Keyplay.com outscores tough competition to advance
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Associate Sports Editor
Top-ranked Keyplay.com faced its stiffest competition of the tournament in No. 16 Sexual Frustration V, but even this opposition could not keep it too close, as Keyplay advanced with a 21-11 victory.
The winning squad of Cas Schneller, Tom Dietrich, Paul Moore, football player John Teasdale and varsity basketball player Jimmy Dillon jumped out to an 11-4 lead, with their only troubles coming when they tried too much showboating and slam dunks. Teasdale and Dillon each scored four in the first half, including a couple of dunks.
Dillon opened the second stanza scoring for Keyplay with a one-handed dunk on a fast break. Moore layed in a shot to give Keyplay a 13-5 lead.
Dillon kicked into overdrive at times, looking like he had forgotten the competition wasn't a Big East foe. His defense looked tough enough to grab a steal against Uconn's Khalid El-Amin. However, some of his moves probably wouldn't have flown by Notre Dame coach Matt Doherty as Dillon missed a fancy layup and a fancy attempt to bounce himself the ball for a slam dunk.
"We like Jimmy to throw down some stuff," Teasdale said. "I like to watch. We try to get easy shots. Anytime you get into the final 16, the competition gets a lot tougher."
It was all Dietrich in the second half, as he scored five of six for Keyplay, throwing down shots on fast breaks, rebound putbacks and jumpers.
The Sexual Frustration V team of Notre Dame basketball player Skylard Owens, Kevin Hardy, Peter Stuhldreder, Nick Green and Josh Brumm returned home frustrated by the lopsided loss.
"Teasdale's better than I thought. He's just too big for us," Brumm said. "They're just overall better on talent. They're going to do well against anyone five-on-five down the line."
Keyplay will face a group of freshmen it knows on and off the court in No. 8 Please Call Us Bosephus. Dietrich, Moore and Schneller all lived in Alumni when they were on campus, the dorm where four of the five Please Call Us Bosephus players live. Evan Maher of Please Call Us Bosephus said Dietrich, Moore and Schneller have been their unofficial big brothers this year, playing basketball with them by day and going out with them by night, giving a little added motivation to the matchup.
Please Call Us Bosephus sent home Reggie McKnight, Brock Williams, Kevin McGrath, Jay Johnson and Harold Johnson of No. 9 Like Whoa, handing them a 21-15 defeat.
Maher, Brian Ostick, Andy Bozzelli, Pat O'Brien and Jason Sullivan for Please Call Us Bosephus fell behind 11-9 at halftime after two made shots by Like Whoa's McGrath. But Please Call Us Bosephus scored three straight baskets to take a one-point lead.
With the score tied at 13, referees called an intentional foul on McKnight and Please Call Us Bosephus took full advantage.
"It would be nice to have refs that were a little bit impartial and let the game be decided on the court," McKnight said. "I'm not taking anything away from them [Please Call Us Bosephus]. They won the game outright with their play. Congratulations to them, hats off to them and good luck to them."
The Alumni team began to open up the game. It scored the next five points, and held off the competition down the stretch to make it to the Elite Eight.
"We got out of our slump, and started hitting our shots," Maher said. "Defense is our forte, and we got a lot of points off turnovers."
Like Whoa missed action from a couple of its players. A'Jani Sanders, Deke Cooper and Benny Guilbeaux were all gone due to NFL camps.
"Obviously we didn't have the cohesiveness," McKnight said. "With our other two players, it would have been a different game. We had a respectable performance though."
Second-seeded NDToday.com's B.J. Kloska, a walk-on for last year's varsity basketball team, scored seven first-half points as his team ran off to an 11-3 halftime lead over Nunc dimittis.
"It kind of helps jump start our team, and then I draw a lot of attention, so I can dish it off to our other players," Kloska said."
"I think we wanted to make sure that we established ourselves early," NDToday's Todd Titus said. "We haven't played from down yet, so I think that's going to be our game plan."
Nunc dimittis, led by Keough Hall rector Rev. Tom Doyle and Moreau seminarians Joe Miller, Sean McGraw, Mike Floreth and Sam Peters may have had God on their side, but their prayers for a comeback weren't answered.
Kloska, Titus, Mark Godish, Dave Mikolyzk and Tim Muething made short work of Nunc dimittis. Titus, Kloska, Mikolyzk and Godish combined to score eight of the first 10 points in the second period, giving them an insurmountable 19-5 lead. Muething and Godish finished off their opposition.
"They're awesome," McGraw said of NDToday. "They execute really well, and they play tough defense."
It was a hard-fought battle between two scrappy teams as several players suffered bloody knees in the contest.
"They were good sports," Titus said, "And they definitely played hard and aggressive."
NDToday will face a seventh-ranked F-Bombs squad that edged No. 10 Mourning Wood 21-19.
Dan Kirzeder, Doug Bartels, Sean McCarthy, Kevin O'Neill and Andy Sexton won out in a narrow contest among Morrissey Manor residents and former residents.
"They stayed pretty close the whole game," Sexton said of Mourning Wood. "They just hustle and they scrap a lot."
Mourning Wood, made up of John Hatzenbuehler, Brett Gansen, Chris Bosco, Matt Panzer and Brandon Limbach, struggled with the improved competition.
"We got really tired because we hadn't played that tough of a game before," Hatzenbuehler said. "They just made every shot from outside."
The F-Bombs earned the right to boast to their Morrissey friends with the victory.
"There was a lot of motivation to get bragging rights," Hatzenbuehler said. "But it also hurts a little more to lose."
All Sports Stories for Friday, April 28, 2000
