Basketball: Disappointment as men’s team miss win

City’s basketball team has lost 57-64 against University of Sussex – a bitter shock to all involved after a successful performance against London Metropolitan last week.

Marlan Henry, the team’s coach, said: “I hate losing – I’m extremely disappointed.

“We are not tough enough and we didn’t play smart. We missed 20 points in free-throws.”

City led in score in the first two quarters 14-9 and 31-27 respectively. However, during the third quarter Sussex took control over the game for the first time with a series of counterattacks, finishing the quarter at 37-38.

“We need to come back faster,” commanded captain Miodrag Vidakovic.

Tension rose during the third quarter, with members and supporters of each team actively engaged with the game. They became noticeably louder as the teams played tighter and tighter. City were playing offensively throughout.

“We don’t allow any penetration,” instructed coach Henry. “Keep everything under control.”

Both teams performed well, putting a great effort into both attacks and defence. 

Sussex’s control takeover led to a change in the atmosphere. Both teams started to get more and more agitated. After a series of successful attacks, Sussex led by eleven points.

Number 10 Vladas Kolesnik shared his opinion on the team’s performance. “After the last game, Marlan said that we did not show enough effort except for in the last 3 minutes of the game when we were losing.

“That’s not the first time this has happened to us. We have to show a greater effort from the very beginning of each game in order to not let our opponents even think about winning the game.”

Seconds before the final whistle, the score was 57-62 to Sussex. The coach asked for a time-out. Unfortunately, it was not enough to change the outcome of the match.

Despite today’s bad luck, the coach promised a better performance in the next game against Middlesex University in November.