Recapping Our 2-0 Weekend

It was an amazing weekend of basketball for the Raleigh Firebirds, who currently have one of the best records in the TBL! I’m here to recap it all for you today, in case you missed out on any of the action:

Our first game (Friday evening) was against the Coastal Georgia Buccaneers, the only returning team in our division from last year (besides us). Boy, was this game a battle! It stayed close for the entire game, with neither team leading by 10 or more points. At halftime, the Firebirds led by three, 48-45.

At the end of the third quarter, the Bucs were up by four, which set the stage for a crazy fourth quarter. New guard Donte Tatum has been crucial for this team down the stretch, as he had several key buckets and defensive stops (he finished with 17 points). It was and-one from Tatum that put the Firebirds up 101-99 with just under two minutes left. Two possessions later, after a timeout, Tatum stole the Bucs’ inbounds pass. With only 32 seconds left, the Bucs had no choice but to foul him as he sprinted to the other end. He went 1-for-2, but the Firebirds were up by too many at that point. The final score was 105-100.

If you think that game was crazy, our Sunday game against the Jacksonville 95ers went into overtime! Thankfully, the first overall draft pick from the 2024 TBL Draft (7’3” Chris Sodom 😳) couldn’t make the trip, setting the stage for the Firebird bigs to have a feast.

6’8” Jerome Cunningham finished with 22 points, 16 rebounds, and 3 blocks as no one from the 95ers could slow him down. His free-throw shooting, a concern from other games, was on point as he went 10-for-11 from the charity stripe. Our two-time TBL All-Star Dreko Palmer had a bit of an off night, but that’s one of the amazing things about having such a deep team this year: whenever one guy is off, other players are capable of stepping up and filling that role. In our first game of the season, Tre Gray surprised everyone; in this game, Ahmad Abdullah led the charge with 23 points, shooting 53.5% from the field and 50% from three.

Both teams shot 9-for-27 (33%) from three overall, but the Firebirds made a few of those in key moments in overtime, while the 95ers struggled in the clutch (there were a few airballs 🤫). Abdullah hit a key pull-up three in transition to put the Firebirds up. It was one of those shots where you think to yourself “No no no no no…YES!” The Firebirds won by seven after the 95ers had to keep fouling to stop the clock (127-120), making them the only undefeated team in the Southeast Division.

If that’s not a successful weekend of basketball, then I don’t know what is! Overall, we had around 700 fans over the weekend to watch the Firebirds, and a few hundred more on streaming. While this is a great start, I know we can do better! This isn’t some run-of-the-mill, crummy semi-pro team; this is one of the best teams in one of the top basketball leagues in the world. There are only six teams in the TBL who remain undefeated (not counting the West Virginia Grind, who have only played one game), and the Firebirds are one of them. This is elite basketball the Firebirds are playing, and we’re just getting started. Make sure you get tickets to our games here, including…a game on a schoolday this week???? I’ll be talking more about that Wednesday morning, so stay tuned!

-Tex