After long awaitment, the Pinckney's returned to competition this week completing two secondary sports: The JaMarcus Russell Adventure and The Big Splash Strike.
The JaMarcus Russell Adventure, a competition of gruelingly difficult QB accuracy tests, was a sport both competitors were in desperate need of as the competition remained tight. In stage one, cone taking outages, Matthew knocked over three out of the six cones for a 3 point completion of the stage. Joel, on the other hand, didn't. In the second and most difficult stage, the miniscule window bomb pass, Matthew landed the ball in the target three out of the 15 attempts for a total of 6 points in the competition. Joel, on the other hand, didn't. Matthew won by a margin of 6 points giving him a total of 40 points for the competition and a 35 point lead on the overall scoreboard.
The next day the Pinckney brothers competed in the Big Splash Strike. A team of 7 judges were assembled and the splashing began. The competition is split into 10 rounds. In each round both players take a jump and the judges decide who's splash was bigger in that individual round. The winner of the round gets a point. After completion of 10 rounds, the player with the most points wins. If players are tied at 5 - 5 after 10, sudden death rounds are played.
Matthew jumped to a powerful lead early on, leading 3-1 and then 4-2. With one more round-point he would prevent defeat in regulation, but suddenly, he hit cold. Joel's splashes became showy, and the judges liked his showiness. Matthew, frustrated and flustered, failed to respond. Joel won three rounds in a row, putting Matthew in a do-or-die situation. Joel jumped first, displacing an impressive amount of water. Matthew took a deep breath and pounded off the board like a stampede of wild elephants across the plains of Africa. He hit the water with authority and bested Joel's previous splash, sending the competition into overtime.
Matthew jumped first in overtime and completely shanked his splash, putting in a terrible round. It looked like the win for Joel but in an interesting turn of events, Joel shanked a jump as well. The judges decided that both jumps were equally bad, taking the game into double overtime. This time Joel jumped first and won cheers from the judges with a powerful dislocation of aqua. But Matthew wasn't intimidated. He finally brought his A-game to the pool taking the round, and the competition, giving himself 25 points; no points for a margin of victory.
After a lead change in each consecutive competition since the end of Basketball, Matthew was finally able to maintain hold a lead for two competitions, extending his lead to 60 points; putting the scoreboard at Matthew; 330 : Joel; 270.
the game 21 - 15 and taking a 8 - 7 lead in the series. Joel responded in the second game like an angry mother bear whose cub had just been attacked by an angry bee. He took an early lead over Matthew and in the second game threatening to tie the series once again. But Matthew wasn't going down easy. He fought back like Spartan from the movie 
drove to the hoop but pulled up half way and blasted the ball through the hoop, putting himself a point away from winning the game. Matthew gathered himself together like a hen gathering her chicks. He looked at the ball, then looked at the hoop, as if to say, "Hello ball. I would like you to go there, please." The ball must have given him an affirmative response, because when he pulled up for the jump shot, it traveled through space and time, jumping through the circular rim like a circus animal jumping through a hoop. Matthew had won the game 21 - 20 and taken a huge 9 - 7 lead in the series.
been contained for a long while and he was ready to be unleashed. He took the ball in his hand and like an utterly parched man takes pure filtered water into his stomach. The hoop stared at him as if to say, "Hey, remember yesterday when I welcomed the ball from your hands? I would love to welcome it once again. I'm feeling very hospitable today!" Matthew drove to the hole, crossed the ball from his right hand to his left, pulled it 
