Team 2 takes intramural title

By Maggie Thach

There’s more on the line than just a championship shirt for some intramural basketball participants.

For many, reaching and winning the championship game is an accomplishment that brings pride and a year’s worth of bragging rights.

The Freeballers’ E.J. Edmerson, a junior computer science major, knew this before taking his team to the Division I championship game, which Team 2 won 49-40 over the Freeballers.

The Freeballers went through the regular season unbeaten, tying one game. Despite the team’s lack of playing time together, Edmerson felt he had recruited an all-star team.

“ I recruited a lot,” Edmerson said. “We had 10 guys on our team with 10 different personalities.”

Edmerson recruited shooting guards and big post men alike. He said he wanted to have depth on the team, feeling that this would be the X-factor in winning the championship.

“ We have the big men and the shooters,” Edmerson said. “We have the perfect balance. We have depth because we have that inside-outside game.”

The lack of playing time together almost cost them the semifinal game against Half Baked.

“ We started the Final Four relaxed,” Edmerson said. “Playing on the big court opened up the game. We were up big but they made a few 3-pointers. They were aggressive. At the end, it was a close game but we stuck it out.”

Tim Walsh, a junior English major and shooting guard for the Freeballers, knew they were the underdogs coming into the championship game against Team 2.

The high intensity of the game was evident as soon as the whistle blew.

“ I knew that it was going to be a very fast-paced, full-court pressed game,” intramurals director Bart Ballard said. “It was a very tough game for officials to call.”

With the score tied 24-24 at the half, officials felt the pressure of making all the right calls.

“ As a ref, all you can do is meet the demands of both teams,” said official Dan Ascacio, a post-graduate criminology major. “We just try to be as consistent as we can.”

The second half was a different story. Team 2 dominated with its running game and converted its free throws down the stretch.

But the Freeballers kept the hope after hitting a layup high off the glass, cutting the lead to three points with 1 minute, 18 seconds left on the clock. But, hopes of winning dissipated as the scoreboard read 45-40 with 1:01 on the clock and Team 2 on the free throw line.

“ They are a good team,” said Marcus McNeal, a sophomore business management major who plays for the Freeballers. “They had big men and scorers. It was up for grabs but I knew it was going to be a tough battle.”

Up by nine with the clock winding down, Team 2's Stephen Spach passed it up to leading scorer Jordan Brice for the attempted dunk but it fell short.

“ I haven’t dunked since high school,” said Brice, who led all scorers with 19 points. “It feels good to win, though. We won last year so we had to take it to them. We had to test their will and tonight, we prevailed.”