(Stars and Stripes)
Photos from Wednesday’s action at Clay Kaserne were not available due to technical difficulties. Stars and Stripes hopes to resolve the issue Thursday and add the photos to this article.
WIESBADEN, Italy – All but three of the 20 games held on the opening day of the DODEA-Europe Division I and Division III basketball championships Wednesday were decided by double digits.
The ones that weren’t involved teams from Ramstein. And the only that didn’t go according to seeding also involved the Royals.
The SHAPE Spartans, blown out by Ramstein to open the regular season, stunned the No. 2 boys team in the D-I tournament 45-43 and – if form remains true in play Thursday – moved a huge step closer to qualifying for the semifinals.
No one present at the fitness center on Clay Kaserne seemed to be able to recall the last time the fifth-seeded Spartans had defeated the Royals in a boys basketball game.
“At least a long, long time,” SHAPE coach Brant Tryon said.
Not that the two teams haven’t played some close games recently. Ramstein defeated SHAPE last year on a buzzer beater during the regular season and in an overtime at the championships.
“We always came up on the bottom end,” Tryon said. “So maybe today was just our time.”
The Spartans got a big boost from sophomore Lincoln Coley, who transferred from Baumholder in the fall.
Coley, who led his team with 14 points off the bench, helped SHAPE build an 11-point advantage with about 3 minutes to play.
The Spartans, who essentially were trying to kill as much of the clock as possible – action in pool play consists of four 7-minute quarters – saw their lead almost evaporate.
“The idea was to pass the ball around until we got a shot we were going to make 90 percent of the time,” Tryon said. “But we made some bad passes and turned the ball over.”
Two free throws from Christian Roy with 1:12 to play trimmed the lead to 40-36. Ramstein came up with another steal, but Coley promptly stole it back and scored on a layup.
After Ramstein trimmed the lead to three, the Spartans stopped them on three straight possessions. Each time, Coley was fouled. But he missed five of six free throws to keep the Royals’ hopes alive.
“I wasn’t nervous,” Coley said. “But when you miss one or two free throws, it can start going to your head.
“As long as we win, it doesn’t matter. That was a big win.”
The Royals bounced back by defeating Kaiserslautern 38-32 later in the day. But the Royals may need to defeat No. 2 seed Stuttgart on Thursday to have a shot at advancing to Friday’s semifinals. The Panthers rolled past Kaiserslautern 47-28 in another pool game.
In the opposite pool, unbeaten Wiesbaden blitzed Vilseck 60-30.
D-I girls action went exactly according to seeding. Kaiserslautern won twice – including a 32-26 win over Ramstein that was the only other game decided by less than 10 points – and Stuttgart and Wiesbaden both won their only games Wednesday.
In Division III play, both top-ranked Hohenfels teams looked dominant in their only games of the day. The girls, paced by twins Malea (17 points) and Jalissa Jobity (15 points), stifled Baumholder 47-28. The boys, substituting frequently, still handily defeated Ansbach 48-28.
Many other games were very lopsided and mirrored the regular season.
Spangdahlem’s game with AFNORTH in boys action was the only one at the fitness center that featured any players topping the 20-point mark. Zander Doulder had 32 points for the Sentinels, but it wasn’t enough as Stefan Termure had 26 in the Lions’ 67-55 victory.
Action resumes at 8 a.m. Wednesday with 20 more games on the schedule between the two divisions.
