IM news

Carnegie Mellon Intramurals hosted its biggest event of the year, IM Night, Thursday in Skibo Gymnasium. For the past 59 years, the athletic department has held this event, a basketball championship game for all four Intramural leagues in one evening.
During the games, the top two teams in Minors, Women, Intermediate, and Majors go head-to-head for their respective league titles and the highly coveted IM championship T-shirt.
The first two games of the evening are refereed by Carnegie Mellon’s own intramural officiating staff. At the end of the evening, these staff members get to take some time off, as high school officials from the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) are brought in to take over.
The Minors league kicked off the evening with a highly anticipated match up between the Beta Lebrons and Sig Ep A. Both teams possessed enough speed and control to keep things competitive so that neither team gained a dominant lead. Ultimately, however, Beta fittingly showed that the best offense is a good defense by shutting down Sig Ep’s star Ryan Swick. With Sig Ep slowed down, Beta’s Richard Pattison was able to do what he does best — shoot the three and create offensive opportunities for his team. In the end, the Beta Lebrons won 39–35.
The women’s game was a story of two teams, each with its own distinct pace. The Lady Ball Knockers came into the game as one of the quickest teams in the Women’s league. Guard Kahini Shah has been known to help her team pull away by making use of the fast break. In this game, however, Carissa Sain (assistant coach of the varsity women's basketball team) of the Team Friggin’ Awesome Hoopers, was able to neutralize the speed of the Lady Ball Knockers with a steady pace and the dominant inside presence of Kristin Burgess. Led by these two players, Team Friggin’ Awesome Hoopers was able to win with a score of 36–22.
The Intermediate championship pitted ACF against last year’s Minors league runner up MRU-Chip on our Shoulders. MRU guard Mitch Marcello was moving the ball with exceptional success in the first half, allowing his team to gain early control of the game. After halftime, ACF came out with a much higher level of intensity, and injured guard Steven Liu returned to the court. MRU guard Jim Weimer tried to guide his team back into control, but talented ACF guard Joseph Tang proved too much for a frustrated MRU squad in the end. Also unable to take advantage of ACF’s early foul trouble, MRU eventually lost 47–38.
In the final game of the evening, Beta Something matched up against Legion of Spirit in the Majors championship final. On paper, the larger size of the Skibo court favors the faster, guard-dominated team of Spirit, but the actual game played out much differently. Beta guard Joel Palko put on a dominant offensive show but eventually found himself in foul trouble and was forced to sit out for much of the second half. Fortunately for Beta, Brian Freeman, the team’s powerful big man, proved to be too much for the outsized Spirit team. Spirit guards Bobby Jones and Calvin Mack hustled the entire second half to close the score gap and rally their team, but Beta prevailed 51–42.