James Dunmore, right, of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center grasps a rebound in front of Pablo Reid of V Corps in the championship game of the unit-level tournament on Sunday in Würzburg, Germany. (Steven Kuduk / Special to Stripes)
James Dunmore, right, of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center grasps a rebound in front of Pablo Reid of V Corps in the championship game of the unit-level tournament on Sunday in Würzburg, Germany. (Steven Kuduk / Special to Stripes)
Michael White of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, right, defends Troy Adams of V Corps during the second half of Sunday's game. (Steven Kuduk / Special to Stripes)
WüRZBURG, Germany — Landstuhl Regional Medical Center picked up a dose of revenge along with the 2005 Army-Europe Unit-Level basketball championship it earned with a 66-63 victory Sunday over Heidelberg’s Headquarters, V Corps.
“We wanted the big one,” said tourney MVP James Dunmore, who scored 29 points in Sunday’s title game. “They beat us in the ASG [Area Support Group] tournament. Today it was our turn.”
Sunday’s victory capped an unbeaten run for the medics through the three-day, double-elimination event.
LMRC trailed by five points at halftime Sunday and by three with 3:35 left in the game. During the final minutes, however, Landstuhl’s Parker Hahn took over.
Hahn began by banging home a three-pointer from the right baseline to even the score at 59. But V Corps gained the lead back on baskets by Troy Adams and Pablo Reid, while Hahn and Dunmore cut the four-point lead in half by each hitting one of two free throws. With 32.3 seconds remaining, V Corps was about to force a winner-take-all game. It had a two-point lead and possession of the ball.
Hahn, however, stole a crosscourt pass in the backcourt, dribbled the floor and was fouled on the layup he made to tie the score. His free throw gave him 15 points on the day and his team a one-point lead, 64-63. A pair of Dunmore free throws provided the final margin.
“There was no way I wanted to play another game,” Hahn said of the late rally he engineered. “I’m too old for that.”
Too old?
“I feel like I’m 45,” the 25-year-old said with a laugh.
V Corps, which earned its second shot at LRMC with a 64-58 triumph over Wiesbaden's D Company, 123 Main Support Battalion, in Sunday's losers-bracket final, got 23 points from Adams and 19 from Reid against LRMC.
But V Corps couldn’t find a way to shut down Dunmore, who scored 29 during the final.
“This is the best team I’ve ever played on,” Hahn said. “Everyone knows his role and plays it. We just jelled.”
