Photo by Mike Frederiksen
On February 9, the spirit games began with both the women and men’s basketball teams paying homage to their sophomores before the match up against Waubonsee, in their last home game.
The woman started off the festivities with a lot of energy right from the opening tip off. Players on the bench as well as our own mini-student section in all green were exchanging “DE-FENCE!” chants. The student turnout was great, as every student participated throughout the game by chanting, cheering, waving their hands or stomping their feet.
The lady Cyclones went back and forth, but came out of the first half with a 32-28 lead. They continued battling in the second half and at the 11-minute mark, there may have been a little too much energy in the atmosphere as forward Jessica Contant almost got into a scuffle with a Waubonsee player over a loose ball. This upped the intensity from both benches and the cyclone crowd, as there were “let’s go cyclones!” chants, combined with endless booing towards Waubonsee players at the free throw line. Student Ashley Cunningham could only use the words, “crazy and exciting,” to describe the high intensity throughout the game. The match up went down to the last shot, but to no avail as the lady Cyclones fell short of the victory 65-64.
This Bitter moment was brief, however, as the men’s team came out and beat Waubonsee 69-55. Assistant coach Justin Domingo said that it “meant a lot” to come out with a victory for the players that aren’t returning. He added that, “they (the players) showed great leadership, and did all the little things, like keeping possession and rebounding.”
There was no disappointed fan that walked out of the gym on February 9. Both teams came into their games and battled to the end. Sadly the women came up short as the men won their ninth straight game. Amidst all the craziness and hoopla during the games, at timeouts there were cones, candy, and even t-shirts being thrown out into the stands. At halftime, there was an entertaining performance by the 24 Karat dance team and they even invited everyone in the crowd to come down and join them many of which did. Overall, the spirit games’ was a great and fun experience for all Cyclone fans and if you weren’t there you missed out.
