Fort Rucker Intramural Basketball tournament play is under way, and one team is already making a statement about who will reign supreme.
B Company, 1st Battalion, 145th Aviation Regiment's Showstoppers extended its winning streak after downing the 164th Theater Airfield Operations Group, 74-54, in the opening game of the tournament Monday.
Frank Wilson, Showstoppers coach, said his team was well prepared for the game and plans to keep winning throughout the rest of tournament play.
"We had all our people here tonight and everything just worked," he said. "We came out ready to play."
Defensively, the Showstoppers couldn't have asked for a better first quarter. It dominated the TAOG at the rim, going up 21-9 by the end of the first.
However, the 164th wasn't done just yet as it mounted a potential comeback that fizzled almost as quickly as it began.
By halftime, the TAOG had narrowed the gap to 28-24, but was still down by four. After a short break, the team came back out ready to play, but so did the Showstoppers. And stop the show, it did.
Jarvis Williams and Rome Brumfield, TAOG players, pulled in rebounds and put up three-pointers, respectively, but it wasn't enough for the one-two assault coming from the other side.
Jay Irwin, Showstoppers player, continued to sink his signature three-point shots while the recently returned Joshua Davis towered over the TAOG players and put up a few points of his own.
After three quarters the Showstoppers had re-extended its lead to 48-38, but wasn't through playing yet.
The TAOG was at an obvious disadvantage, utilizing only five players where the Showstoppers had seven to choose from. Still, TAOG Coach Kolin Jordan said his team fought until the end and didn't plan to let this loss slow the team down.
"In the second quarter, we had a good run and thought it would carry over to the second half, but it didn't," he said. "We need to get some more players here and when we had one foul out in the fourth, we played a man short."
Jordan said his team will work on passing and making better decisions on the court before its next game.
While the win was significant for the Showstoppers, it wasn't perfect, Wilson said. Some mistakes were still made and could wind up hurting the team going forward in the tournament.
"For the past nine games we've really gotten our chemistry back," he said. "We're going to the championship, that's the bottom line. But we have to play like this every game. One thing we have to get away from is playing to the other team's level. We have to just play our game."
Wilson said the Showstoppers weakness is that it plays to the other team rather than staying focused on its own strategy. Wilson said these problems will be addressed in practice and shouldn't affect the team's chances of winning the tournament.
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