MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- The 3rd Radio Battalion Honey Badgers and Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay basketball teams faced off at center court for an intramural basketball league game at the Semper Fit Center gym, Feb. 27.
The opponents met on the hardwood earlier in the season, where the Honey Badgers claimed the first victory.
Both teams have struggled since earning 1-6 records prior to their Wednesday meeting, but 3rd Radio Bn. was the victor with a final score of 40-26. The victory bumped them up in the regular season bracket and quenched the team’s thirst for redemption.
“Going into this game, our focus is to win … we have to win,” said Christopher Thompson, a MCAS forward, during the pre-game warm-up. “We played these guys once before, lost, and we haven’t won a game since. We need to stay focused and not let the little things get to us. That’s our key to victory.”
At the opening tip-off, the Honey Badgers secured possession. A quick three-point shot put the team on the scoreboard first.
The Honey Badgers struggled on offense, turning the ball over several times in the first half. The team was not connecting its passes, and MCAS took advantage of the missed opportunities.
“We made a lot of bad passes in the first half and weren’t communicating on the floor,” said Kyle Marks, the head coach for 3rd Radio. “When nobody is talking, it’s hard to set up your teammates for shots. That’s what we struggled with, and it really hurt us throughout this game, regardless of the score.”
At the end of the first half, the Honey Badgers led, 19-10, but as the second half started, both teams played aggressive defense. Many passes were broken up, and several MCAS steals gave them a promising lead.
Though the Honey Badgers struggled to maintain possession of the ball, they connected on the majority of their shots midway through the second half.
Their strong offensive effort gave them a promising 10-point lead with a score of 29-19.
“We had some momentum going for us for a while in the second half,” Marks said. “We wanted to keep that and use our rebounding ability to our advantage and score some second-chance points.”
As minutes passed, MCAS began to lose many rebounding battles in the paint. The result of both teams’ aggressive play was many fouls, but MCAS was the stronger contender at the free-throw line, scoring 10 points off free throws in the last five minutes of the game.
“It was a hard-fought game, and you could tell both of our teams wanted this victory,” said Michael Canamore, a MCAS guard. “It was a little rough, to say the least, and we lost again, but it was a great game.”