MEDIA CONTEST: Showdown - Season-long rivalry ends with base championship finals

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ACC MEDIA CONTEST --  The 28th Medical Group/28th Services Squadron knocked off the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 56-39, for the base intramural basketball championship March 3 at the Bellamy Fitness Center.

AMXS upended MDG/SVS, 49-43, in an earlier game March 3 to force the winnertake- all final.

For the bulk of the intramural basketball American League regular season, the MDG/SVS and AMXS were in a neck-and-neck race for first place. The competition was so tight the two teams were forced into a one-game playoff for the regular season title and number one playoff seed that accompanied it.

MDG/SVS won that battle, and two of the teams' first three meetings, but it was only a prelude of things to come.

"AMXS is a big team; they're one of the bigger teams in the league," said MDG/SVS guard Bruce Oguinn. "They're also very unselfish. They spread the ball around and get a lot of lay ups. A lot of the other teams we played this year had one guy trying to take over and score all the points. That's what set AMXS apart and made for such a good match up."

The first game was a nip-and-tuck affair most of the way. MDG/SVS pushed the ball early and often, taking advantage of the speed and quickness of guard Joshua
Trenkle and the shooting touch of guards Rodrigus Bowden, Tony Carter and Oguinn to build an early lead. AMXS relied more heavily on its half-court offense and the low post presence of center Ronald Butler and forward Derrick McDowell to keep the game close, and the teams went into the half knotted at 21 points apiece.

"Our game is more up-tempo," Oguinn said. "We like to pretty much run-and-gun. They tend to slow the ball down and run more half-court sets looking for lay ups."

In the end, the shots stopped falling for MDG/SVS, and AMXS continued to exploit its size advantage in the paint, pulling away for the victory.

McDowell led all scorers with 15 points and Butler chipped in 11 in the win. MDG/SVS was led by Oguinn's 11 points, and Bowden, Carter and Trenkle added 10 apiece.

"After the first game, we just tried to pick each other up," Oguinn said. "We accepted they won the first game and just got ready to go to work for another 36 minutes."

The second game picked up where the first left off. MDG/SVS once again jumped ahead early by riding 8 points from Trenkle to an 18-9 lead. Following the game one script, AMXS closed the gap by dominating the paint and taking advantage of McDowell's 8 first half points to take a 24-22 lead into the half.

The second half was much of the same as the two squads basically traded points most of the way. However, with five minutes remaining, the MDG/SVS shots started going in, and the wheels began to come off for AMXS.

"We shot real poor both games," Oguinn said. "They finally started falling for us."

Oguinn led all scorers with 15 points in game two and Trenkle added 11. McDowell and Mark Bonaparte led AMXS with 10 points apiece.