Weekend in Review, 4/12/2010

By Derby News Network, Last updated Tue Apr 27 2010 12:28pm

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#2 Gotham 201, #11 Charm City 75 -- Read the archived boutcast; see the photo gallery from Craig Lammes.

#16 Cincinnati 68, #20 Dallas 66 -- An exceptionally low-scoring opening bout for the 2010 Franky Panky looked certain to be an upset win for Dallas, but an extremely poorly timed penalty avalanche in the last three jams allowed Cincinnati to score 24 unanswered points and take a last-second comeback win.

Through the first few jams of the bout, neither team was able to grab more than a few points per jam, with the lead switching hands multiple times. With 20 minutes gone in the bout, the score was only 20-16 favoring Cincinnati. Dallas finally got a relatively big jam when Roxie La Roo rolled through on a powerjam for 12-0 that gave Dallas the lead at 28-22. Dallas added ten more points before the end of that half to get the biggest point separation of the game at 38-22 at the halftime break.

As the second half played out, Dallas' punishing defense seemed like it was going to give them the victory. Their lead got as big as 27 points at 60-33 with only 11 minutes to play, and with Cincinnati unable to bust any big jams, it looked like it was over with Dallas up 66-44 with 5 minutes to play.

However, there were no more points for Dallas -- and a few big breaks for Cincinnati. After pulling a 2-0 for Hannah Ouchocinco, Cincy took full advantage of Dallas' Miley Virus getting boxed, and K Lethal ran up Cincy's biggest jam of the night with a 17-0, getting Cincy within just 3 points at 66-63.

After a Cincy timeout, they still had a short powerjam and Sadistic Sadie jamming against a 2-2 pack. Sadie used that time to get lead jammer, but Miley Virus rushed out of the box to follow her through. Though both skaters got into the pack for a scoring pass, Sadie got out with 5 and called it before Miley could grab a single point. Cincy scored more than a third of their point total in the final three jams, giving them a dramatic 2 point win, 68-66. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Read DNN's archived boutcast.

#20 Dallas 131, Tampa Bay 111 -- Dallas took the lead in this bout 5 minutes in and held it for the rest of the bout. For the second time in two games, though, they gave up a lot of points late and made what looked like a sure win into a momentary nailbiter. In a conclusion marred by a rare flat-track fight, Dallas managed to hold off Tampa and claim a 20 point victory.

Tampa was up 9-0 after two jams, but the Dallas scoring engine got going quickly, and by the time 15 minutes were gone, Dallas had doubled up Tampa at 36-15. The majority of the rest of the half saw Tampa stubbornly hang in there in an increasingly physical bout, but with 4 minutes left in the half and the score 66-32 for Dallas, Dallas dropped 25 unanswered points in the last two jams to claim what looked like an insurmountable lead at 91-32 at the half.

The home team chipped away doggedly for the second half and didn't lose any more ground, but with Dallas up 109-66 with 12 minutes to play, it looked like it was just a matter of time. Just when they needed it, though, Tampa Bay got some powerjams and exploited them effectively -- secondary jammer Bash'em Up Barbie took 15-3 and Little A followed with 10-0. Suddenly it was 112-96 with about 8 minutes to play and Tampa was just 16 points away from the lead after being down by 59 at the half.

With 4 minutes left and Dallas up 127-97, the nail in the Tampa coffin was a major forearm call on their jammer Sixgun Susie -- but that jam ended in spectacular fashion when Tampa blocker Punkin went down tangled up with Dallas' Rink Panther and then rolled back-and-forth over her a couple of times rather than let her up. Rink lost her cool and swung at her on the way up, Punkin swung back, and it quickly became a referee pileup as the officials scrambled to separate the two. Rink Panther inflamed some tensions further by throwing her helmet into a jeering crowd before leaving; both she and Punkin found themselves ejected from the tournament on that action.

On the scoreboard, though, there was no real path to a Tampa comeback with Susie still in the box. Tampa cut 10 more points off the lead before it was all over, but ran out of time to complete the comeback. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Read the archived boutcast.

#16 Cincinnati 164, Tallahassee 55 -- Though the first two Franky Panky bouts had featured some intense conclusions, Cincinnati didn't leave the door open long enough for Tallahassee to make it three. Tally stayed within shouting distance for most of the first half, down 39-20 with about 15 minutes before the break and still within a manageable 30 points with 5 minutes to go at 59-29.

Unfortunately for the home state fans, the bottom completely fell out during those last 5 minutes -- Tallahassee jammer Low Maim lost her helmet cover, missed picking it up on her next pass, and then got sent to the box for skating in the wrong direction to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Cincy's K Lethal put up a 20-0. On the following jam, Tally jammer Stoneher was boxed twice in quick succession, leaving the floor open for Cherry Choke to roll to a 10-0. Suddenly, the margin had doubled in just two jams.

Cincy took a 89-29 lead into the break and avoided the late near-collapse that plagued Dallas against Tampa. The second half played out 75-26 for Cincinnati, more or less like the first one. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Read the archived boutcast.

#20 Dallas 173, Tallahassee 32 -- Apparently uninterested in reliving the late-game drama of their first two bouts, Dallas burst out of the gate with a 34-1 run over the opening 15 minutes of the bout. By the time Tallahassee had doubled their total, Dallas had the done the same and more, up 78-2 with only 4 minutes left in the first half. By halftime, it was mostly a done deal as Dallas had broken triple digits while Tally was still stuck in singles, 105-8.

Continuing to run a very effective 4-jammer rotation of Anita Riot, Hot 4 Teacher, Miley Virus and Roxie LaRoo, Dallas went to easily claim the biggest rout of the tournament, putting up a 141-win to finish their weekend with 2 wins and 1 loss. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Read the archived boutcast.

#16 Cincinnati 141, Tampa Bay 74-- For the majority of the first half of this one, it looked like Tampa Bay was one big jam away from being right with Cincinnati, but Cincy allowed no significant point swings for Tampa. On top of that, much like in Saturday's game against Tallahassee, Cincy nailed their opponent with two big jams near the end of the half that moved the margin from manageable to imposing.

Although Cincy had established a 25-1 lead over the first 10 minutes and was up 40-7 with 9 minutes to play, most of their jams were narrow single-pass wins. With about 5 minutes left in the half, Tampa was still hanging in there, down 44-12, but back-to-back jammer penalties on Tampa's Little A and Sixgun Suzie allowed Hannah Ouchocinco and K Lethal to drop a 35-7 run over the last two jams.

Tampa was down 79-19 at the half, and Cincy's lead spent most of the second half flirting with the 100 point range. They were up by 80 at 133-53 with 7 minutes to go, but Tampa had a strong set of last jams, keyed by Sixgun Susie and Little A, and outscored Cincy 21-8 in the final stretch to give the vocal hometown crowd a run to cheer them out on.

Cincy was the sole undefeated team of the weekend with a 3-0 record. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Read the archived boutcast.

Tampa Bay 156, Tallahassee 60 -- This event-concluding meeting between the two Florida team started out looking like it might be back and forth before Tampa Bay took solid control in the last 10 minutes of the first half. The lead switched twice in the opening 10, leaving Tampa up by a mere point at 12-11 over Tallahassee.

The middle part of the half was marked by small but effective jam margins getting consistently piled up on Tampa's side. As the game entered the last third of the half, Tally was within striking distance at 42-25, but Tampa got a string of big jams and stymied Tally by posting a 33-2 run to close the half at 75-27 Tampa.

The second half ended with almost the exact same score margin, as Tampa Bay continued to pile the points up for Sixgun Susie, Lunch Lady, Little A and Flirtin W Disaster. Tampa's win left them with the weekend's third-best record at 1-2 while Tallahassee was the sole winless team at 0-3. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Read the archived boutcast.