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#18 Atlanta Holds Off #23 Kansas City

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Wed May 26 2010 10:48pm

Photo: Phil Peterson.

ATLANTA, GA -- Atlanta continued their march up the WFTDA South Central rankings by taking down the second-ranked team in the region in a close one that turned mostly on a fatal series of jammer penalties for KCRW -- and some effective power-jam exploitation by Atlanta -- right at the end of the first half.

Atlanta held a 5-0 lead after two jams, but Kansas City took over the lead on the third jam and managed to hold it at about 15 to 20 points for the great majority of the half. It wasn't until there were about 5 minutes to play in the half that Atlanta got their big break, as Kansas City lost their jammer to the penalty box on each of the period's last three jams. Atlanta's lead was never larger than 26 points, but they led for the whole second half and won 124-111.

With the score 47-30 favoring KCRW, Kansas City jammer Bella Fire hit the penalty box on a 4th minor and the opposing Merchant of Menace scored a 9-0. On the very next jam, it was Ruth Canal's turn to get boxed, and ATL's Wheelin' Jennings took the 15-0 jam win to put Atlanta in lead, 54-47. And to end a rough series for the visitors, Bruz-Her got boxed and Atlanta confounded the Kansas City pack with some effective positional play that gave ATL jammer Alassin Sane room to go 14-0. Suddenly Atlanta had gone on a 38-0 run to end the half and lead 68-47 at the break.

As it turned out, the second half was a reverse image of the first, now featuring Atlanta barely up and trying to protect a narrow 15-20 point lead from a tenacious Kansas City crew. With 15 minutes left to play, the score was only one digit off from its halftime margin of 21, with Atlanta leading 102-82.

Atlanta's largest lead was 26 points at 111-85 with 12 minutes left to play, but Kansas City charged back to narrow it to just 9 points at 116-107 with five minutes to play. After a scoreless jam, a 5-0 from Wheelin' Jennings over Track Rat gave Atlanta important breathing room at 121-107 with 2:35 left -- and in the remaining three jams, Kansas City could only pick up one lead jammer call, leaving them unable to erase the deficit.

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