By Colt Langley/sports editor

Absent players have become a problem for some teams in the third week of basketball intramurals at NE Campus.

In the first game, the Titans beat the Akron Hammers by a score of 50-38. With a low turnout of players, the Akron Hammers lost for the second week in a row while the Titans moved on undefeated.

Sugil Baskaran of the Titans had impressive moves on the court that helped his team win.

“It feels good to be 3-0. If we get to play in the championship, then the credit goes to our teammates,” Baskaran said. “That’s what pulled out our victory today.”

Baskaran also said the Akron Hammers just couldn’t keep it together.

“They kind of just didn’t play like a team. They just kind of fell apart, and they kept getting mad at each other,” he said.

Emily Cain said she had focus coming into the game.

“This was the one game I was focused on winning, so I’m feeling pretty awesome,” Cain said.

In the next game, the Aztecs defeated the Wolfpack, 56-26.

Even though the first half of the game had little scoring, each team played hard.

James Davenport of the Aztecs said his team still has more work to do.

“We won by 30, but there’s still room for a lot of improvement,” he said. “We could have done a lot of things better, so we better be ready to win in the championship.”

Aztecs captain Cesar Martinez said their upcoming opponent is a difficult team to beat.

“Next week, we’re going to play the Untouchables,” he said. “I think it’s going to be the best game of the season because that team has been playing together since high school. That’s going to be fun to see.”

Martinez said this isn’t his first season playing in intramural basketball.

“I’ve been playing for three years, and I think the Untouchables are a good team. But they need to prove it,” Martinez said.

Kareen Momo of the Wolfpack said his team lacks communication.

“I came ready to play,” Momo said. “My mindset was to win and not to lose. I tried to contribute everything I had to my team, but we still could have done better. We’re not communicating. We have got to speak to each other. Last week, it [the game] was already over at the beginning. This week, we had a chance, but we just didn’t fight to the finish.”

Momo’s teammate Kyle Holt said his team gave up early on in the game.

“We need to not give up so early. We need to keep the hustle going,” he said. “Going into the second half, we had a chance to win, but we got a little too tired and didn’t rotate our subs enough to keep fresh legs in the game.”

Holt said the Aztecs passed the ball well.

“They seemed like they were well-prepared, like they play more often than us,” he said. “They also cycled the ball and kept cutting through the key to generate scoring opportunities.”

Shaun Williams of the Aztecs said this wasn’t one of their best games despite the win.

“We’re going to have to play better next week,” Williams said. “Last week, our offenses and defenses played inside the whole game. This week, we went against that, which made the game so poor.”

“It was an ugly game to watch until we got our act together.”

In the third game, the Untouchables defeated the Chupacabras, 63-54.

Because the Chupacabras were missing some of their players, Wolfpack team members filled in. Ryan Parnell of the Chupacabras said his team had a chance to win.

“There was a time where it was pretty much tied,” Parnell said. “I think we were up about one, so we were playing good. I just hope more of our guys show up next week and that we play good.”

The Untouchables kept their undefeated streak going.

However, Scott Hektner said his team shouldn’t be cocky even if they are undefeated.

“Well, we’re only undefeated until we play the next best team,” he said. “I went out there to play hard, and our team played good enough to win.”

NE intramural director Bart Desender said he thinks next week will have more action.

“I don’t think the games or the scores were as close this time. I think next week will be a whole lot more competitive,” Desender said.

Reese Peters, who helped keep score for the games, said he enjoyed each game.

“I thought it was real fun,” Peters said. “The teams were evenly matched, and I think everybody had a really good time.”