Down by three to Fasho-Fasho-Fasho with just seconds remaining, time was running out on Monometalic's intramural basketball season. After two desperation three-pointers fell short, a Monometalic player grabbed a rebound, dribbled out to the left wing and drained a three-pointer as time expired to extend Monometalic's season into overtime. Despite the buzzer-beating heroics, Fasho-Fasho-Fasho prevailed in two overtimes to advance to the men's A Division championship.Intense competition and close games were typical in this year's new and improved intramural basketball league, thanks in large part to the efforts of Tom Rand, the assistant athletic director for recreation, club sports and intramurals.

A Division sported 10 teams while B Division had 20 squads, a major improvement over past seasons. An exclusive women's league was created this year, too, as opposed to past seasons when the only opportunity women got to play was in a coed bracket.

The presence of referees who called fouls, electronic time and score-keeping were also welcome additions to intramural basketball this year.

In the end it was a team called Game Over that took advantage of the more competitive landscape, beating Fasho-Fasho-Fasho 58-45 in the A Division championship game on Monday night.

Team Uganda won B Division with a 45-38 title-game victory over The Blazers, while K-FO toppled a team AwesomeHott, 37-31, for the women's division title.

"It was a professionally run league this year," Game Over's Aaron Katzman '05 said. "I refereed last year. I had a stopwatch and they used a flip scoreboard that was manual to keep score, and players had to call their own fouls. [Rand's] done a great job and created a lot of support for the school with intramurals."

"He did a great job this year just letting people know exactly what was going on," Game Over's Aaron Szekel '05 said. "He just did a fantastic job putting it all together, and they really got a lot of the best guys that aren't on the basketball team. Even those guys that never thought they'd play basketball at this school got the opportunity to play through [the B Division and the women's-division.]"

Competition in A Division was both fierce and balanced. In a league with 10 teams, four had winning records, two leveled out with .500 records, and four had losing records. The top three teams in the league only had two losses between them.

Game Over was the clear favorite to win it all heading into the playoffs after putting together a 6-0 regular season record while outscoring their opponents by an astonishing 28.7 points per game. The team averaged 69.8 points a game, 11 more than Monometalic.

The championship game pitted the Game Over juggernaut against the talented Fasho-Fasho-Fasho that featured four former varsity basketball players. The game got off to a slow start as both teams struggled to find a flow. A sluggish first half ended with the score tied 25-25.

"It wasn't a pretty game," Game Over's Mike Lavner '08 said. "We didn't come out with the intensity that we hoped we were going to come out with in the first half."

Fasho-Fasho-Fasho started the second half on a tear and quickly built a 10 point lead as Game Over struggled to execute on either end of the floor. The tables quickly turned however, and Game Over turned a 10-point deficit into a seven point lead with about 6 minutes to play.

Jesse Barglow '07 and Sid Coren '07 led the turnaround for Game Over, finishing with 20 and 17 points, respectively. Fasho-Fasho-Fasho was forced to take tough outside shots as the deficit grew, and the game was effectively over with just under three minutes to play.

"After talking it over and calling an early time out, the guys on our team stepped it up and we really came together, and played real hard and left it all out there on the court," Lavner said.

"It's all basketball," Fasho-Fasho-Fasho's Charles Mann '05 said. "You win or you lose based on how hard you play and whether you play defense or not. We didn't play defense and we didn't play hard enough. We lost."

Game Over cruised in the semifinal round as well, crushing TYP. TYP had easily won their first playoff game, but lost to Game Over by more than 40 points. The other semifinal game between Fasho-Fasho-Fasho and Monometalic was easily the most exciting game of the intramural season.

Both teams played extremely hard in a game that featured tight defense, hard fouls, a game-tying buzzer-beating three-pointer, and two overtimed.

Emotions were on edge, especially in the second half, when Joe Haynes '05 threw a basketball that hit a referee in the stomach in response to a call against Monometalic, resulting in a technical foul.

A play-in game between the eighth and ninth ranked teams started the playoffs with a bang, as the Underdogz eked out a 50-49 victory over a higher ranked The Show.

In the quarterfinal round, Game Over asserted their dominance, defeating the Underdogz by 30 points.

Two points decided the only close quarterfinal game, as Fasho-Fasho-Fasho edged The All-Stars 36-34.

Intramural competition evolved into an organized and competitive league in Rand's first year.

It was a time of rejuvenated competition in Brandeis athletics, one which will likely continue under Rand's tenure.

"I thought [the divisions] were all pretty competitive," Rand said. "The turnout was better than I thought. It just worked out great."