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Gym Rats defeat Flight Controllers to win small squadron bball title

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Staff Writer
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  In back-to-back games Tuesday evening, Flight Controllers #2 outmuscled Army Strong in the small squadron basketball semifinal, but were grounded by the Gym Rats in the championship game.

The Airmen body-slammed the Soldiers, 58-42, but ran into foul trouble and ran out of gas against the Gym Rats, who captured the title, 42-34.

The Flight Controllers and Army Strong kept it close for the first 13 minutes of their semifinal contest, but then the Airmen began to surge ahead. The Controllers led, 30-18, at halftime, and nearly doubled that tally in the second half, while the Army struggled.

Mitchell Oryan Shannon paced the Flight Controllers, with 16 points; Emanuel Grayson, 12; Jumar Reynolds, 11; Ryan Rutledge, 10; Jarrell Smith, 5; and Joshua Richardson, 4.

Aryeon Payne led Army Strong with 13 points, and Thomas Cheek tallied 12; Kris Wooten, 9; Meatche Robinson, 6; and Daniel Dollins, 2. Also playing for the Soldiers was Harvey Johnson.

In the title match, the Gym Rats led the Flight Controllers throughout virtually the entire game. The Rats were ahead by just a bucket, 9-7, at 5:32 in the first half. But the Controllers scored only one more basket in the next two minutes while the Gym Rats doubled their score by the half: 18-10.

Four minutes into the second half the Rats and the Controllers traded 3-pointers in succession: Phil Hawthorne for the Controllers, then Steve Alexander for the Rats, then Modey Marcus Iglesias for the Controllers.

The Flight Controllers pulled within a point, 33-32, when Reynolds hit a free throw at 3:53, and again when Richardson hit two free throws with only 2 minutes left in the game, making the score 35-34. However, the Gym Rats tacked on seven more points before time expired, while the Flight Controllers couldn't hit the net. Final: 42-34.

Laurence Gray scored 17 for the Gym Rats, and his brother, Jimmy Gray, had 4; Steve Alexander got 14, Modey Iglesias had 4 and Jake Shumway got 3. Also on the team were Matt Hau and Drey Ramsey.

Jarrell Smith led the Flight Controllers, with 12 points; Phil Hawthorne, 8; Jumar Reynolds, 5; Joshua Richardson, 4; Oryan Shannon, 3; and Ryan Rutledge, 2. The Controllers stayed in foul trouble throughout the contest. They were whistled for 16 infractions in the title game: nine in the first half, seven in the second.