RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany – The Ramstein Royals didn’t need any extra motivation for their first game of the DODEA European Basketball Championships on Wednesday afternoon on their home floor.

Their opponent, Stuttgart, swept the three-game season series between the two teams, which didn’t sit well with the players. Ramstein got an extra kick from a raucous home crowd, with students filing in during their lunch break to watch the top two teams in Division I square off.

The result was a wire-to-wire, 58-49 victory over the Panthers.

“That kind of drove us all to be more pumped, to be more ready to defeat them in Euros,” said Ramstein’s Bryson Bishop, who scored 15 points in the opener. “This is grind time right now.

“We had a couple of plays designed for them. First game out of the mat, so (we wanted) to get rid of them.”

Ramstein (14-3) started off the game with a 4-0 lead, and it took Stuttgart (16-1) until the 3:43 mark to get on the board. The Royal defense held the Panthers to just 15 points at halftime, taking a 10-point lead.

At one point in the second half, Ramstein pushed the lead close to 20 points. One of the major reasons the Royals did was the effort from crashing the boards, which gave them numerous second-chance opportunities.

Senior guard Timar Dix dropped a game-high 20 points – including 13 in the second half - to go with Bishop’s 15 points,

“We have the guys to crash the boards,” Ramstein coach Brendan Rouse said. “If you look at our guards, they rebound just as good as our bigs.”

After a poor shooting effort for much of the game, Stuttgart’s offense came alive over the last 6 minutes.

It started with a pair of 3-pointers by junior guard Jacob Schudel (16 points) on back-to-back possessions. Then senior forward Trenton Jackson banked a pair of 3s and added another from beyond the arc over a 41-second span to make it 45-36.

“They took the fourth quarter from us,” Rouse said. “I thought we could have done better in the fourth. They got one on us.”

The Panthers cut the deficit to seven points three times late, but Bishop threw home a one-handed slam with 1:07 remaining that sent the crowd into a frenzy and sealed the win.

“That was a great feeling, I can’t lie,” Bishop said. “That was one of the best feelings I’ve had all season long, but I can’t settle for that. We still got about (five) more games to go, and then it’s championship time.”

After the game, Stuttgart coach Christopher Jackson said he could live with a bad shooting performance, but the Panthers’ defensive and rebounding efforts were disappointments.

“That was a reminder that if you don’t play defense and rebound well, nothing else matters,” Jackson said. “Had we done that, the game would have been much closer going into the second half. My team knows that. They know why they lost, and they won’t let that happen again.

“It doesn’t guarantee victories, but it guarantees we’re going to play the right way.”

Ramstein followed up with a 60-36 win over crosstown rival Kaiserslautern later in the day, while Stuttgart bounced back with a 67-28 win over Lakenheath.

The Panthers still can finish among the top two teams in the round-robin format and get a rematch with the Royals on Saturday but might need to win all their remaining games Thursday and Friday.

Girls

The Ramstein-Stuttgart boys game wasn’t the only game involving the top two teams heading into the tournament.

In fact, it wasn’t the only one going at during lunchtime at Ramstein High School.

Wiesbaden and Ramstein met on the second court to open their girls basketball pool play, and just like their two regular-season meetings, the Warriors came out on top, 38-26.

Wiesbaden (17-1) coach Kristin Kachmar harped upon her team the importance of defense during a tournament, as shooting can be a struggle with so many games coming thick and fast. And the Warriors delivered the performance on defense they needed.

“I never know what team’s going to show up,” Kachmar said. “Today, my defensive, I’m-going-to-listen-coach team showed up. They listened, and they delivered.”

Wiesbaden got its usual performances from senior center Lyndsey Urick, who totaled 13 points, and senior guard McKinley Viers, who totaled eight points. But what made Kachmar happy was the addition to the scoreboard of a role player.

Sophomore forward Natalia Bergdorf added eight points, six of which came in the fourth quarter as the Warriors pulled away from the Royals (14-3).

“The coaches and I talked about that on the way here,” Kachmar said. “I was like, if we can get Nat to get eight, we can Gwen (Icanberry) to get eight and we get like two or three points off our bench, I think we’ll be good.

“And Nat got eight. She stepped up and did what we needed her to do.”

Wiesbaden completed a perfect first day with a 41-19 win over Lakenheath.

Ramstein coach Andrew Short said the loss left a sour taste with the Royals, but they were thankful to have another matchup Wednesday with a game against Vilseck. Ramstein bounced back with a 44-3 victory over the Falcons.

“I can’t wait to play another game after that one,” Short said after the loss to Wiesbaden. “I think the girls are ready to play another one, too. If you could pick a time for that to happen, it’s very early in a round-robin tournament and early in the day so you can recover before you go home.”

Ramstein still has a solid shot at another meeting with the Warriors but might need to sweep its games Thursday and Friday to advance to Saturday’s title game.

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