Saturday, February 24, 2001

By Rusty Bryan
Stars and Stripes

Michael Abrams / Stars and Stripes Ramstein's Isiah Fluellen goes in for a layup past Kaiserslautern's Stan Harris in first half action of the first Division I semifinal Friday evening.

MANNHEIM, Germany — Whew!

This Cinderella business can be a lot work.

But apparently it’s worth it.

"I’ve been playing for four years just hoping to get to the big dance," Kaiserslautern’s unflappable Stan Harris said after he led the fifth-seeded Red Raiders into Saturday’s boys Division I European championship game with a come-from-behind 60-53 victory over third-seeded Ramstein.

K-town will take on the winner of Friday night’s Heidelberg-Wiesbaden semifinal, but to the Red Raiders, who have knocked off top-seeded Lakenheath and fourth-seeded Wiesbaden en route to their improbable final, tonight’s opponent matters not.

"I’m just glad to have a shot at the title," Harris said.

The Red Raiders earned their shot by playing a quick and talented Ramstein team out of its game plan.

There are brains as well as beauty and brawn, you see, involved in living up to Cinderella’s success.

"Ramstein really took it to us at first," Harris said, "but we came out alter halftime [trailing 30-23] with a smart game plan."

The plan, which came out of the fertile brain of second-year K-town coach Clinton Robinson, was to deny the Royals, most of whom have first step akin to an F-16’s, their slashing drives to the hoop that resulted in foul trouble for the Red Raiders and easy buckets for Ramstein.

"We really packed it in after halftime," Harris said. "We let them have outside shots only."

Michael Abrams / S&S Marymount's Stefania Battistelli drives down the court against Baumholder's Jennifer Winters in Marymount's 51-34 win over the defending Division III champions.

While the Royals have dangerous outside shooters in Cliff Middleton, Tyrell Hibbler and Davon Brown, they are far more comfortable blazing by, through, over and under their defenders.

Ramstein was 9-for-16 from the floor in the first half, but just 7-for-16 after the break. And trying to force the ball inside against the packed-in K-town defense also forced enough turnovers for the Red Raiders to come back.

With K-town trailing 41-31 with 2:40 to play in the third quarter, Jason Donaldson got the rally started with the first of two three-balls he would drain before the final period began.

Four points each from Robert Kindell, who ended with a game-high 19 points, and Jonathan Griffin made it 48-48 with 3:13 to play before Harris, whose admirers had written "Stan da Man" in huge letters on the back of his socks, hit a bucket and three of six free throws to make it 56-50 in the final minute.

Ramstein made a bid to tie with Middleton’s three-ball, but Ryan Olds ended that threat when he put back a missed free throw by Curtis Adams with 30 seconds left.

While the Ramstein boys were struggling to their second straight loss to K-town, the Lady Royals didn’t even put in a full day’s work with a 69-29 mercy-rule rout of Wiesbaden.

The deep and relentless Ramstein girls, behind 17 points from Tanya West, 16 from Monique Johnson and 10 from steady center Jaimee McDowell laid a 25-point third period on Wiesbaden to expand a 12-point halftime lead into a 26-point bulge four minutes after intermission.

Michael Abrams / Stars and Stripes Incirlik's Greg Sambula, left, drives past defending Bad Kreuznach Bearkat T.J. Sanders in the Hodjas' 51-47 win over the Bearkats, Friday. Despite the loss, Bad Kreuznach advanced to Saturday's Division III final.

West stole the ball six times, and McDowell had four thefts as the Ramstein press worked to perfection and put Bob Ermel’s Lady Royals into the big schools title game for the fourth straight year.

They will play the winner of Friday’s late semifinal between Heidelberg and Würzburg Saturday for the championship.

That game will crown the third new girls champion this season. Kaiserslautern, the defending champs, fell to Heidelberg 36-35 for its second straight loss of the tourney, and Baumholder, the Division III girls champion fell out of contention with 50-33 loss to Marymount on Friday.

Marymount will play Iceland, which went to 3-0 with a 37-18 victory over winless Ankara on Friday, in Saturday’s noon title game.

It will be the second straight trip to the D-3 final for Marymount.

Division II

Bitburg’s girls advanced to the title game for the second straight year with a 30-29 victory over third-seeded Patch.

Patch got 15 points and eight rebounds from Joanna Miller, but still fell to the Lady Barons for the third time this season.

Patch’s boys were also involved in a one-point game, but they came out with the higher number and moved into Saturday’s 4:50 p.m. title game with a 46-43 victory over stubborn Mannheim.

James Hughes and Nick Anderson combined for 31 rebounds and 23 points to pace the Panthers, who got 11 points from Ryan Murdock. Hughes also blocked five shots, and Sean Spencer dished out five assists, and the Panthers needed every one of them.

The top-seeded International School of Brussels girls and Bitburg boys were taking on Vilseck and ISB, respectively in Friday night’s later semifinals.

SHAPE’s boys wrapped up fifth place with a 65-54 victory over Hanau, fueled mainly by the scoring and rebounding of Tony Testa.

Division III

Bad Kreuznach’s boys, the two-time defending champions, dropped a meaningless game Friday to Incirlik, but the Bearkats will still play Hohenfels, a team they beat Thursday, for the title.

Hohenfels downed Italy champion Vicenza 54-46 despite 27 points from Vicenza’s Dawayne Arington.

Play begins with third-place games at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Benjamin Franklin Village Sports Arena and the Sullivan Barracks gym.

All six championship games will follow in succession beginning at noon at the BFA Sports Arena.

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