Thursday, March 29, 2001

By Rusty Bryan, Stars and Stripes

Michael Abrams / Stars and Stripes Incirlik's Darnell Ingram can't stop Mildenhall Marauder Robert Foster from making a shot during Mildenhall's 81-45 win over the Nomads.

RAMSTEIN AB, Germany — First crack out of the box Wednesday, Lakenheath’s men’s team stumbled onto one of the advantages of the five-day USAFE basketball tournament’s round-robin format.

"We’ll be back to fight again," said Eagles coach Brian DeGroat after his team squandered a seven-point lead in the final seven minutes and fell to Ramstein 66-58.

Stumbled was the operative word as the Eagles, who led 28-21 at halftime and maintained their seven-point edge for the first 13 minutes of the second half, came unglued in the face of intense Ramstein pressure that produced a spate of steals and turnovers.

Ramstein also received a lift from burly center Terrence Findley, who scored all nine of his points in the second half and whose aggressive rebounding produced stop after stop when they were needed most.

In spite of that, Lakenheath expected better from its experienced team. Several Eagles are in their sixth and seventh USAFE tournaments.

While the dividend from that experience fell below expectations, the we’ve-been-here-before factor allowed the Eagles to maintain their perspective in the face of a disappointing performance.

"This game means nothing," DeGroat concluded. "Come interview us again after the championship game."

Ramstein’s Stuart Howard scored a game-high 18 points. Point guard Constine Jack and Jeff Queen each added 11, with Queen’s total built around three first-half treys.

Tommy Lenoir led Lakenheath with 16 points. He was backed by 14 points from Charles Flanagan and 13 from Jason Reinbeau.

In Wednesday’s other early games, the Mildenhall Lady Marauders, runners-up to Heidelberg in last year’s U.S. Forces tournament in Lakenheath, served notice that they were going to be a force to be reckoned with here, too, with a 73-20 demolition of Incirlik.

Christine Schroeder had a game-high 26 points for Mildenhall, which also got 14 points from Nancy Nicholson and 10 from Michelle Hazelip.

Incirlik, which got a team-high six points from Danica Fletcher, trailed 45-9 at halftime.

Mildenhall’s men continued what their women had started, dumping Incirlik 81-45.

Thomas Jackson and Runako Dixon led Mildenhall with 16 points each. Darnell Ingram topped Incirlik with 10.

The round-robin portion of the tournament continues at the Southside gym in Ramstein and the Vogelweh gym in Kaiserslautern through Saturday. Thursday and Friday, the morning games tip off at 9 and 11 at each site. Women’s afternoon sessions are at 4 and 6, while the men play at 3 and 6.

Saturday’s tip-offs for both sexes are scheduled for 9 and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Sunday’s championship games between the top two women’s and top two men’s teams tip off at noon and 2 p.m., respectively, at Vogelweh.

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