A-Level Championship Game

#9 Blue Devils – 45

#1 OVC Champs – 31

Tonight was the culmination of a bad week for OVC Champs and it’s only Monday. It started with guard Ben Brown being forced to miss the A-Level Championship after being stabbed outside the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Brown is still recovering at Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital and was unable to witness his squad playing its worst game of the season.

Blue Devils won its fifth game in six days to win the championship t-shirt with a 14-point victory at Lantz Arena. Captain and starting center T.J. Dosch was thrilled with the upset.

“I knew we had a chance to win and everybody played great against a good team,” Dosch said.

Blue Devils played OVC Champs with a man-to-man defense and were able to keep up with the football teams’ quickness.

“We played them straight up and didn’t lose a beat,” Dosch said.

Ryan McDermand led Blue Devils with 17 points, 3 assists and a block. McDermott was able to dominate offensively with dribble penetration in the lane and made free throws down the stretch.

“He’s the skinniest guy on the floor but he’s deceptively quick,” Dosch said. “He was awesome tonight and nobody could stop him.”

Blue Devils ran out to a 16-3 lead after McDermand rolled off a screen and hit a three-pointer early in the game. This marked the third game OVC Champs came out of the gate slowly and ultimately faced a team with too much talent to make up the deficit.

“I kept thinking that we had to keep on them because we knew they’d make a run,” Dosch said.

The closest OVC Champs got the margin in the first 20 minutes was eight and found itself down 23-12 at halftime.

McDermand picked up his fourth foul on a charge 15 seconds into the second half and immediately OVC Champs went on a 8-2 run forcing a Blue Devils timeout.

“We need him out on the floor,” Dosch said, “There’s no doubt about that.”

A three-pointer by OVC Champs guard Jermaine Mobley put his team down by two at 25-23 but that’s as close as they would get. During the entire game, OVC was frustrated with the officials and it finally boiled over and the team received two technical fouls and an intentional foul within the final six minutes. OVC Champs center Fred Miller was tossed from the game when he drew his second technical.

McDermand calmly hit four straight free throws and after OVC Champs forward Alfred Osbourne pushed Casey Burkett out of bounds, intramural director Kevin Linker stepped in to shut the game down with 39 seconds.

“I hated for the game to end that way but hey, it’s a ‘w’ and I’ll take it,” Dosch said.

Blue Devils will face the fraternity champion Sigma Pi White Tuesday at 8 p.m. for the All Campus Championship.

Fraternity Championship Game

#4 Sigma Pi White – 33

#2 Sigma Chi Gold – 32

With 2.9 seconds left, Gabriel Strom stepped to the foul line knowing the game was on the line. With the Sigma Chi cheering section making noise behind the basket, Strom sank both shots giving his fraternity a revenge victory for the greek championship.

On February 6th, Sigma Chi Gold got a 38-22 win over Sigma Pi and the repeat was less than three seconds away from happening.

William Durako was the leading scorer of Sigma Chi Gold with 13 points and had five of those points in the second half after falling hard to the floor. Durako stayed down for several minutes but continued playing because his team only suited up five players.

“(Durako) is a tough kid I’ll say that,” Linker said.

Sigma Chi Gold’s lack of depth became a issue late in the second half and could be a main reason for Sig Pi’s 7-0 run to end the game.

With 5:30 left in the game, Durako hit a three-pointer and pumped his fist putting his team up 30-26.

In the final minute of the game, Sigma Chi Gold missed three front ends of a one-and-one free throws that would have sealed the game.

After Sigma Chi’s halfcourt heave was wide right, it took less than a minute for the Sigma Pi faithful get from the second deck to the Lantz Arena floor to rush the winning players.