In a close, hard fought battle, five of Shawn Kemp's 42 Illegitimate Children took advantage of their youth and inside-out game in order to beat the No. 27 ranked team of MBA students, Chico's Bail Bonds, 21-16.Illegitimate Children hung on to an early lead and won in a game much closer than indicated by the score. They came out of the game bloodied and bruised but, nevertheless, victorious."That's how we win ... nasty," Illegitimate Children player Matt Paprocki said.Illegitimate Children went into halftime with an 11-6 lead, but Chico's Bail Bonds caught them off-guard at the beginning of the second half with their fast-break offense.Temporarily unable to hit shots, Illegitimate Children seemed to be losing steam, and their opponents pulled within one point to make the game 12-11.Then Illegitimate Children stepped up on defense and made some key steals. With Obi Idigo playing the post position and the other four making shots from outside, Illegitimate Children were able to achieve the upset and send the ranked team home early. Fritz Shadley led the way with eight points.The squad finished the game strong, with captain Rick Loesing's behind-the-back pass to Eric Kimbuende winning the game."We fought hard," Loesing said. "They were tough and talented, but we handled them."
The French Connection 21Fruit of the Loom 12Although Fruit of the Loom came out strong in their underwear-inspired costumes, The French Connection proved to be too much to handle down low and won the game.Tied 6-6 early in the game, the two evenly-matched teams were neck-and-neck. Then The French Connection, the No. 28 ranked team in the tournament, slowly broke away, giving more proof to the fact that, as they put it, "the French always win.""We just had to warm up," Beau Martin of The French Connection said. "We started blocking a lot of shots. [Andrew] Crowe and I had a block party, and Fruit of the Loom was invited.""We started taking stupid shots and turning the ball over," Fruit of the Loom's point guard Matt "Frodo" Haggerty said. "They were slashing to the basket, just slashing. We couldn't stop it."With a halftime score of 11-6, The French Connection continued to use their quickness and the experienced brother tandem of Ty and Beau Martin to prevent Fruit of the Loom from moving within five points.Working through the distractions their opponents provided, including the underwear they wore over their shorts, The French Connection repeatedly scored off of offensive rebounds and played tough defense, preventing Fruit of the Loom from getting many decent shots off."We're looking good," Crowe said. "We want to be the first 28 seed to win it all. I don't think they've seen five French ballers like us on this campus yet."
CANIWRITECHEque 21Gunther and the Sunshine Girls 7Using their height and well-balanced shooting attack to their advantage, CANIWRITECHEque dominated the game after jumping to an early lead and finished with a impressive victory.Gunther and the Sunshine Girls were outplayed as they struggled to make shots and get rebounds. They entered halftime in an 11-3 hole.CANIWRITECHEque captain John Harrington credited his team's win to their superb cheering section, as well as to "the sheer grit and determination of Will Jourdan and Mark 'Moneymaker' Munninghoff."The team's offense included multiple points from each of their members and a solid effort by all."The freshman stepped it up," Harrington said. "Plus, we have a walk-on!"Freshman Mark Saurer looked to the team's chemistry as a decisive element in its victory."We just play well as a team," he said.CANIWRITECHEque is hoping to make a run in the tournament, but Gunther and the Sunshine Girls isn't feeling too heartbroken themselves."We might have lost the game, but we will continue to celebrate the four pillars of Gunther," Dave Barden said.
No. 9 HP 21, We Declined An Invitation To The NIT 1There was no doubt HP deserves to be ranked in the top ten teams in this year's Bookstore Touranment field after Wednesday night's game against We Declined An Invitation To The NIT.HP dominated all aspects of the game en route to a stomping of the Decliners, a team made up entirely of Glee Club members.Many members of the all-male choral group had shaved heads in support of fellow musician Cole Barker, who is suffering from cancer. But the Decliners managed to take only nine shots all game, making just one and recording five air balls.Frustrated Decliners fans disagreed on which areas their team needed to improve on most."They need to work on their defense and really push the ball," lifetime Decliners supporter Catelyn Wood said.Superfan Eileen Papesh had a different take."They need to stop smoking and [point guard] Adam [Istvan] needs to learn to dribble and shoot," she said.As for HP, the strong showing should give them momentum going into the third round of the tournament, which takes place this weekend. The team looked crisp, employing backdoor cuts and well-timed passes and systematically breaking down the Decliners defense.Captain and point guard Andrew White attributed the crisp play to the team's experience playing together."Me and [shooting guard Mike Knesec] have played together for all four years," he said.Despite the impressive performance and lofty ranking, White remained cautious regarding his team's chances in the next few rounds of the tournament."Obviously we have big size inside, but teams are going to get bigger and stronger so we're going to have to pick up the intensity and hopefully we'll do well," he said.
Blazers 21, We're Training To Be Cage Fighters 15The Blazers stepped out on to the Bookstore courts Thursday night expecting to be the more athletic team in their game against We're Training To Be Cage Fighters, and as they built a commanding 11-2 halftime lead, it looked as if the game might go as planned.The Cage Fighters had other plans, however. They stormed back to within five points in the second half before finally succumbing to the quicker Blazers..The Cage Fighters switched defenses during the halftime break, employing a zone to make up for their speed disadvantage."It was the change of defense that did it," shooting guard and team captain Jeff Carney said. "We switched over to zone, and with the night being windy their outside shooting wasn't very effective, so the zone worked pretty well."Center Butch Taylor gave another explanation for the team's sudden turnaround at half."It was the first time we'd played together, so we needed a half to get used to each other," Taylor said. "If there was a tournament with three halves, we probably would have done even better."Blazers point guard Mike Dupuis said poor shooting and a lack of intensity in the second half contributed to his team's near collapse."It's not like their zone confused us," DuPuis said. "It's just that we weren't hitting and we weren't playing the offense we should have. We can play better than that."Despite his disappointment in the second half, Dupuis said there was no shame in playing a close game with the Cage Fighters."They could all play," he said. "But I wish that our intensity had stayed up and we had played better."After surviving its second round game, the Blazers are looking to play a more complete 21 points next time around. Dupuis is confident if his team plays consistently, it could make some noise in the coming week."If we play to our potential, we could go pretty far," he said.
