Melbourne Uni Basketball ventured out over the Labour Day long weekend to the annual Ballarat tournament. It was a relatively successful weekend with all 5 teams performing well.
It didn’t take long for the drama to start as the C grade men fought a tight battle in the opening match which saw Sam A (aka Doc Sam – yes ladies, he’s a doctor) bank a three-pointer on the buzzer to send the crowd into raptures and the game into an unexpected period of overtime. However, they went down by a single point after a controversial foul call sent their opponents to the line. Credit to the boys for bouncing back with a massive come from behind victory against the eventual champions, and just missing out on the grand final on the head-to-head tiebreaker despite having a superior percentage.
The B grade men, under the banner ‘Brush & Floss’ (some say they secretly desire to be dental students), put on display their silky skills, fast-paced plays and three-point brilliance. Sam T provided some entertainment with his dunking attempts, the crowd getting right behind him, but he wasn’t quite able to slam one down. They progressed to the semi-finals and battled hard to the end, going down by 5 points.
On the women’s side of the draw, the Big V ladies started their campaign with a win in a physical contest. Then came the much anticipated derby against the other A grade Melbourne Uni team with the A graders coming away with bragging rights. Big V would bounce back with a couple of wins including a solid performance against Division 1 team Keilor, leading to a three-way tie at the top of the table between the two Uni teams and Keilor, the Big V team advancing to the grand final against Keilor on percentage. Unfortunately, they could not repeat the effort from the pool game and fell short.
The B grade ladies showed off their talent with flashes of brilliance on their way to the grand final, but not before a rough encounter that resulted in knocks to the chin, cut lips and elbows to the head. A boilover was on the cards as they charged into half time with a big run and trailing by just 2 points, but fell away in the second half against their highly talented opponents. Despite the loss, the girls were ecstatic with their achievement and smiles all around.
