JANELLE STRAWSBURG
Staff Writer
The chance to relive the glory days.
For 28 minutes on Tuesday nights, Pepperdine students get to once more hear the sweet swish sound of the net, or the agonizing clank of a rim. For 28 minutes they can hear the last second countdown and feel the thrill of victory. For 28 minutes they can be kids again and just play for love of the game.
It’s intramural basketball, and although it may be a long shot from the pros for the five juniors on the 49ers team, it is their one opportunity to play competitive, organized basketball.
Meet junior team captain Andrew Davis, the die-hard Duke fan who heads up the team comprised of juniors Kannon Nalls, Robert Thompson, Spencer Oswald and Malcolm Lipscomb. Cocky doesn’t even begin to describe Davis as he can run his mouth nearly as well as he runs the court.
“I only recruit the best,” Davis said. “We hustle; we may not have the most talent, but we’ll out-hustle anyone. If not, then wind sprints after the game. And I would just like to apologize to all the teams in advance that we are going to play this season because we’re bringing home the trophy this year.”
But the team can back up its trash talk, evidenced by the last-minute comeback in its game Tuesday. Although trailing to the Skulls the majority of the game, the 49ers tied it up 28-28 with 14 seconds to play after an intercepted pass by Davis led to a drive to the hoop and lay-up off the finger tips of Thompson with three seconds to go. Considering the team was playing without any substitutes, compared to the two substitutes the Skulls had on the bench, their heart was what propelled them at the end.
“I like playing scrappy,” Lipscomb said. “If we go out and play hard with the type of defense we played tonight, it should be good. We play hard, so for other teams, you should come out playing hard. Whether we have five players or more, we’ll play hard the whole time.”
The 49ers snatched the inbounds pass by the Skulls again as the clock wound down in the final seconds. The game would have headed into overtime, but a technical foul for cursing by the Skulls, their third technical for the game, resulted in a forfeit according to intramural rules.
Rules, especially the zero tolerance on cursing, are strongly enforced by referees. Intramural basketball is offered each spring and is comprised of three leagues, an “A” advanced league, a “B” intermediate league, and a “C” Co-Recreational league that requires two women on the court at all times.
There are 17 teams in the “A” League, 15 in the “B” League and 3 in “C.” The 49ers play in the B League with games on Tuesday nights, although the confident Davis says the only reason they compete in B instead of A is because of class conflicts with Monday night games.
“We’ll take on any Monday night team if they want to come out and play us on Tuesday,” Davis said. “We’ll even take on the champions of the Monday night league; I’m calling out anyone that wants to take on the Niners.”
Whether they play in the advanced or intermediate league, the play of this team is always one thing: intense. Headed by their own “Little General,” Nalls spent the whole night sprinting back on defense and yelling in enthusiasm, but off the court it’s all about fun and games.
“Well you know I couldn’t really cut it in D-1 after my knee blew out. I was looking at Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, because as you know the finest players come out of Central California,” joked Nalls. “But truthfully, it’s just cool to take a break from classes, relax and still be competitive while in college.”
Oswald was the team’s leading scorer of the night with 10 points. At one point in the night, after a sloppy turnover by the team, he slammed the ball down in frustration because whether or not it is just an intramural game, it still is a matter of pride, winning and competition.
“We definitely want to win each game straight out,” Oswald said. “A technical wasn’t really the way we wanted to win tonight, but we’ll take it. We played a good team tonight and I hope we have more tough competition in the upcoming weeks. We all get pretty pumped to play.”
But despite all the jostling, sweat and yelling, at the end of the day, what’s most important is the fun of participating in a league again.
“For me, if I’m going to come out I want to play as hard as I can,” Thompson said. “Intramurals are fun for one, and it’s cool to see the new freshmen come out and the seniors. Everyone comes and plays; no one is too cool to play with someone else. We just come out and play some good ball.”
The team is 2-0 on the season and look to extend its win streak to three next week.
“We need to move a lot more on offense next week and have better defensive rebounding,” Nalls said. “I think our defense spoke for itself tonight, so the other team is going to have a hard time scoring.”
The season consists of five to seven games and then culminates with a single elimination playoff tournament where teams are ranked in the bracket based off their regular season record. After failing to make it to the championship game last season, Davis and his Niners are looking forward to the challenge this spring.
“We’re going to the championship this season,” Davis said. “I’ll accept nothing less.”
02-22-2007
