By: Brian Bowers’16
Another season of Intramural Basketball is in the books, and this one did not fail to excite. Going into the play-offs the heavy favorites were teams Omar and The Mighty Ducks, the two senior teams.
While the top four teams had byes in the first round, the first round went just about as expected, with the exception of the Sexy XC vs. Chainz game. While Sexy XC went defeated throughout the regular season, Chainz had a couple victories, but lost many key players, and limped into the playoffs. One of these players was Robbie Johnson ’16 who shattered his ankle in the last game of the season against their rivals The Abusement Park. Sexy XC was still clearly the underdog in this game, but they scouted their opponent and formed a game plan that was guaranteed to work. Sophomore Matt Lico describes the game plan “We knew they didn’t have any subs to put in, so we used our endurance to our advantage, and ran them out of the gym.”
It started off as a close game, but Chainz started to wear down, and a couple of three pointers down the stretch by Yonas Habte ’16 helped Sexy XC pull away with the victory.
This same game plan did not, however, work against Omar, despite a deep three by Ben Wagstaff ’16 with a minute to go, Sexy XC lost by over 30 points. Also in the first round Get Some was able to hold off Mr. Ellinger and the Pawn Stars (chess team), and the Abusement Park abused (pun intended) Whiteout. The top freshman team The Dretones were dismantled by Victorious Secret, which they blame on the tough and “unfair” draw.
In the second round The Mighty Ducks easily defeated The Abusement Park, and the Wreck Them’s barely held off Get Some in a close game. However, the most exciting game of the year came between Victorious Secret and Brick$quad. It was a triple overtime thriller in which no one scored in either of the first two overtimes. Jonathan Kalfayn ’15 hit a layup with 30 seconds left to put Victorious Secret up by two. With a few seconds left Ryan Orr ’15 dribbled down the court and got fouled shooting a layup, he got the ball at the top of the key with 3 seconds left, then missed a deep three with a man in his face, and Victorious Secret advanced. In the Semifinals, The Mighty Ducks easily defeated Victorious Secret, and Omar beat out the Wrecked Them’s in a fairly close game.
The Championship matchup was scripted from the beginning of the season. Omar pulled out with an early lead of 14-4 in the first ten minutes, but the Mighty Ducks never gave in. They came all the way back to take the lead with a few minutes left when their shots finally began to fall, and Omar started to turn the ball over. Omar pulled it back in close, but missed a deep well contested three as time expired to give the Mighty Ducks a hard fought two point victory.
