Friday, March 30, 2001

By Rusty Bryan, Stars and Stripes

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — According to Aviano’s Taylor McKinley, there’s a term for the way his Dragons pulled out a 79-77 victory over Lakenheath on the second day of the USAFE basketball championships.

"This was team hustle," said Taylor of the way Aviano frenziedly crashed the boards and pressured the ball all over the floor for 40 minutes during Thursday’s men’s play at the Vogelweh gym.

Taylor was a mountain in the paint, scoring a game-high 23 points as Aviano battered Lakeheath’s interior defense for the vast majority of their points.

"If the outside game isn’t working, we try to pound the ball into the middle," Taylor said of the way Tremaine Dye, Douglas Goudy and the rest of the Dragons made entry passes to him.

When they weren’t dishing to Taylor, Dye and Goudy were penetrating and shooting themselves. Goudy scored 16 points, mostly on jumpers from the baseline, and Dye added 13, mostly on 12-footers that kept the Lakenheath defense from collapsing on Taylor.

The victory pushed the Dragons to 2-0 in the round-robin portion of this five-day event, but it didn’t come easily.

After Aviano expanded their 35-34 halftime lead to 64-53 with 10 minutes to play, mainly on second-chance baskets and turnovers, Lakenheath (0-2) mounted a furious comeback.

Jason Reinbeau, who ended the game with 31 points, did most of the damage from the outside. At the three-minute mark, Reinbeau hit a pair of free throws to tie the game, and followed that with a jumper from the left wing to give the Eagles a 74-72 lead.

Buckets by Taylor and Goudy, however, and a pair of clutch free throws by Chris Moed quickly restored the lead and had Taylor, for one, thinking positively.

"If we can keep our focus," he said, "I think we can win this thing."

He’ll find out Sunday.

In Thursday’s other early games, the defending champion Spangdahlem men rebounded from Wednesday night’s 63-59 loss to Aviano to claim a 69-56 victory over winless Incirlik.

Russell Nicholson led the Sabers (1-1) with 21 points.

In Thursday’s women’s games at Ramstein’s Southside gym, Aviano’s Lady Dragons kept pace with their men, moving to 2-0 with a 77-26 victory over Lakenheath.

The Lady Dragons, who got 17 points from Nikkita Davis and 16 from Angela Rougeau, were coming off a 60-52 victory over Spangdahlem on Wednesday that came despite 31 points by Spang ace Julie Whittingham.

Whittingham scored 26 more Thursday in a 73-42 conquest of winless Incirlik that evened their record at 1-1.

The Lady Sabers were trying to move into a tie with Mildenhall (2-0) when they faced the Lady Marauders in one of Thursday’s late games, as was Ramstein (1-1). The Lady Rams were paired against Aviano (2-0).

Thursday’s late men’s games paired unbeaten Aviano and Ramstein and 1-1 Spangdahlem and Mildenhall.

Friday’s games return the women to Vogelweh and men to Ramstein, with first tip-offs at 9 and 11 a.m. The men’s afternoon sesssion is set for 3 and 6 p.m. The women play at 4 and 6 p.m.

Saturday’s tipoffs are 9 and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. — men at Vogelweh and women at Ramstein.

Sunday’s title games, between the teams with the best round-robin marks, begin at noon and 2 p.m.

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