In the first basketball intramural game of the season Tuesday night, the Blue Ballers demolished Clark B 48-3 and put the mercy rule into effect.

According to the rule, a game will end if a team is up by 30 points or more at halftime.

Blue Ballers team captain Matt Fischer said that the team had four mercy rule wins last year, so this wasn’t anything new to them.

“We like to play pretty hard and give it as much as we can,” Fischer said. “We just play to the best of our abilities.”

The outcome of this game seemed inevitable even before tip-off. The Blue Ballers were physically bigger and faster than Clark B. Troy Adams from the Clark B team said that he knew his team was going to lose before they even got on the court.

“We knew we weren’t going to win,” Adams said. “Their shortest guy was taller than our biggest guy.”

The Blue Ballers got off to a fast start with steals on their first three defensive trips, converting each offensive opportunity into points.  Just a little over a minute into the game the Blue Ballers were up 8-0.

Sophomore Ryan Powers led the Blue Ballers with 13 points, shooting 66 percent and adding three assists. Powers scored most of his points off of fast break opportunities following turnovers by Clark B.

For the Clark B team, halftime couldn’t come soon enough. They struggled to string together  an offense or defense against their opponent.

With 30 seconds on the clock, Clark B player Ethan Shut could be heard joking.

“You guys got this,” Shut said. “We will let you have this one.” 

Shut scored the lone basket for his team.

According to Fischer, the Ballers had not practiced yet but they planned to get together over the weekend.  As for the next game on Thursday, they plan to show up and wing it again.

In last year’s intramural season, the Blue Ballers made it to the semifinals before losing to the Mighty Ducks.

  “I hope we are in the same position this year,” Powers said. “I’d like to play them again.”

Story by Blake Bernier, Contributing writer