V ’12: Basketball hoop to do better next time

To say that Warwick were always trailing Coventry in this hard-fought Varsity basketball match wouldn’t be even close to telling the whole story.

Coventry, playing in yellow to Warwick’s white, eventually secured the baskets they needed in the nail-biting last quarter to sit with a four point advantage of 72-68 on the final buzzer.

The Warwick coach Cevik praised his players’ doggedness and commitment in a match that looked to be slipping away in the first quarter, as Coventry racked up 14 points on the board before Warwick could muster a reply. That led captain Petkevicius to suggest that the team ‘weren’t prepared properly for the first two minutes’, causing them to ‘come out soft in the first quarter’.

The difference between the two sides, the captain suggested, was the ‘physical’ element to the Coventry team, illustrated with the predominance of number 10 Kouganie – praised by Petkevicius as a ‘distinguished player’ – in and around Warwick’s key, sinking ball after ball and earning foul after foul for the easy opportunity of a free throw.

But despite the dominance of Kouganie in terms of rebounds, Warwick mustered some fight after the second half had ended at 37-31 in favour of Coventry. It looked like Coventry, impressive to the point of dominance in the first half, had taken the pressure off Warwick, who responded with the introduction of number 12 Rinaldi, turning the third quarter in their favour. Here the spectacle really livened up with Warwick and Coventry players now both appealing to the crowd to show some vociferous support.

The crowd reacted and so did the players, with the game becoming increasingly hard-fought at the beginning of each play. With Rinaldi on the court, however, Warwick proceeded to sink a number of shots in quick succession, pulling back to just one point off Coventry’s score of 48. That is, until the influential Coventry number 8 Abifade managed to hit a three-pointer to pull four points ahead. The third quarter ended with the scores at 53-48 in Coventry’s, setting up the most exciting quarter of the match.

The fourth and final quarter started promisingly for Warwick with the whites sinking the first points of the period, with captain Petkevicius shooting a three pointer. From here on in, the tension, pace and frequency of errors increased with both teams desperate for victory, aiming to score the points that would definitively end the other’s chances.

With Coventry’s players always looking more likely to take the option of a three point shot and with the combination of just that from captain Danso and a fast-break steal and dunk, the game sat at 67-63 when Warwick coach Cevik called time-out.

With play resuming on the buzzer, Warwick’s number 24 Rimavicius was fouled on his way to a successful slam-dunk, earning him a free throw and the chance of a three-point play. This opportunity, however, was not taken up, with Kouganie again attracting fouls and free throws for his team, confidently brushing off the cheers of the Warwick fans to make the game 70-65, but not before a huge three-pointer from captain Petkivicius brought the scores to 70-68. With the contest finely balanced Warwick called a time out. Just nine seconds remained on the match clock, rendering Warwick’s final efforts vital to the outcome of the match.

Unfortunately for Petkevicus, Cevik and the rest of the Warwick squad, clad in white, they couldn’t secure the one remaining basket needed to tie the game, with frustration allowing Coventry to secure two free throws which decided the match-up at 72-68.

And whilst Cevik suggested the event ‘was really good to promote basketball at Warwick’, he was left wondering what could have been if, in his words, Warwick hadn’t ‘started off pretty badly in the first quarter.’