By John Harden/sports editor
More than 60 students and two faculty members participated Friday in the first four games of NE Campus’ 5-on-5 basketball league competition.
Teams were numbered instead of creating their own names.
Four games were played, and Teams One and Two debuted in the first game with Team One claiming the first win of the afternoon.
In the first half, Teams One and Two seemed evenly matched. Team One’s Mitchell Zewlit and Dustin Myers helped their team offensively scoring eight and six points, respectively.
At the end of the half, Team One held a 21-16 lead.
In the second half, Team One went on a 20-9 run, which carried the team to its first win, 41-25.
NE student Dolyn Mayo, who decided not to play this semester, said he’s taking on the role of coach for Teams One and Five.
Following the win of Team One, Mayo said he believes his team is unstoppable.
“I put this team together,” he said. “And I only choose winners.”
Team Two’s Famar Kabut and Chris Cooper scored nine and six points, respectively, but that wasn’t enough to win.
Teams Three and Four met in the second game of the afternoon, and Team Three won despite having a first-half slump.
Team Three began smoothly leading Team Four 15-4. Midway through the half, Team Four went on an 11-point run, and the half ended at 15-15.
Team Three rebounded in the second half taking and maintaining the lead. Chris Goodman scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half keeping Team Four at bay.
Halfway through the second half, Team Four entered a slump of its own. Going five minutes without scoring, Team Four handed the game to Team Three, which closed the game with a score of 39-25.
Team Four’s Adrian Neely scored six points, and Rafael Escobedo knocked down eight points, but their efforts could not give their team the win.
After winning the previous game, Team Three had no time to rest. They played in the next game against Team Two.
Team Three had a repeat performance and used free throws late in the game to acquire another win.
At the beginning of the second half, the score was tied at 27.
With regulation coming to an end, Team Two trailed 40-36 with 34 seconds left.
Team Two tried fouling to stop the clock but also sent Team Three’s Greg Roberts to the free-throw line.
Roberts buried each of his attempts and decreased Team Two’s chances of winning.
Roberts made one more trip to the free-throw line before the buzzer and delivered, scoring two more points for his team.
Roberts ended the game with 12 points helping his team win, 44-36.
The fourth and final game of round one paired up Teams Five and Six in a game that took an extra three minutes to decide the winner.
Team Five won the initial tipoff, but Team Six’s Donny Manor managed a quick steal and scored the first two points of the game.
Manor stole the ball two more times and managed to score each time. In under a minute, Manor gave his team a six-point lead.
Team Five’s defense recovered and fought off Manor’s offense and took the lead at the end of the half 50-43.
By the end of the second half, the score was tied. An extra three minutes of overtime was needed to decide a winner.
With the score tied at 55, Team Six looked to Manor to lead them to victory, but Manor’s heat had cooled off in overtime.
Instead, Team Five’s TJ Hernandez led his team to the win and closed the game with the final six points. Team Five won the match 61-59.
Watching the game from the bleachers, NE student Jonathan Guess said he liked that the school holds sport competitions.
“I’ve been going here for a long time, and I didn’t know that they had basketball competitions,” he said. “It was very entertaining seeing how many students thought they were Kobe [Bryant].”
Round two of the tournament begins Friday. Tipoff begins at 1 p.m. in the NE gym.
