Belvoir's rally just short against Fort Lee in men's basketball; women also defeated

Men's and women's basketball returned to Fort Belvoir Sunday as the Eagles hosted Fort Lee in their respective home openers of the Washington Area Military Athletic Conference.

On the men's side, the Fort Lee Travelers dominated the boards and out rebounded Belvoir by a two-to-one margin. With many second chance opportunities, the Travelers offense was in high gear as they went on to defeat Belvoir 83-78. With the loss, Belvoir dropped to 1-1 to start the season. They had defeated Fort Myer the day before.

Following frenetic play by both teams early on, Fort Lee settled down and went on a 24-6 run late in the first half. With the score 44-26, Belvoir would cut the deficit to 12 on back-to-back three-pointers by guard James Smith. However, by the time regulation ended, the damage had already been done. With his team lacking intensity and not hustling on defense, Belvoir head coach Sherman Sherin made his feelings well known at halftime.

"If you don't want to play in this game, I'll put you on the bench. It's that simple," Sherin yelled to his players. "You have to start showing me something and it has to be now. I know you're a lot better than this."

In response to Sherin's challenge, Belvoir started the second half on fire. They went on a 12-7 run, which included 10 points on their first five possessions, and found themselves down 51-44 with 15 minutes remaining. Leading the Eagles' comeback was Smith, who would finish with a game high 24 points, as well as Tyrone Leggett and Katoe Chapman, who would contribute 23 points for Belvoir.

Then, like before, Fort Lee erupted. Taking advantage of some bad passes and unnecessary fouls, the Travelers again increased their lead to 17 and was poised to walk out of the Graves Fitness Center with a resounding victory. But, Belvoir had plans of their own.

With under three minutes left in the game, the Eagles, accompanied by a tenacious defense down the stretch, started to chip away. While Fort Lee was having trouble converting free throws, Smith and Chapman would each hit a pair of three-pointers for the Eagles and draw them to within five with less than a minute left to play. Belvoir's luck would run out there, as the Travelers intercepted an inbounds pass to extinguish the rally and close out the game.

"For a team to beat us, they've got to beat us at our best. We're not giving up on anything," Sherin said after the game. "I'm very proud of these guys today. I presented them with a big challenge at halftime and they rose to the occasion. What we need to remember is to start each game with a competitive fire and keep it up all the way through. If we do that, we'll go very far this year."

For the rest of the season, Sherin added that Belvoir will focus on its zone offense, which has become a target for opposing teams. With greater strength in that area, Sherin said Belvoir would be an extremely difficult team to beat in WAMAC.

The afternoon didn't get any better for Belvoir, as the women's team, which made its return following a two-year hiatus, was overwhelmed by Fort Lee 81-48. The Lady Eagles were led by Jennifer Martinez, who scored 12 points in the second half en route to a team high 15. Chelsea Quinlar added 13 points off the bench for Belvoir.

With just eight players on their roster, Shonda Moore, the first ever player/coach in WAMAC's history, is hopeful more women will participate now that a team is back at Fort Belvoir. She began fielding a team several months ago.

"The more we play, the better chance we have of getting other women interested in our team. We're still a little thin and could use some more players," Moore said. "It's a lot of fun to play, but I especially like everyone getting to know one
another and being able to count on each other. That's what makes you a team."

Despite going 0-2 this weekend, Moore was happy with Belvoir's progress, particularly on offense. In their game against Fort Lee, the Lady Eagles scored 29 points in the second half after only scoring 19 during the first 20 minutes of play.