The quarterfinals of the co-ed intramural basketball league began Wednesday night at the Student Recreation Center.

Co-ed intramural basketball teams consist of either two men and three women or two women and three men. The teams play two 20-minute halves with a running clock, except during the last two minutes.

A mercy rule is applied when a team is up by 16 points with two minutes left, 25 points with eight minutes left, or 35 at any point in the game.

A normal field goal for females counts at three points, while a normal three-point field goal counts as four points when scored by a woman.

The team Rec’s Finest (4-1-1) will be facing Win (3-3), after they defeated the Mexican Mangos (4-1) by a score of 61-54 in the previous round. Win defeated The Creamsicles (6-0) by a score of 43-36.

Rec’s Finest started the game by making three straight three-point shots to put them up 9-2.

Early into the game, Ronny Bell of Rec’s Finest committed two fouls and was quickly subbed out for a new player.

After the early barrage of three-pointers, Rec’s Finest found themselves in a scoring drought. Stephen Summers of Win brought his team back into contention, putting them up 10-9 with 13 minutes to play in the first half.

Rec’s Finest changed their strategy of only shooting three-pointers to trying to score from inside the paint. Steven Hines of Rec’s Finest brought his team back to a 13-12 lead.

With the score 17-16 in favor of Rec’s Finest, Win needed another game changing player to complement the play of Stephen Summers.

Win found this player in Gregory Leach. After committing a foul, Leach responded with a three-pointer, bringing his team within one.

At halftime, the score was 37-27, Rec’s Finest.

A series of three-pointers by Weldon “Well Done” Williams allowed Rec’s Finest to pull away even further, making the score 55-35 with fifteen minutes to play.

The game was finally called due to the mercy rule with the score 71-39.

“We played a really hot game and had a lot of fun out there,” Steven Hines of Rec’s Finest said.

Hines said that the victory was a team effort and that he feels his team has a chance to win the entire tournament.

As PandaMonium (5-1) began to play C-Invasion (5-0) neither team was able to register a point until the fifth minute of play.

Throughout the first half, C-Invasion slowly began to pull away from PandaMonium.

C-Invasion hit a buzzer-beater to end the first half, making the score 33-11.

The game was called due to mercy rule in the second half with 7:31 remaining. The final score was 52-27 in favor of C-Invasion.

The highest scoring game of the night was between TNT (5-0) and The Untouchables (5-2-1).

With The Untouchables leading TNT 50-47 at halftime, The Untouchables looked to further extend their lead in the second half.

The game remained close until about the seven-minute mark. With the score only 72-71 in favor of The Untouchables, The Untouchables managed to drain a critical four-point shot to put them ahead further, making the score 76-71.

From that point on, The Untouchables were exactly as their name states, untouchable. The Untouchables continued to pull away until the game was called with 1:53 left. The final score was 93-75.

A key player for The Untouchables was Kristopher Beaty, who scored many of their 93 points.

Beaty said that coming into the second half, the team knew they had to put more pressure on the shooter, as well as play a tighter defense. The adjustments clearly worked, as The Untouchables were able to pull away.

The co-ed intramural basketball league concludes on Monday Oct. 25 with the All-Campus championship, held at the Student Recreation Center.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7944 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.