Detroit Derby Girls: Bout 10 of the 2013-4 Season

 Bout 10 of the Detroit Derby Girls 2013-4 season took place on May 17th at the Masonic Temple.

Lazer Beam put the first points on the bird when she scored 4 point for the Pistolwhippers in the 1st jam, and then Off the Hook added another 4 in the 2nd. The Grand Prix Madonnas finally got on the board in the 3rd jam with 4 from Anamatronix. Another 5 for GPM in the 4th gave them the lead.

The lead jostled back and forth. The 'Whippers took it back in the 8th jam. The Madonnas regained it in the 14th, but then immediately lost it again in the 15.

From the 15th jam until the 21st the Grand Prix Madonnas only added 4 more points while the Whippers were building on their lead, putting them up 46-28 when the 21st jam was over. Motown Philly of the Madonnas scored 13 unanswered points in the 22nd and final jam of the half, cutting their point deficit with the Whippers down to only 5. The Pistolwhippers were ahead 46-41, but were looking tired going to the locker room, while the Madonnas seemed eager to build on the success of the jam they had just finished.

Lazer Beam incurred penatly time as jammer in the 1st jam of the next half, and Anamatroix scored 10 unanswered points for the Madonnas, giving them the lead again. This was followed by Sista Slitchya adding another 20 unanswered points for the Madonnas in the 2nd, putting their lead at 71-46. The last jam of the first half now looked to be a momentum change in the Prix Madonnas favor.

The Pistolwhippers weren't giving up though, and at the end of the 5th jam, they were only down 77-67.

I've been wondering if the shortened penalty time will reduce the number of big game changing plays. Nothing gets the crowd more alive then seeing a team score over 20 points in one play, and completely change the bout's direction. Will a reduction in big scoring drives result in a reduction of crowd enthusiasm? The second half of this bout was proving that big plays can still happen. Sista scored 25 unanswered points in the 8th jam, and then Off The Hook shot back in the 9th with 23 unanswered points of her own. In both instances you could see that the prevailing jammer was being aided by superior endurance.

Off The Hook made another big drive in the 15th, adding 15 points for her team. That left the 'Whippers just 5 points shy of the Madonnas' 117, the closest the score had been since the end of the 2nd half's 1st jam.

The Madonnas were up by 12 points going into the 21st and final jam of the bout, and they did what they do in every final jam; put Racer McChaseHer in as jammer. Lazer Beam got sent to the penalty, keeping her point total to just 4, whereas Racer achieved 14. After a tough challenge that put the Grand Prix Madonnas' dominance of the league in question, they came out with a 144-122, and completed their second consecutive undefeated regular season.



A few concise remarks from Captains Lazer Beam and Cotton Candy Princess of the Pistolwhippers:

Detroit Area Dork: What are you thinking about that bout right now?
Lazer Beam: I think that the Whippers played extremely well. I'm disappointed. Obviously I'm disappointed. I feel like our team really came together. We skated hard. We played well.
D: You led the bout for most of the first half. How did the Grand Prix Madonnas take the momentum back?
L: The refs were calling penalties on our jammers. That's how it happened. The jammers started going to the box.
D: What do you about this rule change for the penalty times?
L: Love it.
D: Do you think this helps your team, since you have a lot of jammer penalty issues?
L: Absolutely.
D: What's next for the Pistolwhippers?
L: The Pistoffs.
Cottoncandy Princess: We battle for third place.
D: How are you going to be preparing for the Pistoffs?
L: Going to come to practice and working hard.
C: Agree.
D: Now that you've played for the first time under the new penalty rules, how does it affect the way you play?
C: It really doesn't.
L: No, I don't think so. Our managers have to be more conscious of when people start getting penalties, so players don't foul out. It's quicker to foul out now, because it's only thirty seconds. So it's oppurtunity to get more penalties. As far as us playing, I don't think we changed the way we played at all. I think maybe you have to have better cardio. You don't get that minute break. You only get thirty seconds.
D: Did anyone come close to fouling out?
Both: No.

Captains Racer McChaseHer and Peaches N. CreamYa:

Detroit Area Dork: What are you thinking right now about that bout?
Racer McChaseHer: Whew, that was a close one.
Peaches: They've been a little too close for comfort this whole season, so I think we've kind of settled into that by now.
D: The Pistolwhippers were leading at many times through-out this bout, but you seemed to change the momentum in the second half. How did you change your gameplay?
R: We just tried to adjust to the reasons that we thought they were staying ahead of us and tried to focus on ways to keep their score low. Obviously it was a low scoring game. It was only 41-46 at halftime, because we both had pretty good defense on both sides. We tried to amp up a couple things to lock them down a little bit better.
P: We noticed a couple things we weren't doing well. We called them out in the locker room. We said we were going to work on them, and we came back out, and we did it.
D: What weren't you doing in the first half?
P: I don't think we were holding our walls well enough. We weren't holding the jammer long enough to get our jammer out. I don't know. What did you see?
R: I think they had an incredible offense, and I think we weren't ready for it. I think they had a jump on us. They were more reactive than we were. We were just a little delayed in responding. They were blowing through our walls on the line, so we had to buckle down a little bit.
D: What do you think of this rule change in regards to penalty times?
R: The thirty second penalties I'm a big fan of. Especially the power jams. I've played a lot more than I've watched. It keeps the game going, and it's not as big of a punishment when you don't have a moment to think about what you did wrong.
P: Unless you're like me and get one minute at a time today. Then I did get a full minute to think about it. There's some things I like about the new rules, and some things I don't. I'm not sure that the changes really helped out the things they were intended to help, but that's just one person's opinion here.
D: What was it intended to help?
P: The passive offense. If you have a shorter time in the box for the jammer, then people are going to play active offense, as opposed to caterpillaring back, and letting the jammer have the footage to get out of the pack. People still play passive offense, even if they only have thirty seconds though.
D: Were you surprised to have so many double-digit score advances in the second half without the longer penalties?
R: Actually I was, because there were two different jams, I believe Sis may have jammed both of them, where she was going around, and we had their jammer locked up. It just kind of worked in our favor. We had the jammer on lockdown, and our jammer kept going. She kept zigzagging through people.
P: Sis did an amazing job today, for sure. There were several jams where we just locked the jammer down, and their walls couldn't get it back together. She just zigzagged right through.
D: What's next fot the Grand Prix Madonnas?
R: The championship. June 7th.
D: Versus who?
R: D-Funk Allstars. Repeat champioins. That's right. That's what we're going for.
D: When you played them during the season, you only beat them by one point. How are you going to prepare for them this time?
R: I can't tell you that, because you're going to report this, so I'm not going to answer the question.
P: That's going to be our little secret right now. We'll tell you after that game, how about that? Nothing at all. Just practice. Practice, practice, practice.
D: Any thoughts about the previous game against D-Funk?
R: It was tough, obviously. It was a one point game. It literally came down to the last jam. I don't think we want that to happen again. I'm sure they're doing the same thing.
P: Going into the next game with D-Funk, we want to make sure we control that game. We want to make sure they're playing our game, and we're not playing their's. That's going to be the focus.

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 With a face for radio, a voice for print, and the prose of a new immigrant, I'll stick to amateur blogging