Green Angst and Three-Pointers By Josh Mahan After feigning civility through two days of meetings, some of the country’s most effective environmental activists got back to their Neanderthal roots and monkeyed it up on the basketball courts Saturday. Team World, led by Northern Rockies tribal member Matt Koehler, slashed through Team Eugene-Cascadia’s defense to mark a score of 21-18, and pick-up an ELAW Conference Championship three-peat. The words dynasty were whispered amongst the crowd as the sweaty players huddled around the waterfountain at the game's terminus. “When the game is on the line, team Eugene-Cascadia will fold. I realized that’s why Mark Rey is planning so many timber sales out here,” Koehler commented in a post-game interview, to the chagrin of nearby Cascadians. Koehler nailed the game-winning shot, a trey made possible by a moving double pick set by teammate Joseph Vaile. “It just opened right up,” Koehler said. “The sea just parted there.”  Vaile chipped in several three pointers. Power plays by Puck and a solid performance from Gary Mcfarlane also helped Team World dominate Eugene-Cascadia. Puck and Koehler played with radar-like synchronicity. The two haven’t lost a touch of their backdoor style since playing together on the Elkhart Lake, Wis. prep team. “It was a poorly refereed fiasco,” commented Mike Donnelly, the Jack Nicholson of the capacity crowd that included a number of environmental celebrities. Team Eugene-Cascadia loitered dejectedly around the courts after the loss. The team had come to play, with a half-dozen practices under its belt and identified by black-shirt uniforms. The loss on hometurf stung. “It doesn’t get much lower,” Eugenian Josh Laughlin reported to Lowbagger after the game. “But, the Outlaw Bash is a couple of hours away and we’ll forget about it.” Laughlin credited Koehler’s off-season conditioning as one of the game-breaking factors.  Amy Atwood, of Eugene-Cascadia, put it differently. “Those fuckers got lucky,” she said.  One of the players was overheard saying, “I guess the downside of collaboration is you don’t have enemies anymore, and you have to take your frustration out on your allies.”  Donnelly responded that “it’s a given with collaboration that you’ll get that opportunity.” In other news at the conference, Lowbaggers came out of the woodwork at the conference. What else do you expect from a movement built on the backs of Lowbaggers. Some had thick, grey beards and wanted me to immediately harass Montana Senator Max Baucus with a letter-writing campaign against logging the Buscuit. Other Lowbaggers wore kilts, dress shirts with the sleeves slashed open, and toted the critical Lowbagger element, their bedroll. Their idea of stopping the Buiscuit timber sale included sitting down in the middle of the logging road. One guy had hitch-hiked down from Montana and slept in the cemetary all weekend. Lowbagger.org's reception at Pegasus Pizza was a success with a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of 250. Mountain Justice Summer was the buzz. But, the best Lowbagger business was taken care of over Singha's and Thai food at the daily High-Roller/Lowbagger sub-conference. All in all, we're happy to be out of Eugene, my only recomendation is to stay away from Sam Bonds, but we miss the hundreds of talented activists that we rubbed shoulders with, literally at times, for three days.