Ty McGee powers Wrath past Lava and Gryphons, up to third place

Ty McGee came back from injury and changed the standings in one Friday afternoon. In two games, the Wrath guard from Littleton, Colorado, piled up 65 points, 11 assists, nine loose ball recoveries and seven hits, carrying the Wrath to a 66-61 win over the Lava and a 70-60 win over the Gryphons that pushed them to 5-3 and ahead of the 5-4 Slashers for third place.

That is the kind of swing SlamBall can produce when a featured scorer walks back into the lineup. Games run only 20 minutes with a running clock, so every possession carries extra weight, and McGee made the format work for him. Against the Lava, he scored 34 points while the Wrath dealt with a Lava team missing Bryce Moragne because of an ankle issue. Josh Shannon and Faysal Shafaat still made the game awkward, but McGee’s return from concussion protocol gave the Wrath the finishing burst they had been missing.

The second win was even more important for the title picture. The Wrath followed the Lava result by beating the Gryphons 70-60, turning one strong return into a two-game climb up the table. In a league where elite individual runs can decide an entire weekend, McGee’s 65-point session was more than a hot streak. It gave the Wrath a ceiling they simply did not have without him, and it showed up immediately in the standings.

The afternoon’s first game, though, showed why SlamBall remains a sport built around pressure plays, not just scoring binges. The Gryphons edged the Rumble 60-57 in overtime after Richard Washington tied it by hitting his fourth four-pointer of the contest with 15 seconds left. On the other end, Justin Holmes was perfect on offensive face-offs at 9-for-9 and went 4-for-5 on defense, a reminder of how central face-offs are in a league where defensive contact on the island can trigger one. Holmes also authored one of the day’s cleanest sequences, rejecting a face-off attempt before dunking over the same opponent on offense.

KyShawn Jones added another giant line for the Gryphons, finishing the session with 66 points and 14 loose ball recoveries. That production mattered because loose ball recoveries are tracked in SlamBall, and Jones was winning the possession battle as much as the scoring race. The session also reinforced how fast the league can tilt: one star return, one overtime grinder, and one late surge were enough to reshape the title chase before the night was over.