Women’s BUCS Basketball Final 8’s Day 1 Recap

A great first day of the Women’s BUCS Basketball Final 8’s, read on to see how the teams fared in their opening games..I know it’s a bit late, but better late than never right?!

Game 1
Loughborough University vs. UWIC
Right from the tip UWIC really pushed the young Loughborough team, making them work on every possession. They opened up the first quarter with 19 unanswered points, scoring heavily in transition and proving their athleticism would be hard to handle throughout the three days by any team. Loughborough looked like they may make the game interesting once Kara Dougall entered the game early in the first period. She made an instant impact, finishing the quarter with 10 points.

In the third quarter, UWIC’s Sarah Wagstaff caused Loughborough a lot of problems, completing the quarter with 17 points, including 3 back to back field goals from behind the arc. Then when everyone thought the game couldn’t get any tougher for Loughborough, Sheffield Hatter’s Naomi Campbell dislocated her thumb and had to leave the game (to return in the fourth). Campbell went on to have an 11 point run, the only Loughborough player to score in the fourth. She finished the game with 16.

Despite a good fight in parts from Loughborough, the game finished 102-44. A great start to the Final 8’s  for a very deep UWIC team.

Game 2
Leeds Metropolitan Carnegie vs. Brighton
Leeds Met Carnegie opened the tournament against Brighton. Carnegie dominated the game early, picking off sloppy passes from the Brighton team and converting easily in transition. Leeds Met were able to cruise to a 24-6 lead by the end of the first.

With the starters on the bench at the start of the second quarter Brighton’s press got them within 12 but as Carnegie coach James Bambury reinserted his starters the lead shot back up to 22 within a minute. Leeds kept pushing the ball off of the tight defense of Brykeesha Tate and some great rebounding by Loui Hall helped push the score to 40-16 by the half (it could have been a lot more had Carnegie not missed a lot of open jumpers).

Leeds Met’s half time showed what BUCS is about, as well as their confidence in winning the game, as Coach Bambury delivered a 30 second team talk and then allowed his team to go and watch Leeds Met Carnegie men in their game for the remainder of the ten minute break.

The second half continued as the first had ended with Leeds continuing there dominance behind the inside play of Loui Hall and guard play of Kristie Velasquez-Sheils, Clayden and Tate. This allowed Leeds to rest up and run their bench.

Despite a good effort from Brighton the game finished with Leeds comfortably advancing 105-37.

Game 3
Sheffield Hallam University vs. London Metropolitan University
Home favourites Hallam faced tough opposition in their opening game against London Met. London, coming off a National League win against Birmingham A’s the night before, were showing no signs of fatigue in the first quarter running up a 16-5 lead though good fast break basketball. Sheffield managed to cut the lead to 6 in the second quarter behind guard Christina Grima and Sheffield Hatter’s Emma Camp but a lull in Sheffield’s scoring put Met back in control by half time leading 26-19.

After the break, Camp continued her aggressiveness getting to the line throughout the second half and with some great play off picks for Grima, Hallam drew within 4 late in the forth, 54-50. London, however, regrouped defensively and made a couple of big shots, to close the game out and win 63-52.

Game 4
Northumbria University vs. London South Bank University
Northumbria started their tournament with their big centre sitting out due to injury. LSBU came out fighting early, pressuring the ball and attempting to run on the Northern side. Ta’yani Clark for Northumbria (who has played at the guard spots on the few times I have seen them play) came out big, playing in the centre on defence, pushing the ball on the dribble and scoring at will at the other end. At halftime the game was close, 25-24.

At the start of the third South Bank continued to push the ball and Ijeoma Ofamata started to cause problems inside drawing fouls and converting at the line. Ta’yani did all she could to keep Northumbria in the game, however during the forth quarter it was apparent she was getting tired, starting to miss the tough shots she was making in the first.

South Bank’s Tereza Prozvoua then went off, hitting back-to-back threes and grabbing a couple of steals pushing the lead up to 12, at which point London’s execution and tight defence helped closed out the game for a 85-50 win.

Notes/Random Thoughts

• “Kicks of the Weekend” goes to Kristie Velasquez-Sheils for the awesome Tracy McGrady throw back of having two different colour shoes. Kristie came out rocking one white Nike and one black and silver Nike, with calf height socks to match the colour of her shoes. I asked Kristie about her shoes after,

“I was wearing odd boots as I had an operation on my toe about 3 weeks before and wasn’t suppose to be playing, and the black boot was a size and a half too big as if I wore my normal size boot it hurt my toe.”

What a great reason to wear odd shoes….Love it!

• Naomi Campbell for Loughborough showed guts to come back into the game after dislocating her thumb in 2 places and then go on score 11 points in the forth quarter.

• UWIC are so so deep this year, all teams will struggle to stop them.

  Image Credit: Still Sport Photography