16th Century Falls to Fathers in a Wild Game

It certainly didn’t look like the 4th Century AD had much of a chance when they went into halftime down 44-25 to the heavily favored 16th Century, but a little gimmickry, a little too much enthusiasm from one of their opponents, above all inspired play in the second half earned them a spot in the Final Four with a tense 84-82 victory.

With his players looking deflated after the 16th Century’s dominance of the first half, Constantine had each of them draw a large cross on their jerseys. The 4th Century came out with a flurry of points in the opening minutes of the half, closing the lead to 9 with 15 minutes to play.

The 16th Century, however, went back to basics on offense, feeding their star player, Martin Luther, and had the lead back in the comfortable double digits at the midway point of the half.

That was when the trouble started.

First, the Wittenberg Reformer appeared to take issue with a hard foul from Athanasius and the two soon had to be separated by the referees. Then, after double technicals were issued, Luther was so incensed that he began shouting at the official who made the call, and, despite the efforts of his teammates to restrain him, was assessed a second technical and ejected.

“I heard something like ‘instrument of Satan,’ ‘Antichrist,’ ‘persecutor of the Word’—it got ugly,” said Ambrose, commenting on the scene as he saw it from the 4th Century bench.

“As far as I’m concerned it was a clean foul. Hard, but clean,” said the bishop of Alexandria. “I’m surprised they didn’t throw me out. That seems to be what they usually do.”

Luther already had 17 points and 10 rebounds when he was ejected.

After St. Basil sank the technical free throws, the 16th Century still held a 12 point lead with 9:36 remaining, but it was clear they were somewhat rattled by their star’s ejection. Play resumed with an 8-0 run from the Fathers, forcing Charles V to use two time-outs to try to calm his players down.

The game was hardly over, however, as Calvin and Tasso picked up the offensive slack for the moderns. Nonetheless, it was clear that all the momentum was with the 4th Century and they took the lead for good on a three from Gregory of Nyssa which put them up 78-76.

Players of the Game
4th Century AD: Gregory Nazianzen 25 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
16th Century AD: Torquato Tasso, 24 points, 3 assists