By Manu Pacheco/reporter
South Campus intramural basketball fired off last week with its first games of the league Feb. 25.
The Buckets topped the Bears, 64-58, while the Blues outscored the Reds, 73-65.
The Buckets dominated the first half of its game with a halftime score of 31-23. Player Dilante Brooks helped give the team a good advantage over the Bears before the break. With 14 points, Brooks led the scoring in the first half.
“The key was boxing out the rebounds and pushing the ball forward,” Brooks said when asked for the key factor to Tuesday’s win. “But defense and free throws are some of the things we still need to work on.”
In the second half, the story changed, and the Bears worked their way up the scoreboard pointing out the Buckets’ main weakness, defense.
The Bears led the score most of the second half with big help from player Keyonté, who scored 20 points by the end of the game.
“I felt good about it, competitive and had fun,” Keyonté said to sum up his first game. “If we get back on defense and tighten the offense, we should be all right.”
Even though the Bears fought hard in the second half, the Buckets held strong and walked out with their first win.
The second match of the day between the Reds and the Blues was thrilling.
The Reds worked hard and led the first half with a five-point lead over the Blues with balanced teamwork from all their players.
However, the Blues were determined to pick up the pace and give the Reds a much harder time in the second half.
Led by Gabe Breckenridge, the Blues kept the Reds from slipping away and flipped the score toward the last five minutes of the match.
“We had the breakers on the first half and a good defense,” Breckenridge said. “We had to drive more in the beginning but got more shots in the second half, and that gave us the win.”
Breckenridge scored 20 points, and he and his teammates held a good defense that ultimately wore the Reds down.
“The other team got their groove on and started shooting,” said Jordan Thomas. “We played well, but we got tired toward the end, and they got a lot more rebounds which weighted us.”