off adversity after adversity for the past 3 weeks.  With the win, all 5 players catapult into the top 10 of the GUT point standings and will now look to start a new Dynasty with a new team.  Week 9 will now feature 5 new captains and 5 new teams and a chance for a new dynasty to emerge.  Until then, congrats again to the Legends and see ya’ll next week Youngbloods.