The Lantz Arena matchups are formed and what began as blowout Thursday turned into great basketball. With a spot in the finals on the line, the biggest crowds of the season saw games that went down to the wire, contests ending in the mercy rule and one unexpected upset occuring.

Semifinal #1 B-Level League

#5 T Baggers – 40

#1 Cha Credo – 33

This game was the ugliest guys basketball performance of the evening. With 10 minutes left in the first half, both teams had more turnovers and/or fouls than made field goals as T Baggers led 11-8. Over the next seven minutes, top seeded Cha Credo failed to score but was only down 14-9 once they hit a free throw. Credo went another two minutes without a field goal but narrowed the deficit to three going into halftime. It took two minutes for either squad to score, and when they did the game became a slow back and forth tussle. T Baggers went on an 8-2 run late in the game to push the score to 34-29 and made its free throws to prevent the B-Level top seed from reaching the finals. T Baggers will face Team Ziss for the B-Level Championship t-shirt at Lantz Arena Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Semifinal #1 Fraternity League

#4 Sigma Pi White – 64

#1 Sigma Ep Gold – 29 (35-point slaughter rule)

The top-seeded fraternity team looked like a deer staring into a pair of headlights at the beginning of this game. Sigma Pi raced out to a 20-point lead within the first few minutes of the contest and never looked back. Sigma Ep tried to rally and closed the halftime deficit to 42-25. However, Sigma Pi went on a 22-4 run in the second half and the game was called to the mercy rule that states a game is to be stopped when a team is ahead by 35 at any point. Sigma Pi White will play Sigma Chi Gold for the Fraternity Championship at Lantz Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Semifinal #2 B-Level League

#3 Team Ziss – 51

#7 Red 7 – 15 (35-point slaughter rule)

It took a last-second shot for Red 7 to advance to Thursday night’s game. It would’ve taken much more than that to pull off another upset. Team Ziss made four of first five shots after the opening tip. Before it could blink, Red 7 was down 24-6 and they gave up constant 2-1 fast breaks after the first 10 minutes. At the halftime buzzer, the score was 39-9 and ended all hope for another Red 7 comeback.

Semifinal #2 Fraternity League

#2 Sigma Chi Gold – 61

#3 Delta Sig – 36 (25-point slaughter rule after 8:00)

The most interesting thing about the pair of fraternity games was it seemed like the winning team on the floor was sending a message. Immediately after watching Sigma Pi win by the mercy rule, Sigma Chi did nearly the same thing while the purple-clad Sig Pi’s were in attendance. Sigma Chi took a 45-22 halftime lead and basically coasted the entire second half to win going away.

Semifinal #1 A-Level League Bracket B

#9 Blue Devils – 68

#2 Get Buckets – 63

The marathon is complete for Blue Devils. The ninth-seed in the B Bracket won their fourth game in consecutive nights to advance to Lantz Arena.

Exactly one month ago, Get Buckets started its season with a 57-48 win over Blue Devils. Thursday night Blue Devils got revenge on a much bigger stage.

In a game where the margin never exceeded seven, Get Buckets fell victim to the upset bug but point guard/team captain Freddie Perry wasn’t to blame. Perry had over 30 points and was a one-man highlight show throughout the 30 minutes.

Down by five with the clock running down, TJ Dosch hit an off balance three-pointer to get the momentum going into halftime. Blue Devils built a five-point lead in the second half and Casey Burkett hit free throws down the stretch to secure the win. Blue Devils will face OVC Champs for the A-Level Championship Monday at Lantz at 7 p.m. The winner of that game and the winner of the fraternity title will decided the All-Campus Champion Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Semifinal #2 A-Level League Bracket B

#1 OVC Champs – 54

#3 White 4 Flight – 47

OVC Champs slept walked through another game against a good team. White 4 Flight took an early 20-12 lead but couldn’t maintain the momentum as OVC Champs rolled off a 9-2 run to cut the halftime deficit to one. In a exciting back and forth second half, OVC Champs scored seven straight points to take a 47-40 lead with 1:39 left. White 4 Flight had several opportunities to get rebounds off missed foul shots by OVC Champs but its ability to do so ran off too much clock for an upset comeback. A missed open three and a technical foul by White 4 Flight sealed the trip to Lantz for OVC Champs. The game ended eerily as neither team shook hands at the completion and OVC Champs celebrated with its attending fans at center court as White 4 Flight left the floor.