In the face of defeat, it’s often easy to point fingers at
anything other than one’s performance on the court.
After the intramural C league championships in Pauley Pavilion
on Tuesday night, Team Rabid Wombats found itself doing just that
““ making excuses after enduring a 29-16 trouncing by Team
Rounders.
“We were missing our best player Ben (Lev),” Kevin
Batchelor of the Rabid Wombats said. “He keeps us
together.”
Fifth-year student Ben Lev found himself playing on an adjacent
court for a AA team.
“Honestly I thought that if they spread the court and
slowed the game down, they could have played without me,” Lev
said.
Lev’s absence from the Rabid Wombats was felt early when
the Rounders jumped out to an early 14-0 lead.
Rounders’ guard Jeremy Yeung hit three 3-pointers and
continued to pour on the points as he found himself open on many
occasions.
“They had to double down on our big men,” Yeung
said. “Their zone wasn’t working.”
With the play of the Rounders’ big men inside, the Rabid
Wombats struggled early on.
Forward Elliot Rethmeier was an integral part of the
Rounders’ success in the paint as he continued to grab
rebound after rebound over the undersized Rabid Wombats.
“Every individual player on our team is better than every
individual on their team,” Rethmeier said.
The Rabid Wombats finally got on the scoreboard at the 7:05 mark
when Eric Batchelor hit a 15-foot jumper from the right wing.
“We couldn’t shoot for the life of us,”
Batchelor said.
However, the Rounders’ domination trailed off toward the
end of the first half as the Rabid Wombats went on an 8-2 run to
close out the half down 16-8.
In Yeung’s mind, the Rounders just lacked motivation to
play hard.
“We started getting bored,” Yeung said. “The
game was not intense at all.”
The second half storyline remained the same as the Rabid Wombats
failed to mount any type of comeback to get into the game.
IM Sports Coordinator Debbie Barnes was somewhat surprised at
the game’s outcome.
“I really don’t know why they (the Rabid Wombats)
got blown out,” Barnes said. “I know that Yeung’s
team was 4-0, one of the top teams.”
The game’s lopsided nature could be attributed to
Lev’s absence, but Rounder Dave Hsu feels that with or
without Lev, the outcome of the game would have been the same.
“I think they would’ve played better, but we
would’ve matched their intensity,” Hsu said. We
definitely wanted it more.”
Despite the Rounders’ championship crowning, many of the
players expressed that the competition was not what they expected
and that the victory was not as gratifying as it could have
been.
“It feels good, but it’s anti-climactic because the
semifinals were a lot tougher than the championship game,”
Hsu said.