Just before spring break, Intramural basketball filled UNCW with excitement. The climax was Team Ramrod’s victory and utter domination of Shaolyn in the finals 62-48.

Both teams needed two victories to get into the finals. Team Ramrod bombarded Primetime 58-35, with stifling pressure and good ball movement in the quarterfinals, setting up what many touted as the real championship game in its semifinal match-up with The Retirement Squad. Both squads were the only two teams that ever held the #1 rank during the season and the game proved to live up to its hype. The Retirement Squad was able to hold Ramrod to 48 points, its fewest in a game this season, but was never able to overcome the deficit in the final minutes of the game as Ramrod was able to hit clutch free throws.

Shaolyn won a shockingly close play-in game versus Alligator Snapping Turtles 62-56, putting them up against SayWhat in the quarterfinals. In a game that was filled with emotion and many lead changes, Shaolyn was able to stop Chris Bailey from converting on a lay up with time expiring leading to a 52-51 victory. In its semifinal game, Shaolyn was paired with division foe Dehavens. As was the case in their regular season meeting, Shaolyn was able to prevail, but more easily this time. After a tight first half that put Shaolyn up three points and a close start to the second half, James Shockley put on arguably the best performance of the year, burying three pointers and free throws the last eight minutes of play to give Shaolyn a 62-51 victory. With Ramrod and Shaolyn meeting in the finals for yet another epic battle, it appeared the game would go to the wire like their meeting in the regular season. After a back and forth battle in the first half that neither team was able to take advantage of, Ramrod came out hot in the second half dominating a sloppy Shaolyn team. As time began to get closer to zero, it became more obvious that Ramrod was flat out the best basketball team this year and had lived up to its hype.

The Final Four featured three teams from the Pink division, an unheard of feat, showing that it was undoubtedly the hardest division to compete in this year. Ramrod, Shaolyn, and Dehavens each advanced to the semifinals coming from the same division, an accomplishment that will most likely not happen many more times in the future.

James Baker from Team Ramrod was named tournament MVP. Joining Baker on the All-Tournament Team are: Shelton Langdon, Tom Bruin, James Shockley, Ryan Valente and Kendrick Brown.