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Rota's Terrence Paris, left, tries to stop DeMarkus Hodge of Lajes from scoring in the Admirals' 71-24 Division III semifinal win over Lajes at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Friday. Rota will play Bamberg Saturday for the division title.

Rota's Terrence Paris, left, tries to stop DeMarkus Hodge of Lajes from scoring in the Admirals' 71-24 Division III semifinal win over Lajes at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Friday. Rota will play Bamberg Saturday for the division title. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

Rota's Terrence Paris, left, tries to stop DeMarkus Hodge of Lajes from scoring in the Admirals' 71-24 Division III semifinal win over Lajes at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Friday. Rota will play Bamberg Saturday for the division title.

Rota's Terrence Paris, left, tries to stop DeMarkus Hodge of Lajes from scoring in the Admirals' 71-24 Division III semifinal win over Lajes at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Friday. Rota will play Bamberg Saturday for the division title. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

Rota's Tre'von Owens gets past Zach Ford, left, and Josh Case of Lajes for a basket. Rota beat Lajes 71-24 in a semifinal game at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships and will face Bamberg for the Division III title.

Rota's Tre'von Owens gets past Zach Ford, left, and Josh Case of Lajes for a basket. Rota beat Lajes 71-24 in a semifinal game at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships and will face Bamberg for the Division III title. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

Rota's K.C. Mason lifts the ball to the basket against Andrew Enrique of Lajes in the Admirals' 71-24 Division III semifinal win over Lajes at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Friday. Rota will play Bamberg on Saturday for the division title.

Rota's K.C. Mason lifts the ball to the basket against Andrew Enrique of Lajes in the Admirals' 71-24 Division III semifinal win over Lajes at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships in Wiesbaden, Friday. Rota will play Bamberg on Saturday for the division title. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

Treshaun Foster of Bamberg tries to advance the ball against the Sigonella defense Friday at Wiesbaden High School. Bamberg won the Division III semifinal game 56-39.

Treshaun Foster of Bamberg tries to advance the ball against the Sigonella defense Friday at Wiesbaden High School. Bamberg won the Division III semifinal game 56-39. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)

Travis Olson of Black Forest Academy holds onto the ball in the final seconds of his team's 39-33 win over the Ansbach Cougars Friday at Wiesbaden High School. The Falcons held onto a narrow win after Ansbach mounted an impressive comeback only to fall short after two late technical foul calls. Nathan Greathouse of BFA came to the line with 1 minute and 14 seconds on the clock and hit four straight free throws boosting his team to the win.

Travis Olson of Black Forest Academy holds onto the ball in the final seconds of his team's 39-33 win over the Ansbach Cougars Friday at Wiesbaden High School. The Falcons held onto a narrow win after Ansbach mounted an impressive comeback only to fall short after two late technical foul calls. Nathan Greathouse of BFA came to the line with 1 minute and 14 seconds on the clock and hit four straight free throws boosting his team to the win. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)

Andrew Reed of Bamberg attempts a shot from three-point range Friday at Wiesbaden High School. The Bamberg Barons beat the Sigonella Jaguars 56-39 in the Division III semifinal game.

Andrew Reed of Bamberg attempts a shot from three-point range Friday at Wiesbaden High School. The Bamberg Barons beat the Sigonella Jaguars 56-39 in the Division III semifinal game. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)

AFNORTH's Jake Schmidt, right, shoots over AOSR's Justin Tuimavana for a basket. AFNORTH defeated AOSR in a Division II semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships to advance to Saturday's finals.

AFNORTH's Jake Schmidt, right, shoots over AOSR's Justin Tuimavana for a basket. AFNORTH defeated AOSR in a Division II semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships to advance to Saturday's finals. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

AFNORTH's Nuri Karaca, left, takes it to the hoop against AOSR's Sam Katsande Munyoro. AFNORTH defeated AOSR in a Division II semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships, to advance to Saturday's finals.

AFNORTH's Nuri Karaca, left, takes it to the hoop against AOSR's Sam Katsande Munyoro. AFNORTH defeated AOSR in a Division II semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships, to advance to Saturday's finals. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

AFNORTH's Jamil Pollock drives to the basket  against AOSR's Sam Katsande Munyoro. AFNORTH defeated AOSR in a Division II semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships to advance to Saturday's finals.

AFNORTH's Jamil Pollock drives to the basket against AOSR's Sam Katsande Munyoro. AFNORTH defeated AOSR in a Division II semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships to advance to Saturday's finals. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

AFNORTH's Nuri Karaca, left, drives up court against AOSR's Omry Erez in a Division II semifinal won by AFNORTH, 68-40.

AFNORTH's Nuri Karaca, left, drives up court against AOSR's Omry Erez in a Division II semifinal won by AFNORTH, 68-40. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

Jun Jun Gallardo of Naples goes up for a layup in the fourth quarter Friday in Naples' Division II semifinal win over Black Forest Academy, 53-29, at Wiesbaden High School.

Jun Jun Gallardo of Naples goes up for a layup in the fourth quarter Friday in Naples' Division II semifinal win over Black Forest Academy, 53-29, at Wiesbaden High School. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)

WIESBADEN, Germany – If your Saturday plans include anything other than traveling to the Army Airfield gym here for the boys’ Division III title game between the defending champion Rota Admirals and second-seeded Bamberg, change them.

You don’t want to miss what augers to be an epic match-up between up-tempo, full-court-pressing buzz-saws.

Not that the Division II matchup will be a snoozer.

In the D-II semis, Jake Schmidt and Westin McKinney nailed things down on the inside, and Nuri Karaca effectively handled his duel of individual NATO stars against Lorezno Mannozzi to lift the top-seeded AFNORTH Lions into Saturday’s title game with a 68-40 victory over the American Overseas School of Rome Falcons. AFNORTH will meet another team from Italy - high-powered Naples - after the Wildcats raced past Black Forest Academy 53-29. The Wildcats haven’t lost since falling to AOSR on Dec. 3 in the second game of the season.

In the boys’ Division I event, defending champion Heidelberg and sixth-seeded Lakenheath rendered the final two pool-play games irrelevant Friday morning when the Lions downed Kaiserslautern 48-30 and the Lancers upset No. 2 Patch 41-36.

The outcomes clinched the Pool B title for Ramstein, which downed Wiesbaden 44-32 in Friday’s meaningless pool-play finale, and put the Royals into Friday’s late D-I semifinal against K-town. With its victory, Lakenheath drew Heidelberg and the Lions’ 24-game winning streak in the other semifinal. Both semifinals were too late for Stars and Stripes’ deadline. But a story was set to be posted later Friday on the Europe sports page at legacy.stripes.com.

Division IIIRota gave the latest demonstration of big-time prowess and hustle from a small school with a 71-24 demolition of Lajes in Friday’s D-III semifinal. The Admirals, who haven’t lost an official DODDS-Europe game since 2009, rode their energetic full-court press and the NCAA Division I skills of Tre’von Owens to a 29-0 run that covered the game’s first 8:59.

Owens, who scored 32 points before sitting with 2 minutes, 56 seconds left in the third quarter, accounted for 18 of those first 29 points in every way possible – 2-of-3 on three-point shots, 4-of-7 from inside the arc on acrobatic drives to the rack and pull-up jumpers, and 4-of-6 from the free throw line, when he was fouled by Lajes’ Toderick Stevens.

“He’s so shifty,” said an impressed Stevens, who pulled out all the stops trying to stick with Owens man-to-man for the entire 21 minutes the 2011 Stars and Stripes player of the year got to play Friday, “and he can shoot.”

Stevens got an up-close look at the way Owens, a 6-foot-6 guard who has accepted a scholarship to play for Cal-Riverside this fall, moves without the ball and employs his scoring skills. In addition, Owens usually is the best passer on the floor and a ferocious rebounder – a game-high 11 on Friday — who doesn’t shy away from the game’s blue-collar jobs.

Owens, however, wasn’t the only Admiral who battled on Friday. Rota’s trapping full-court press produced no fewer than eight first-quarter turnovers and four steals, and its defense limited Lajes to just nine shots from the floor in the opening eight minutes – all of them off-target 3-point tries.

All this while missing starter Marc Oden, who stayed at the team hotel with what Rota coach Ben Anderson called a bad cold.

No problem, said Rota’s Niko Fichera, who started in Oden’s place.

“It was tough,” said Fichera about stepping in, “but it’s not a question of me replacing him. When we’re missing someone, the whole team has to step up.”

“We played well,” Anderson summarized.

Summarized Fichera, “It’s fun playing for one of the best teams in Europe.”

It was the second time in less than 24 hours that Lajes had run into a D-III maelstrom. Thursday afternoon, the Falcons dropped a 57-27 decision to D-III finalist Bamberg, a team as much on its game then as the Admirals were on Friday.

DeMarkus Hodge, who was 2-of-4 on three-point shots, led Lajes with 10 points and seven rebounds.

In Friday’s other D-III semifinal, Bamberg, in its first season as D-III school, rolled on to its showdown with Rota by thumping Sigonella 56-39 behind 17 points from freshman Jeremy Morgan.

The Barons are to take Rota on at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Army Airfield gym. The admission price of $5 for adults and $3 for students covers all six of Saturday’s championship games.

Division IISchmidt, who played with four fouls for the game’s final 7:38, scored five of his 14 points after grabbling offensive rebounds. To those three on the offensive glass, he added seven rebounds on the other end of the floor and handed out three assists. And when Schmidt went to the bench – he picked up his third foul 3:46 before halftime – McKinney simply shouldered more of the load. He scored 12 points, snared 12 rebounds and stole the ball four times.

Kuraca, AFNORTH’s junior star from Turkey, scored 13 of his team-high 20 points after intermission to help the Lions add to their 11-point halftime edge.

The half didn’t start out that way, though, as AOSR closed its gap to 36-32 over the first five minutes after intermission. Mannozzi, who finished with 21 points, contributed two steals and eight points to his team’s 13-6 run.

But that’s when AFNORTH closed the door, pressing the ball on every AOSR inbounds play.

“For us, the press is kind of our secret weapon,” said senior captain Jamil Pollock, who added 12 points and four steals to AFNORTH’s cause. “It gives us energy.”

Energy enough, in fact, to generate an 11-0 run, fueled by a Pollock three pointer and six points from Karaca, over the next two-and-a-half minutes, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Pollock said the Lions did nothing special to counter Mannozzi, a scoring threat from anywhere on the floor.

“We’ve been playing him for four years,” Pollock said. “We know he’s a shooter and that we have to go out and get him.”

bryanr@estripes.osd.mil

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