ynda Hernandez of the Stuttgart Lady Stallions completes a layup against the Heidelberg Lady Generals during the U.S. Forces Community Level Basketball Championship tournament at Patch Fitness Center in Stuttgart, Germany. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
Terry Pearsall of the K-Town Panthers shoots a jump shot against the Stuttgart Stallions during the championship game of the U.S. Forces Community Level Basketball Championship tournament at Patch Fitness Center in Stuttgart, Germany. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
Stewart Kenneth of the K-Town Panthers shoots drives past a Stuttgart Stallions during the championship game of the U.S. Forces Community Level Basketball Championship tournament at Patch Fitness Center in Stuttgart, Germany. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
Frank Price of the Stuttgart Stallions scores with a layup aganst the K-Town Panthers during the championship game of the U.S. Forces Community Level Basketball Championship tournament at Patch Fitness Center in Stuttgart, Germany. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
William Webb of the Stuttgart Stallions slams in 2 points against the K-Town Panthers during the championship game of the U.S. Forces Community Level Basketball Championship tournament at Patch Fitness Center in Stuttgart, Germany. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
STUTTGART, Germany – Good things, in the form of 2011 U.S. Forces-Europe basketball championships came in three’s Sunday for the Stuttgart men and women.
Each champ rode the three-ball to its title, and neither made a secret of their intent to use the long-range shot.
Women’s MVP Shaquana Taylor grabbed the opening tip, pulled up at the top of the key and drained the first of her six treys to launch the Lady Stallions to their 62-51 victory over Heidelberg, and Stuttgart’s Al Elliott duplicated her feat 90 minutes or so later, sinking a trey on Stuttgart’s first possession to ignite an 80-63 victory over the Kaiserslautern Panthers.
Both teams entered Sunday’s play as the winners-bracket champion of this four-day double-elimination event which went on in spite of new duty commitments for the military in Europe.
Heidelberg forced a women’s if-necessary game by downing Stuttgart, 55-48, behind 31 combined points from their two veterans. Tania Spann led the Lady Generals with 19 points, longtime European basketball fixture at pivot, Donna Marcus, added 12. K-town then followed with a 74-69 victory over the eventual champion Stallions, ensuring the hometown fans a full afternoon and, as it turned out, evening of basketball.
Men: Stuttgart 80, Kaiserslautern 63“I’m a pure shooter,” Elliott said as he reclined on the floor after the game. “I love to shoot the three.”
It showed Sunday. Elliott sank five of Stuttgart’s 10 three-balls, three of them during the Stallions’ 31-15 game-opening run. The champs expanded their lead to 45-25 at halftime, largely by limiting K-town to no more than one shot per possession.
“We talked about boxing them out and being active on the glass,” said Eliiott, who finished with a game-high 26 points after missing Sunday’s first title game because he had to work.
The talk took. Kaiserslautern snared just three offensive rebounds in the first half and a mere two in the final 20 minutes.
Even so, The Panthers got back in the game, coming as close as eight points down with eight minutes to go by limiting their turnovers to just three in the second half.
But there was no overcoming their rebounding disadvantage.
“We knew they were a deliberate team,” Elliott said. “We wanted to get the rebound and push the tempo.”
Women: Stuttgart 62, Heidelberg 51“I’m normally a shooter,” Taylor said after going six-for 11 from behind the arc en route to a game-high 21 points, “but I try to do all I can to help the team.”
Stuttgart coach Mike Johnson concurred, pointing out her excellent defensive game against Spann and Company, but pulling the Lady Generals’ defense away from the bucket was a gift of mercy to Stuttgart center Robin Hess.
Hess and Marcus waged pitched battles under the rack in both games. Turns out, they were a continuation of a long siege.
“I’ve been playing on this team for six years,” said Hess, who finished with 16 points, half of them on put-backs off the offensive glass. “They know me very well. They know I like to push.”
Hess said Sunday’s first loss was disappointing, but not debilitating in the sense of increasing the pressure.
“It would have been nice to have won the first game and gotten it over with,” she said, “but that didn’t happen. You’ve got to go out there with the attitude that you have to make it happen now.”
