442nd basketball team takes fifth title in seven years

  • Published
  • By Maj. David Kurle
  • 442nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
WHITMEN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  The Whiteman Air Force Base Over-30 Basketball championship trophy is back in the hands of the 442nd Fighter Wing for the fifth time in seven years, after a thrilling overtime win in the league's championship game Feb. 23.

The 442nd defeated the 509th Force Support Squadron 45-42 after trailing the entire game then forcing overtime thanks to a three-point shot by Jeff Pahl with only one second left in regulation.

The FSS led 42-39 when the 442nd squad called a timeout after grabbing a defensive rebound with three seconds left in regulation. After inbounding the ball, Mark "Rags" Ernewein passed the ball to Pahl who sank the game-tying shot from beyond the three-point to even the score at 42 apiece

"During the timeout, Rags told me to slide down and set a pick on his man, allowing Rags to receive the ball inbounds," Pahl said. "As soon as his man was stopped by me, he had a couple of seconds to receive the ball.

"I flared out and caught the pass from Rags and released the ball for the shot," he said. "I saw their big guy coming toward me but I just shot the ball and this one went in."

Once in overtime both teams staged a defensive battle. The only points during the two-minute period came from the Fighter Wing's Kellie Askew, who put in a two-pointer along the base line with 1:12 left in the game. He was fouled during the shot and made his free throw to put the 442nd up by three, 45-42.

The FSS had three chances to close the gap or tie the game but couldn't connect on their shots and failed to grab any offensive rebounds. The FSS was forced to call a timeout with 5.2 seconds remaining. After the timeout, the Force Support Squadron's Vernon Ivy missed a three-point attempt with one second remaining, which sealed the victory for the 442nd Fighter Wing.

It took the 442nd almost three quarters of play to find its three-point shooting groove, as the first half was marked by cold shooting by both teams - especially the 442nd, which scored only seven points in the first quarter. At the end of one, FSS led 12-7.

"Our three-point shooting was off in the first half," said Carl Clark, the 442nd Fighter Wing coach. "It was frustrating because they were letting us shoot and we weren't hitting shots."

Scoring picked up in the second quarter but the entire first half was dominated by defense, with the Fighter Wing's Todd Riddle seemingly picking up more than his share of defensive rebounds when the FSS team missed shots.

Both teams scored nine points each in the second quarter and went to their benches at halftime with the score 21-16 in favor of the FSS.

During halftime the 442nd reviewed its game plan, according to Coach Clark.

"We were trying to get them a little bit tired because they only had six players," he said. "We played hard on defense, put a lot of pressure on them and made them work hard for their shots.

"At halftime we knew that we had run them pretty hard and they were starting to get tired," Clark said. "We also knew that our shots would start falling."

And in the third quarter the shots did start falling - for both teams. Ernewein came out and scored the half's first points with a three-pointer, then almost a minute later stole the ball, ran the length of the court and scored a lay-in cutting the FSS lead to two, 23-21.

With 5:40 to play in the nine-minute third quarter, Stephen Nester tied the game from the foul line 23-23, but the tenacious FSS kept hitting jump-shots and went back up by four, 27-23. Then, Riddle hit on a three-pointer with 1:37 remaining to keep the 442nd within one point, 27-26.

FSS answered with a three-pointer of its own, then with 39 seconds remaining grabbed an offensive rebound and put the ball back in the hoop to make the score 32-28 going into the fourth quarter.

"I think what got us back in the game were the three-point shots," Clark said afterward. "We have some good three-point shooters so whatever FSS was going to give us, that's what we were going to take."

Coach Clark's analysis seemed to be correct - during the course of the fourth quarter the 442nd hit four, three-point shots. Nester scored three, three-point shots from the right-side baseline. But the most crucial three-point play came from Pahl's last-second effort to tie the game and force the overtime.

"It felt pretty good, I don't know how else to explain it," Clark said about Pahl's game-tying shot. "It really looked like we were going to lose at that point with three seconds left and three points down."

The 442nd team had a 6-2 record in the Over-30 League's regular season, and had lost by 10 to the FSS during their regular-season match-up.

"They pretty well handled us in the regular season," Clark said.

In post-season play, the 442nd team entered the playoff tournament seeded number two, with the FSS seeded first. Each team won two playoff games in the eight-team tournament prior to meeting for the championship.

Coach Clark credits the entire 442nd team with its successful 2009 season.

"A lot of players throughout the season provided the opportunity to win the championship," he said.

For the championship effort, Nester led the 442nd in scoring with 13 points; John Schriever scored 11; Ernewein 7; Pahl 6; Askew 5 and Riddle 3.

Contributing during the season for the 2009 442nd Over-30 team were Paul Amey, Kellie Askew, Carl Clark, Rik Davis, Earl Dundas III, Mark Ernewein, Terry Gostomski, Steven Miller, Mark Mock, Pat Murphy, Stephen Nester, Jeff Pahl, James Rice, Todd Riddle, John Schriever, Keith Yersak, and VerNessa Stoudermire, the 442nd FW sports representative.