WICHITA, Kan. -- After finishing the regular season with an unblemished 28-0 record, the Fort Riley Post Basketball Team fell just short of bringing home a conference title as the team, which was playing with a roster depleted by injuries, still won three of five games, finishing third overall in the Central United States Military Basketball League tournament April 21-23 at Wichita State University.
"I was proud of our guys that got in there," Sgt. 1st Class Bobby Ingram, 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, said. "We're missing three of our key players but our team came together. Some of our guys that don't play a lot got in there and did enough to get us through. I'm just proud of our team and what we've done together."
The double-elimination tournament, which took place at WSU's Koch Arena and Aetna Multipurpose Facility, included teams from both in the Army and Air Force from around the central United States, with squads vying for not only the conference title, but also entry into the National Military Basketball Tournament May 26-28 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
After entering the tournament with a first-round bye and a number-one seed, Fort Riley won its first matchup April 21, beating Barksdale Air Force Base out of Louisiana by a score of 92-79.
But in the second day of competition, the "Big Red One" ran into some trouble, falling to defending national champion Fort Hood, 89-55, before rebounding just hours later, beating Tinker Air Force Base 94-84 in order to stave off elimination and advance to Sunday. Spc. Reny Hinton, 82nd Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., was a key contributor against Tinker, leading the team with 25 points in the contest, followed by Ingram, who chipped in 24 of his own in the victory.
"It was real tough," Hinton said following the win. "But our assistant coach, Gina (), she told us the key word is to fight. So in order to bounce back from (the loss to Fort Hood) we really had to fight and come together as a team."
In the third and final day of competition, Fort Riley took full advantage of the bright lights and center stage of Koch Arena's Devlin Court, pulling off a thrilling 95-94 overtime victory against Fort Carson. After seeing their opponents come back to tie the game with a late three-pointer in regulation, Fort Riley's Ingram came through in the clutch, nailing a three of his own in the final seconds of the extra frame to seal the one-point victory, with his teammates swarming him at the buzzer to celebrate. It was a big moment for the 35-year-old veteran.
"I didn't think about it, I just shot it," Ingram said after the game. "I mean, I do a lot of drills, it was just like practice so I wasn't nervous I just took the shot and held my follow through and it just happened to go in."
Forced to turn around and play another elimination game immediately following their overtime win, Fort Riley eventually dropped its final game of the tournament, falling short against Fort Sill 80-66.
Overall, the team's offense was paced by the strong play of Ingram and Hinton, who averaged 19.4 and 14.6 points per game respectively. Spc. Ronald Scott, 541st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 1st Inf. Div. Sust. Bde., also put up a strong performance throughout the weekend, averaging 12.8, with his best game coming in a 20-point effort in the overtime win against Fort Carson.
The depth of Fort Riley's roster proved key throughout their conference tournament run, with multiple players providing necessary points off the bench.
"We really trusted each other and that's all it really boiled down to," Spc. Devan Gregory, 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 2nd ABCT, said. "We just had to believe in each other and push through. We stayed together when we were down, we pulled through, we played together."
Though coming home empty-handed, the team played well enough throughout the season and conference tournament to earn an at-large bid for the national tournament field, which was announced during a selection show on April 24. The team's first-round matchup will put them up against Fort Sam Houston, with tipoff set for 3 p.m. May 26 at Lackland's Warhawk Fitness Center.
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