And you were beginning to think Pine Knoll was full of the bongo-playing, tie-dye-wearing types. So, they may have to walk a little farther to Commons, they happen to comprise most of the math team (PKN player Krishna Gupta ’05), and they live in a dorm that rhymes with “yeast” (any returning lower who picked a number above 40), but this little brother of a cluster managed to show its talent over West Quad South in the Clustah Basketball Finals. It was Clustah Championship number two in a row for PKN, which defeated WQS for the soccer title this fall. The clustah players kept it simple. PKN player Matt Smellie ’03 summed it up: “I think we did a good job; we dominated and we won.” The game started out, well, like a sub-JV level clustah basketball game. No, the tip-off didn’t give any one team a lead—it flew out of bounds. Who’s ever heard of the tip-off going out? Jeff Chung ’03 and Simon Hawkins ’03 led the PKN team by nailing home shots from behind the arc. In the first half, fans got a little worried when no one was scoring. Four minutes disappeared off the DiClemente clock before either team had managed to get in a shot. That was fine, though, because it gave fans enough time to admire the stylish outfits the players were sporting. That was why we were all there, right? Technically, the Clustah basketball teams do not have real uniforms, so the players took it upon themselves to inject some team spirit and style into the game. Fans admired Hawkins’s compete outfit; he had not only a matching team jersey and shorts, but also one green knee sock and bright blue shoes. Gupta sported a math competition T-shirt. Hey, there is nothing wrong with having multiple talents. After the fans had finished admiring the uniforms, things started to heat up. Chung brought up the PKN score with the help of Mike Auld ’04 and Smellie. Within no time, PKN held a commanding lead. The score was 15-3 to PKN, and it seemed that WQS was losing their chance for revenge. However, much to the delight of the WQS fans, Duncan Dwyer ’03 scored the most mundane, run-of-the-mill shot in the history of basketball, and proceed to entertain the spectators with a dance that would put the Walker Wiggle to shame. Despite the style points, WQS still trailed 15-5. The first half ended with a score of 16-9. In the second half, WQS made their comeback. Without letting the Knollers get in one basket, they raised the score to 16-15. WQS was within one point of avenging their loss in the fall, when Hawkins sunk a trey, handing PKN a four-point lead. As the game came to a close, Chung got the fans to stand up and cheer for his three-pointer. Looks as if the sports editors made a mistake in choosing Will Simonton ’03 as Athlete of the Week; clearly they should have picked Chung for his awe-inspiring clustah game. Who says Clustah is not a real sport? Even with all the budget cuts, PA sprung for real referees for the game. Auld explained PKN’s win, “We really played well and hit all our shots. We were very confident since we had already beaten them this year and at the last clustah finals match.” Reveling in his accomplishments, Chung realized that he had brought PKN to victory in Clustah in both the fall and winter. The Clustah star said, “West Quad South played really well, but we pulled through for the victory.” Having invited the cluster to the game in a cluster-wide message, he confessed his “childhood dream of leading PKN to victory all three seasons his senior year.” We will just have to see what happens in Clustah Frisbee this spring.
