[img id=”77607″ align=”alignleft”] Those frat boys have done it again.
In a scene straight from Rocky V, the fraternity brothers overwhelmed their teachers in Sunday’s Professors vs. Frat Boys basketball game, running away with a 66–38 victory before a vocal contingent at Ratner.
The brothers took an early 9–4 lead on the strength of three treys from second-year Ian Cumings and were rarely pressured afterwards. Shots kept falling for the brothers, who had an edge in height down low and in athleticism around the perimeter, and the faculty were hard pressed to find any rhythm on the attack.
In fact, the faculty’s star player, Wallace House RH Brandon Cline, doesn’t yet have a faculty position. Cline is both a Ph.D. student in the Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature and a force to be reckoned with in the post. Again and again the professors looked to Cline for production, and at the half, when the brothers were ahead 31–21, Cline led all scorers with 12 points.
Although a low point for the professors came midway through the third quarter, when David Reid, senior lecturer in the Department of Physics and the College, managed to fire a baseline shot off the back of the backboard, the faculty played the brothers close for much of the third frame. Cline wowed the crowd with a reverse lay-up, and at times it looked like his team was primed for a run.
But the wheels fell off in the fourth quarter, when the faculty collapsed into a zone that seemed less a basketball strategy and more an excuse not to stick with a man on defense. Profiting from younger legs and a deeper bench, the brothers capitalized, putting together a 17-point quarter.
“Whatever drop-off in production we had was probably due to stiffness and fatigue,” Cline said. “But that’s not to say we were loafing. Peter [Constantine, Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Mathematics], for instance, was a veritable tornado, and Miklós [Abért, assistant rofessor of Mathematics] was like James in the paint (though a touch more William than LeBron).”
And then there was fan-favorite Allen Sanderson, senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, who had two points on the day.
Even though the professors had a little more pep on offense than they did on defense, they didn’t tally a point through the first eight minutes of the final quarter. Mostly, the faculty team just watched as the brothers’ lead grew steadily over the last 10 minutes.
The brothers’ 66–38 showing was even more commanding than their 46–36 win in last year’s inaugural edition of the game. Perhaps more importantly, it seems to have been more lucrative as well, with AEPi taking in close to $1,000 for Chai Lifeline, the game’s beneficiary.
The frat boys weren’t the only repeat winners Sunday. Sorority members competed in knockout and a shooting contest during half time, and once again, fourth-year Alex Leach, who played varsity basketball, took top honors.
Leach won the three-point shooting contest and tied with third-year and fellow DG member Jill Lenson in knockout (the two were the last players left, and wouldn’t compete head-to-head). Leach won knockout outright last year.
