Intramural all-star team faces defeat

By Cesar Neira
Bridge contributing writer
Published Monday, April 20, 2020

Short-handedness contributed to a two-game loss for TAMIU’s recreational men’s basketball team during the intramural all-star tournament. The annual National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association Region IV tournament took place from March 7 to 10.

The Recreational Sports Intramural Open Basketball League All-Star team from Texas A&M International University is composed of the best players from the league’s open tournament. TAMIU suffered defeats against Stephen F. Austin and Trinity universities at the all-star event.

The team already faced an uphill challenge due to its shorthanded roster of six players.

This, along with the team being composed primarily of point and shooting guards, the men did not have the highest hopes in regards to making a deep Cinderella run in the tournament.

“We were the shortest team there,” guard Javy Carranza said, following their initial blowout loss to Stephen F. Austin. “We only had one player we could substitute. Despite these challenges, we were gonna do our best to make ourselves proud.”

While the first game ended in a blowout, TAMIU fared better in its second game, against Trinity, which ended in a 54-47 loss.

“We just wanted to represent TAMIU in the best way possible,” starting point guard Nick Martinez said. “Yeah, we know it’s just a rec league, but we just wanted to let the rest of the teams know that they shouldn’t sleep on us.”

The second loss to Trinity ended the weekend for the TAMIU men. The eventual champions of the tournament were the University of Missouri.