Students and friends gathered in the Heritage Campus gym to battle it out in the 1v1 basketball tournament starting on Monday, Oct. 6. Games were 5 minutes long or the first to score 11 points with every basket counting as 1 point.
Through the first two days of the tournament, Ryan Izaguirre leads all students with an impressive 5-1 record. Izaguirre has outscored his opponents 57-13 through the 6 games.
“If you play against good or bad people it adds to your skill set and so it’s nice to have a variety here honestly,” Izaguirre said about competing in an intramural tournament compared to playing recreational basketball anywhere else in Corpus Christi.
Friends Alejandro Soto and Alejandro Loa began the tournament with a match against each other. Loa showed his shooting range early as he knocked down a shot from beyond the arc before adding another basket to take an early 2-0 lead. Soto would respond in the final minutes, mounting a 5-3 comeback by taking advantage of his ability to score in the paint rather than taking jump shots.
Next for Soto was a match against Izaguirre which quickly became a struggle due to exhaustion as well as the size and speed of Izaguirre. He showed incredible length in his layups that seemed to be unblockable. Izaguirre also made multiple shots from beyond the arc to test himself and give Soto a minute to breathe after running around the court for twice as long. This would be the same fate for Loa as he and Soto would lose 11-0 in back-to-back games against Izaguirre.
Returning for more on Wednesday, Oct. 8, Izaguirre first matched up against Lucky Recio with Izaguirre yelling out, “maybe my luck has run out,” after hearing the name of his opponent. Luck didn’t seem to play any part as Izaguirre made long range shots repeatedly even hitting the game-winning shot from behind the arc while leaving one second on the clock, earning an 11-1 victory over Recio.
A similar issue to many other students, Revel Wicks had to work so he could only make one game on Wednesday, but he showed up for the fun of participating. He matched up against a defensive specialist in Brandon Chapa and used his speed as a huge advantage to get any open rebounds or make a move and get past Chapa to score and maintain possession for a majority of the game as he would take the win, 6-0.
Tanis McCaine got his first match against the bulkier Adrian Reyes. Tanis had great playmaking ability and speed; however, Reyes used his body to bully the paint offensively and defensively as well as finding a way to go on a 4-0 shooting run to break a tie and win 6-2 as time expired.
McCaine was just getting started, as he would play next against Chapa and show that he had fully warmed up after the first game. McCaine was making shots from all over the court, creating space with ball fakes, euro steps, even making a beautiful right-handed layup on the left side of the basket just past the outstretched hand of Chapa to take a 5-4 lead with just under a minute left in the game. Chapa’s elite defense and getting a breather allowed him to keep pace and have one last chance to tie the game as time expired, however McCaine stepped up and played his own aggressive defense to knock the ball away and secure his first win of the tournament.
Izaguirre to this point had outscored his opponents 33-1, however he would play three games consecutively to finish his day and put his skills to the test. The first of these was against Reyes, who again tried using his size to keep Izaguirre out of the paint and force tougher shots. Izaguirre wasn’t fazed, despite finally being blocked on a layup that made everyone in the gym “oooh” and “aaah” at such a rare occurrence. Izaguirre complimented Reyes and laughed it off, showing great sportsmanship and using it as motivation to lock down the rest of the game and take his first win by time expiration, 7-4.
Next for Izaguirre would be a match against the already exhausted Chapa. After chasing around the athletic Wicks and McCaine, Chapa had to face Izaguirre who is likely the most athletic of them all. With Izaguirre already warmed up, he was able to make quick work of the game, reaching the point total in only three minutes to improve his record to 5-0 before McCaine said he was also warmed up and wanted to get a game in against Izaguirre before leaving.
This would prove to be a good decision as the best game was saved for last. Both men exerted speed, ball handling, impressive shooting and defense. Scoring was back and forth; Izaguirre opened with a few baskets early before McCaine took off with a 5-0 run to gain a 5-2 lead before Izaguirre knocked down multiple shots in a minute to tie the game at 5. Each player would trade one more basket leaving the game tied at 6 with a minute to play, McCaine took advantage of having possession by scoring two baskets, leaving only 15 seconds left by the time Izaguirre could get the ball back. He took one shot despite the outcome being finalized; McCaine earned the 8-6 victory to hand Izaguirre his first loss.
With 2 wins, McCaine is now in shape to compete against Izaguirre once more in the championship if he can win a few more games in the final qualifying round on Monday, Oct. 13 at 2:30 p.m. in the Heritage Campus gym. Students are welcome to attend and cheer on their fellow students and friends.
