American
- Nov 12, 2021
- 6 min read
American Eagles (4-6 in '20-'21) vs. Marist Red Foxes (12-9 in '20-'21)
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 @ 8:00 PM
Washington, DC
Bender Arena
THE SCHOOL
The American University is a private research university in Washington, DC. It's technically affiliated with the United Methodist Church but they don't really tell you that. Founded in 1893, AU enrolls a little over 14,000 students and has an endowment of $720 million. I know a school called "American University" sounds fake, but I promise it's real.
American Eagle Outfitters is where I buy my pants. You see — I'm a thin guy. I have about a 28" waist, maybe less than that if I've had a light lunch. Many retailers, however, don't sell much under a 30" waist. Since American Eagle is marketed to teenagers, they'll always offer a 29" waist and sometimes even the oh-so-very-very-hard-to-find 28". I've been using this system for years, and it's worked for me so far.
My question is this: does there come a point where I age out of American Eagle pants? I'm 26 years old now; will there be a time when a feel weird wearing teenagers' trousers? I mean, I guess -
Wait...
Wait, hold on...
Shoot, wrong American Eagle...
Scratch that... Sorry.
The American Eagles basketball team competes in the Patriot League in NCAA Division I. AU played ball last season but did not open the arena for fans, so this is the first attended game since March 5, 2020. Unfortunately, the Eagles' uniform sponsor is not American Eagle Outfitters. It's Under Armour. (But let's not forget that time UConn's football team wore Aeropostale.)
Marist College is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York. The Marist Red Foxes compete in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).
THE TOWN
American's campus is in northwest DC, near the Tenleytown neighborhood. This part of Washington includes some incredibly wealthy areas which surround American's campus. Drive in any direction and you'll pass streets filled with multi-million dollar houses as if it's normal.
Despite the fact that I live pretty close, I rarely go into DC. I don't have much reason to. When I do want to go into the city, I usually take the Metro rail system. There's a station within a short drive of my apartment and I can get most places in the city through there.
Notice I said "most." It's technically possible to get to American but boy is it difficult. I'd have to drive to the College Park station, take the Green line 3 stops to Ft. Totten, get off that train, switch to the Red line, take that line for 13 stops to the Tenleytown station, and then walk half an hour because AU's campus isn't anywhere near its train stop. Because I decided this would take too long, I did one thing I hate doing, drive through DC.
Here are three reasons why I hate driving in Washington, DC.
Roads don't make sense! Some roads are named after states, some roads are named after people, and some roads are named after numbers. How am I supposed to know where to go? Sometimes you're driving along a perfectly nice little street and *boom* now it's a one-way are you're going the wrong way. Sometimes there's a stoplight in a roundabout. What am I supposed to do about that?
Roads are narrow! Washington, DC was a planned city but it was planned for horses! Cars are wider than horses.
Too many people! You've got people in cars. People crossing the street. People just in the street for some reason. Where do they come from? Where are they all going? And why are they here the same time as me?
That said, this was actually a fairly painless drive through the city. I only made one wrong turn which is pretty good for me. I should note, though, that even though the markers look close
on the map, it still took about forty minutes to get there because of the three points listed above.
I only saw the bit of campus around the arena, but American's campus seems intriguing. It's clearly in Washington because there are roads and cars everywhere, but they seem to have made intentional green space in spite of this. I took this picture near the arena; there's a little garden area with plants and benches and such. I think there are several spots like this throughout campus. I think this is nice, though maybe a touch creepy at night.
Bender Arena is clearly from the 1980s. I can't quite articulate how I can tell, but I can. Everything feels boxy, the lighting is either too bright or too dim depending on where you are, and the colors in the gym all feel a bit stale. I think this place serves American pretty well though. They don't need a big flashy place and they certainly don't need to be in an off-campus gym like Georgetown. Bender Arena isn't going to blow you away, but it won't let you down either.
THE GAME
I got my virtual ticket the day of the game. You could get a baseline seat for $10 or a sideline seat for $15. As you can see, I went with the cheaper option, as 15 seemed a touch high for a Patriot League game. However, parking was free, which is a rarity in Washington.
There were 21 rows of seats in section 120 (where my seat was). Out of all those seats, I was the only person in the section. Fortunately, the rest of the arena showed up, particularly the student section. As you can see, their section was pretty much full and they were engaged throughout the game. It was a really nice environment, except for section 120.
As you can see in the picture a bit above, I sat right behind the dance team. When they stood up, I couldn't see all of the court. It seemed like American had a lot of them; they had 25 combined dancers and cheerleaders plus 1 majorette. To be honest, I don't really know the difference between the dance team and the cheerleaders. 95% of the time, they seemed to do exactly the same things. There are probably some miniscule differences, but I can't tell what they are.
~~
This game had two clear stars. First, Marist's #0, Raheim Sullivan is a 6'1", 175-pound guard that's capable of beating anyone off the dribble and getting to the rim. Sullivan scored 23 points on 9-16 shooting and he seemed to make a big shot whenever Marist needed him to. The second star belonged to the home team: #2, Stacy Beckton Jr. Beckton's a fifth-year senior who is clearly the leader of the team as well as their most athletic player. Beckton had 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks, but his impact for the Eagles was far greater than his statline.
This game was back-and-forth the whole way. The Red Foxes led 26-24 at half and, despite a 10-4 Marist run to start the second half, the game was tied at 40 with 11:00 remaining. From here, American went on a 19-10 run to take the largest lead of the game (9) with just 2:18 left. This run was highlighted by a fantastic play by Stacy Beckton to save the ball from going out of bounds and hit a layup. Things were finally looking good for the Eagles.
And then Marist's #2, Ricardo Wright, hit 2 straight threes, and #21, Jordan Jones, tipped in a basket to cut the lead from 9 to 1 in just 1 minute, 12 seconds. American's #5, Connor Nelson, hit a three on the next possession to extend the lead to four, but Raheim Sullivan scored another difficult basket, Marist forced a stop on the other end, and the Red Foxes tipped in yet another shot at the rim, which tied the game (62-62) with only seven seconds remaining. This took us to somewhere this blog has never been:
Overtime.
Marist got out to another quick start and led 68-65 with 1:56 left. But American's #5, Johnny O'Neill hit a three point shot off an offensive rebound and the crowd went nuts. The mood in the whole arena shifted, and it finally felt like American was capable of pulling this out. Marist turned the ball over, American hit two free throws to take the lead, Marist turned the ball over again, American hit two more free throws, and the Red Foxes were pretty much out of time. Beckton and O'Neill hit some late foul shots and the Eagles pulled off a quality victory to begin the 2021-22 season.
Final: American 77, Marist 73
What a game! Really, very quality basketball in the nation's capital this evening. Great game, great atmosphere, and a reminder why I like doing this project. I only hope another game this season can live up to this one.
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