SARAH YORO | staff writer

Last Thursday, Shake-N-Bake (2-0) and Smith Hall (3-0) battled it out for the first place standing in the Thursday night intramural men’s basketball league. After 40 minutes of tough competition, team Shake-N-Bake sealed the win over Smith Hall in a final score of 59-32.

“We’re not as young as we used to be, but we played well enough to come out with a win today,” senior applied health major Tommy Musa said. “These young kids are good though, they have a lot of energy.”

With Shake-N-Bake exclusively made up of seniors and Smith Hall made up of entirely freshmen, experience played a key factor in the game. Shake-N-Bake attributes their team success to their age advantage and team connection.

“We’re all seniors and played with each other last year,” Musa said. “We’re athletic and we all have a little basketball background, but mainly we just mesh together.”

Prior to game time, team mentality was crucial, especially since both teams came in undefeated.

“We needed to play tough because we knew they were undefeated too,” Musa said. “We knew they were young and they had more players than us, so we just had to go out there and play hard.”

According to senior marketing major Matt Williams, Shake-N-Bake wanted to come out and make a statement to the men of Smith hall.

Team Shake-N-Bake did just that.

Off to a great start, Shake-N-Bake took an early lead and left Smith Hall trailing by 22 points at the half.

Toward the end of the match, Smith Hall started to connect passes and made a few key plays; however, by then Shake-N-Bake had an impressive and unattainable lead.

“I was kind of disappointed because we didn’t play as good as we could have,” freshman athletic training major Keaton Tam said. “We came out slow and didn’t really get going until the end and it was too late by then.”

Although Smith Hall did not perform as well as they had hoped, they were still very successful, beating Buck Wild, 40-35 and Wombats 63-24 just weeks before. While last Thursday night was not a reflection of it, Tam attributes his team’s success to their conditioning and athleticism.

“We have a lot of football players on the team,” Tam said. “We’re pretty conditioned so we play hard the whole game.”

According to Tam, Smith Hall may have underestimated the level of play of team Shake-N-Bake.

“I think part of the reason why we lost was because we didn’t think they were going to be as good as they were,” Tam said. “We just weren’t ready. We have to give it to them because they played hard.”

Winning and losing is a part of the game, however, both teams acknowledge they are mainly here for the competitiveness and the love of the sport.

“I just like basketball, so being able to play in good competition without being an actual team is fun,” Tam said.

Intramurals provide an outlet for students who are unable to be a part of an official university sports team.

“It gives me a chance to play basketball since I can’t play in college,” Williams said.

In addition to the fun, the intramurals does not lack in quality competition.

“It’s a lot more competitive than I thought it would be and that makes it fun,” Musa said. “We look forward to the games every week. It’s the one time we get to come out here and run and exercise, so it’s good for us ‘old’ people.”