As the latest intramural basketball season comes to an close, players from each league take a look back and see how much fun they’ve had — wins,losses and the most important part of the process, the championship they’ve attained.
In men’s play, leagues A, B and C had good performances in each championship. In the A league, the championship was decided in an overtime win, as the “A-team” beat “1Clique” with a score of 51-48.
In the B-league championship, “1stEZ(ly)” pulled off the upset against team “Washed Up”, with a final score of 42-36.
In the C league championship, it was a back-and-forth contest, but “The Brethren of Weast” defeated “Green Bean” in a close 47-41 win. Lastly, as intramural President Jack Newcomer considered this game the most attended game of all four championship games, “Freshies beat Should’ve Gone D1”, 40-36.
Senior Luke Huffer, a part of the winning A league team, described the win over a strong opponent. He said the game went into overtime, but he wanted to have fun, and to enjoy it with the people that were there.
“It was very back-and-forth the whole game,” Huffer said. “We knew it was gonna be tough, because they had a lot more size than we did.”
Huffer played for the university as a member of the actual basketball team. Since his last year playing for the Trojans just ended, this is his first time playing in any intramural sport that Taylor has offered. Needless to say, he has enjoyed the opportunity given to him.
In the B league Championship, “1stEZ(ly)” pulled off a shocking win against “Washed Up”. Their opponent went undefeated in regular season play, sweeping every team by around 17 points. In the first three games of the playoffs, “Washed Up” won with winning margins of 17, 36, 20. “1stEZ(ly)” beat them by six points, handing “Washed Up” their first loss of the entire season, both in regular season and playoff competition.
Freshman David VanDyke, captain of the winning team, said going into the game he wanted to have fun playing in the final game of the season.
“We got there, and we were just all ready,” he said. “It ended up working out well … It was a lot of fun.”
The C league championship was a close game. Though the score shows 47-41, “The Brethren of Weast” came out on top with a tough victory. Their opponent “Green Bean” ended their regular season 5-2, while the eventual champs ended with a 6-1 record.
Freshman Frank Smith, the captain of the winning team, said he felt confident in going out and getting the win.
“The score went back and forth,” he said. “They went on some runs, we went on some runs, but overall, it was just a really good game.”
The women’s league championship was the most attended of all four final games. Freshies was a legacy team, having played together since their freshman year. The team already played their matchup “Should’ve Gone D1” and lost by a single point. This time, the two seed “Freshies” pulled off the impressive win in the rematch, nabbing a 40-36 victory.
Senior Hannah Randall described the feeling of getting to the championship game, and the experience of this past season.
“We were really excited to play, it’s been a goal of ours to make it to this game,” she said. “We worked very well as a team. Every game we played hard.”
2022 Intramural President, junior Jack Newcomer spoke on the performance of this past basketball season, as well as all other sports leading to it.
“I think we had a lot more participation,” he said. “We had a lot more fans this year with allowing fans to come to the games.”
Newcomer talked about the joys and struggles of balancing all of the leagues. He said that it was cool to see some teams bring out players that weren’t playing in other sports in previous years or seasons. Some of the challenges that he faced were scheduling problems as well as maintenance problems.
“For the basketball games, we could not get the bleachers to work,” he said. With this, fans had to sit or stand while watching. This problem, as well with scheduling, he considered small problems.
Newcomer seemed proud that basketball, as well as all other intramural sports, have run quite smoothly this year. He said he was proud of his cabinet members and enjoys making sure people are excited to play. This past basketball season perfectly exemplifies how fun Intramural can be.
