By Matt Fulkerson/sports editor
The NE Campus’ 5-on-5 basketball season ended Feb. 28 with WLM walking away as the campus champions.
The monthlong tournament whittled the competition down to three teams: the Buckets, WLM and Unknown. The top two teams, WLM and Unknown, faced off in a best-of-three games.
Taha Eleniza of WLM was a force to be reckoned with as he racked up 19 points throughout the first half of the first game.
Unknown, coming off a game with the Buckets earlier in the day, could not keep up with WLM and suffered their first loss of the tournament, 61-46.
In the second game of the finals, Unknown burst out of the gate determined not to repeat its previous performance. Dom Brookins snagged five 3-point shots during the first half and helped to keep the two teams neck and neck.
Throughout the second half, the two teams continued to battle back and forth, but it was WLM who walked away the victors, 66-64, to clinch the title.
“We were just determined to win today and had some great players on the court,” Eleniza said.
In the first game of the day, Unknown defeated the Buckets, 71-51. Anshuk Thapa was the star of the game for Unknown with a constant barrage of 3-point shots.
With 11 minutes left in the game, Brett Lewis of the Buckets was sidelined with an injury.
“I was reaching for the ball and my thumb hit it at an angle, and I felt it pop out of joint,” Lewis said.
The Buckets could not recover and left the tournament in third place.
NE student Parker Cortina-Shay of Unknown gave much of the credit for the team’s only win to Thapa.
“It was a team effort, but he really spread the floor,” Cortina-Shay said.
