DeKALB | There were fast breaks, cherry pickers and plenty of turnovers.

No, it wasn’t the NIU men’s basketball team in action. It was the intramural championships held at the Campus Recreation Center Monday night.

After trailing 12-6 early in the first half, team Aldi came back for a 45-40 win over So Cold in the Highly Competitive League championship game.

“We played a pretty good game tonight,” said Team Aldi forward Paris Reed, a senior finance major.

Aldi went on a late run during the end of the first half to take an 18-17 lead at intermission. The momentum continued for the red team as it opened up the second half by going on a 8-1 run. Playing 17-minute halves, Aldi went up by as many as 12 with just under ten minutes remaining.

A late full-court press by So Cold and a few missed free throws by Aldi cut the gap to within four with under a minute left to play, but that’s as close as the game would get.

Although the red team looked solid, Reed doesn’t think they could compete with the NIU men’s team.

“I played against Ben Rand in high school, but I don’t think we’d be able to take them.”

In the Greek Competitive final, Sigma Alpha Epsilon outlasted Omega Delta for a 42-30 win. As was the case in the Highly Competitive League game, the O-Dees made a late push, but clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch from sophomore business major Mark Poplonski sealed the deal for SAE.

“I was just feeling it from the line tonight,” Poplonski said. “We’ve been in a couple championships before, so it’s nice to finally get the monkey off our back.”