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Gym Rats defeat Jammers in intramural basketball

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. O'Brien
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  It was quite the intramural basketball game.

At 5:30 p.m. March 1, the Jammers and Gym Rats faced off at Gerrity Fitness and Sports Center gymnasium. Though the Gym Rats ultimately won by 20 points, it wasn't obvious who'd win the intense and fierce Small Squadron Division match-up. The Jammers certainly gave the Gym Rats a run for their money.

From tip off, the Jammers were on the Gym Rats heels. With each shot the Gym Rats got, the Jammers tried to rebound. Although they were not always successful and never took the lead, they kept the score close.

But, the Gym Rats' Cody Brooks, Steve Alexander Jr. and Marcus Hines made it difficult -- they rocked the scoreboard. They nailed at least 10 shots and accumulated 21 of the 23 points scored in the first half.

The Jammers' Wade Ward and Tyler Wood tried to keep up, scoring 14 of their team's 20 points.

When the first half ended, the Gym Rats led 23-20.

When the second half began, the Jammers and Gym Rats entangled themselves in an odd sequence of events. It started with a free-throw contest of sorts between the Jammers' Wood and Gym Rats' Hines.

With the exception of one basket, each time either team got a hold of the ball in the first five-and-a-half minutes, Wood or Hines ended up at the free-throw line. Wood managed 2 points for his team, but it through the one non-free-throw shot. Hines scored five points for the Gym Rats.

With 10:25 left in the game, the Gym Rats led 28-22.

When the free-throw sequence ended, there was a something of fight; neither the Gym Rats' Marty Graham nor the Jammers' Clay Masoner would let go of the ball and they were cited for "holding."

That ended the drama and the game resumed.

For the next two minutes, the teams volleyed for control. The Gym Rats' Alexander and Hines scored seven points, the Jammers' Grover Brown and Wood then scored four points, bringing the total to 35-26 Gym Rats.

It was then, with a whistle blow for a time out, that the Jammers' lost their oomph and couldn't regain it. The downward spiral likely began when Ward took a shot and time stood still as the ball circled the rim before falling to the side.

Gym Rats' then scored two points and even with substitutions by both teams, the Jammers couldn't be pulled out from their hole. In the final 2:56, the Gym Rats scored 13 points; Alexander and Hines dominated the court. The Jammers made one more basket and the Gym Rats finished the game 48-28.