With the dominance of the varsity basketball squads lately, the Field House has not been a site for nail-bitingly close games and buzzer beaters, but that changed this Saturday as IM basketball took over the gym.
Plot F crushed the playoff hopes of X Factor with a last-second three-pointer by sophomore Mike Decker this Saturday in the A League tournament with a score of 35-36.
Decker, who had ten points for the contest plus seven mighty rebounds, seemed humble after his moment of greatness.
“Jonathan Moxon is only one man. I just have to thank God! I don’t know what felt better, the buzzer beater or third place with a DQ for wearing a jock strap in the 50 free IM swim meet.”
“It was devastating at first,” said sophomore Victor Ebong, a member of the disappointed X Factor, “but after awhile I looked back and said, hey, we didn’t play up to our max so we kinda gave the game up to them.”
The battle of the unknown variables was a clash of geometric proportions. The different playing styles of the teams were apparent even in the pre-game warm-ups with X Factor executing lay up drills with precision, while Plot F took a more relaxed approach, gathering around the basket to shoot around. Each letter had its own strategy going into the game as well.
“We saw right away that we had ten guys and they had six so if we could get them tired and make a run in the second half, then we’d be in good shape,” said sophomore Dave Lucey of X Factor on his team’s strength in numbers. “And that strategy almost worked.”
“We wanted to press, ” adds Ebong. “We thought that we could run man-to-man press and wear them out early since they only had six people.”
“The Plot F ballers came with a focused strategy today,” said Decker. “We just wanted to come out and win, play our hardest, you know, sweat off a night of fun. ”
For the first half, Plot F’s laid-back style appeared to be working. The Plot F “ballers'” improvised offense was more successful, with X Factor having trouble connecting, despite several second chance opportunities. Plot F padded their lead with a three from Matt Alley and another from Brad Dobble, along with the inside presence of Decker. However, X Factor refused to be dominated and came back with three trifectas and solid free throw shooting. As the half ended, Plot F was up 25-19.
Freshmen Amar Desai led X Factor with eight first-half points and two rebounds, and sophomore Josh Singe added five points, three rebounds and one assist. Alley led Plot F with seven points and one rebound while Dobble and Decker each added five points and two rebounds.
During the halftime break, X Factor focused on implementing its strategy to use its large roster, while Plot F focused on, uh, resting up.
“I went to the bathroom at halftime so I felt completely rejuvenated,” said Decker.
“There wasn’t exactly one vocal leader,” said Ebong about X Factor’s halftime pep talk. “Everybody knew their role and how poorly we were playing so we just started tightening things up.”
X Factor stepped up the tempo in the second half, and it seemed as though their strategy would work out. The team made frequent substitutions and began to connect on more shots. X Factor came with in one with six minutes left in the half with a score of 28-29, thanks to an offensive charge led by Desai. From then on it was a tough back-and-forth battle.
“The strategy worked during the second half, I think,” said Ebong. “They came out to a big league but they only scored a few points the second half compared to what they were doing in the first half.”
Despite the disadvantage in numbers, Plot F stayed in the game and held on. The score was tied with 20 seconds left when X Factor got the ball. With a jumper by Desai, X Factor pulled ahead by two and with only a few seconds left, they thought they had a game.
“We thought the game was over after that shot,” said Lucey. “Our team was waiting for the buzzer which never came. The shot the guy hit was perfect, Amar played perfect defense on him and obviously in that situation we couldn’t foul. It was the worst-case scenario because they got the ball to a decent shot at the end of the game and it was a chilling thing for everybody on our team.”
With three seconds left, the ball was inbounded and passed to Decker, who stepped up to the line, fired over Desai and sank a three as the clock ran out. Plot F celebrated and X Factor shook their heads in disbelief.
“I thought it was a total miss,” said Ebong. “It was online, but I didn’t think it was going to make it. It was pretty unbelievable.”
X Factor is saddened by the loss but is already planning for next year.
“Josh is going abroad, but other than that, everybody else will be with X Factor again and we’ll have David Gable back from injury,” said Lucey.
“We’re coming back,” said Ebong. “Most of our guys are going to come back so we’re looking forward to next season. We think we can do much better.”
Plot F now prepares for the next round of the tournament. They are confident that their hard-fought victory means good things for the future.
“We just kind of show up and want to win,” said Decker. “We still take it seriously. We like to have fun, but we don’t have practice or anything like that. If we win we win and if we lose, oh well, but winning’s preferred. The rest of the tournament is ours. I think we set a precedent today with the buzzer-beater and it’s smooth sailing from now on.”
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Plot F vs. X Factor
(36-35)
Plot F Key for the game: It’s all about rejuvanation.
X Factor Key for the game: Using the depth of their bench to their advantage.
At the Half: Plot F had the lead 25-19 thanks to success on the offensive end.
The game was over when: Mike Decker hit a buzzer beater from downtown to give Plot F the final advantage over X Factor.