EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --
The Armament Directorate team defended their intramural basketball championship title for the second consecutive year March 26, pounding the 96th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron 63-50 in the season’s final game.
The teams gave the attendees an exciting, fast-paced final show. EB, who ended the regular season with a 5-3 record, and the maintainers, who finished at 8-0, took the court focused on their game plans, hungry for the trophy.
The maintainers struck first when Oliver Feher sunk both of his free throws at 17:28 after a foul. EB quickly took control at two-all and never looked back.
The reigning champs imposed their will at both ends of the court. They were unstoppable on hustle and got three-point production from David Adler and Michael Keil. They displayed second-shot dominance in the paint and free-throw deadliness.
Though AMXS matched EB on court speed, they were continually flustered by EB’s defense, which caused numerous misses and turnovers.
EB successfully converted on a pair of fast-break opportunities, including a first-half steal and layup by Will Boshers, which added to the maintainers’ frustrations.
EB led 29-18 at halftime.
Andrew Queener, EB’s coach, said their game strategy proved effective.
“We played safe, conservative defense and didn’t give them any free runouts or easy layups,” he said. “AMXS was confused by our approach. No other team played them that way during the regular season.”
Queener wanted EB to keep the pressure on in the second half.
“We plan to slow things down, move the ball around the outside, run 20 minutes off the clock and get out of here with the win,” he said.
Jose Baez, AMXS’ coach, hoped to erase the 11-point deficit.
“We’re going to come back,” he said. “We need to do less fouling and make more shots. We’ve got to hustle more on defense and move the ball better on offense.”
AMXS’ Jeremy Noel knocked down a long three-pointer less than a minute into the second half, to make the score 29-21.
However, the maintainers continued to buckle under EB’s defensive press. EB posted their largest lead at 8:53, when Adler rattled home a three for 49-33, a 16-point advantage.
Desperate to catch up, AMXS went for broke in the final six minutes. Monte Rankins’ two-pointer off of a steal, and late three-pointers from Noel and Jonathan Marcum weren’t enough to spark a comeback.
Rankins’ two-point finger-roll at 2:02 narrowed the gap to 55-45. That was as close as the maintainers came to dissolving the double-digit EB lead.
The game slowed to a free-throw exchange in the final minute, when the maintainers committed fouls to prolong the inevitable outcome.
EB remained solid at the stripe and sealed the victory with a convincing 63-50 win to claim their second straight championship title.
“We executed our game plan and took AMXS out of their comfort zone,” Queener said. “It wasn’t easy. We earned it. This was a very satisfying win for us.”