The season for Allegheny College’s Intramural Basketball League began on Jan. 26, and ends on Feb. 23. The league is co-ed and comprised of 15 teams, with a minimum of five students per team. Every enrolled student at Allegheny can play for the league during the season if they either form a team at the beginning of the season or join an existing team. The teams play against one another every Sunday in the David V. Wise Center on the blue courts.

Allegheny College Athletics and Recreation sponsors the intramural basketball league every season. This is an annual four-week program that enables students and varsity athletes to compete with one another on the courts.

“The season has gone pretty well, we have a lot more participants than the previous years,” said Candace Burkhammer, ’22. “Other than just basketball, our goal is to get all of the students on campus involved. We want (students) to get out and play. Any student, even if they are not an actual athlete who just wants to participate and not have the competition of a collegiate basketball team, is welcomed.”

Burkhammer is the head supervisor of the intramural basketball program and is a student worker for Athletics and Recreation.

“I do not know our statistics off hand, but we have been having a lot of fun out here playing with everyone from the fraternity,” said Zachary Ecker, ’22. “I think that is the most important part of the league.”

Ecker is a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity on campus. He, along with several members of Phi Gamma Delta, play in the intramural basketball league for team FIJI, which is seeded No. 9 in the league.

The intramural basketball program enables students to both compete and coach teams.

“I give guidance to the team during competition as coach of the Dream Chafers,” said Austin Reardon, ’23. “Right now, we have one team below us, so we are (No. 14) place out of the 15 teams in the league. In my opinion, as far as team bonding, we are winning.”

Feb. 16 was the second to last game day of the season and featured three rounds of double elimination matches. During the first round, team FIJI (No. 9) defeated team Jungle Cake (No. 8) 33-20. Team FIJI lost to team Back2Back (No. 1) in a 32-17 match in round two. This placed team Back2Back in a match with team Cheating Scandal (No. 4) for the third round.

Team Cheating Scandal won against team Big Blue (No. 13) in a 10-0 match in round one. In the second round, team Cheating Scandal defeated team GatorCoaches (No. 5) 41-20, which placed team Cheating Scandal in a match with team Back2Back in the third round.

“We are going to win it all,” said team Cheating Scandal member Ian Dudley, ’22.

Despite a winning streak, at the end of the third round, team Back2Back prevailed against team Cheating Scandal in a 28-16 match. Team Back2Back remains at the top of the leaderboard for the league heading into the last game of the season where the team will play against the winner of the match against team ICE ALERT (No. 2) and team 294 Prospect (No. 6). Those two teams will compete in the semifinals for a place in the finals.

As for the teams that lost on Feb. 16, team SEO 2020 (No. 3) went up against team Jungle Cake (No. 8) in a close 31-30 match. During the third round for the losing teams, team SEO 2020 will compete against team Phi Psi (No. 7) and the winner will enter a match with team Cheating Scandal in the semifinals. Team Phi Psi won against team Scoopski Potatoes (No. 12) in a 19-18 match in round two. Team GatorCoaches will also compete in semifinals against the loser of the ICE ALERT and 294 Prospect match. The winners of these two semifinal rounds will compete in the finals.

The semifinals and finals will take place at 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, in the Wise Center on the blue courts. The victor of the finals round from the winner’s bracket will become first place in the league, followed in second place by the losing team of the winner’s bracket. Third place will be awarded to the victor of the finals round from the loser’s bracket.

Despite the competition among the teams competing in the semifinals, the intramural basketball league enables students to get to know one another outside of the game and facilitates friendships between teams.

“Everyone comes together to play and you see a lot of people that you do not know, so it is a nice way to meet new people,” Dudley said. “You see them later on around campus and you are able to talk to them and next thing you know, you have made a connection.”