Steve Harrell’s was handed its first intramural basketball loss of the season against Air Jesus Tuesday night after starting off the game a man down.

When the fifth player arrived 10 minutes into the first half, Steve Harrell’s struggled to adjust before finding its rhythm and draining a 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left in the half.

“There really aren’t any excuses, but I mean it was challenging,” said Steve Harrell’s player Morris White, who is Murray State athletics director of marketing and promotions.

“It’s a little bit difficult to match up and cover more ground. We held our own in the beginning, but after a while it takes its toll on you.”

Steve Harrell’s is an independent intramural team made up of staff members and coaches from the University’s athletic department.

Air Jesus is an unofficial team for the Baptist Campus Ministry, which also includes a chemistry professor, Kevin Revell, on its roster. After the results of their matchup, each team has one loss to its name.

“It’s not that tough to keep up,” White said. “I think it’s good exercise, and that’s the main reason we’re doing it – to kind of stay in the little shape we do have, as elder statesmen. But it gives us a pretty good workout.”

After a halftime deficit of 32-17, Steve Harrell’s netted a 12-point comeback with no response from its opponent for the first five minutes of the second half.

“After a while we settled down – once we realized we had a fifth and final player – we were able to kind of settle down and get in the groove a little bit and start making some shots,” White said.

Air Jesus team captain, senior biology major Andrew Reece, expected a good game from his opponent, and with a final score of 62-45, he said his expectations were met.

“I was expecting them to be extremely tough and a much more mature game than what I play, at least,” Reece said. “It’s actually a lot of fun to play against non-students. I was definitely expecting a high-quality game. I had seen them play earlier in the season, so I knew they were really tough, but I also knew that we play with a lot more heart than most teams so I was really looking forward to just a good battle.”

Before going into the playoffs next week, Steve Harrell’s hopes to recover and regroup from its first loss.

“We obviously have to bounce back to figure out why we lost tonight. It was our first loss of the season so it was a little bit devastating for us, but we’ll be able to bounce back on Thursday and try to perform a little bit better,” White said.

Steve Harrell’s will face an undefeated Mighty Ducks team Thursday before heading into the intramural playoffs.

As Air Jesus looks ahead, the team hopes to rack up a few more wins against Junior Varsity and Blue Ballers Thursday to better its playoff seed.

Story by Mallory?Tucker, Staff writer