512th AW reserves the bench for AFMAO Published Jan. 16, 2015 By Airman 1st Class William Johnson 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- The 512th Airlift Wing outpaced the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations for their third season victory in intramural basketball Jan. 15, 2015, at the fitness center here. After having to forfeit their last game due to lack a of players, the 512th AW was barely able to dress the five players needed for the game, but still managed to pull off an overwhelming victory against a fully staffed AFMAO team 57-37. The lack of personnel had no impact on their game plan as the 512th AW commanded a fast paced game which led to their mercy rule victory. Hakim Tutt, 512th AW player-coach, credits his team's third straight 20-plus point win to the team's defense and how aggressively they play. "We win our games the way we do because of our defense," said Tutt. "The defense brings offense. Off the defense we get fast break points and we play great team ball once we get the turnovers." But it was not the defense alone that was putting up points for the 512th AW. They proved to be solid shooters and hit a total of seven 3-pointers and went into the half with a comfortable lead 28-20. Eight of those first-half points came from their leading scorer Lateef Shinaba, 512th AW point guard, and would score an additional 11 points in the second half. Shinaba was fast with the ball set the pace of the game to which AFMAO could not adjust to. "We played hard as a team and came up big when we needed to," said Shinaba. "Every time we had the opportunity to score we just got the ball and went with it." Shinaba scored the last bucket of the game enacting the mercy rule with less than two minutes on the clock and improving the 512th AW's record to 3-1. The loss dropped AFMAO's record to 1-2 and Davie Wright, AFMAO player-coach, said they let the second half get away from them and wants to work on their defense transitions going into their next game. "We started out well and were taking good shots in the first half," said Wright. "In the second half the 512th AW hit a whole lot of shots including a few big three pointers and we kind of panicked a little after that and got out of character." Even though the 512th AW has won three of their games by more than 20 points and only has one blemish on their record due to a forfeit, Tutt says there is still work that needs to be done. "We need to work on passing the ball and getting it around," said Tutt. "Passing the basketball and team ball is what wins games."