By Matt Fulkerson/sports editor
After five weeks of games, We Trash emerged the victors in SE Campus’ 5-on-5 basketball tournament April 5.
In the final game, We Trash won a hard-fought battle against the Triple D Allstarz, 48-46.
The championship game featured an intense back and forth between two teams who hadn’t faced off since the first game of the season.
We Trash, who went undefeated throughout the past five weeks, suffered a rough start and finished the first half down by six points.
“We just got really frustrated out there,” said We Trash team member Denzel Winston. “We’ve never been down at halftime and didn’t know how to deal with it.”
The frustration was apparent as team members spent the break heatedly discussing their mistakes and planning their next moves.
We Trash member Blair Moffat said he felt their major problem was keeping possession of the ball and shoring up their defensive strategy.
“We’ve got to stop them at the basket and quit the turnovers,” he said. “That’s the only way we’re going to get past these guys.”
In the first three minutes of the second half, the new strategy seemed to be serving We Trash well as it finally moved past Triple D on the scoreboard.
In the last two minutes of the game, We Trash held a two-point lead, but that was quickly erased as Marcell Kiper sank a 3-point shot, followed by another two points from George Ankle Jr.
With only 10 seconds remaining in the game, Lawrence Hardin of We Trash knocked down a 3-point shot bringing the score to 45-45 and sending the game into overtime.
In overtime, nine seconds remained on the clock, and it looked as though the game might go into another overtime round until Hardin grabbed another two points for We Trash and guaranteed its victory.
In the semifinals leading up to the championship game, Triple D Allstarz squeezed by the Free Agents, 53-50, and We Trash dealt a massive blow to Murderfield Mafia, 66-36.
Triple D and Free Agents were evenly matched throughout the game, and the Free Agents held a slight lead as the first half ended.
However, things quickly went downhill for the Free Agents as they lost their initial momentum.
“We just didn’t play well during the second half,” said Free Agents team member Emilio Velazquez.
Free Agents member Michael Hoppe also credited the team’s loss to the removal of Sylvester Holt.
“[Triple D Allstarz] were fouling us all over the place, but the refs only paid attention to Sylvester,” he said.
Holt was removed from the game midway through the second half, severely hobbling the Free Agents.
“He was one of our best players,” said Hoppe. “After we lost him, it was all over.”
While Holt said he was disappointed his team didn’t make it into the finals, he wasn’t disappointed in his team’s performance.
“We played really well all season,” he said. “All that matters is that we tried our best.”
Although the Free Agents didn’t make it into the final round, their performance wasn’t overlooked by members of We Trash and Triple D who commented on the team’s skill throughout the past five weeks of games.
We Trash will take the next week off from competition and focus on preparing for the district championship on SE Campus April 19.
