On Wednesday 2nd October, teams from the University of Southampton’s Athletics Union took to the University of Winchester to represent Team Soton on the netball court, the hockey pitch and of course, on the basketball court. The Sharks played hard and both teams were victorious; below are the match reports thanks to the Coach and Gav. #PlayToWin
The Women’s team played their first game of the season, defeating Winchester Uni Knights 47-38 Wednesday afternoon in a friendly match. Playing a friendly with only one training session in the books was always going to be a tough deal, but the Sharks persevered.
Still showing some preseason jitters the Knights struck first getting out to a 4-0 lead to start the game when the Sharks stepped up their defence shutting them out the rest of the quarter, and the inside offensive combination of Aga Kowalczuk, Â Tara Tanoz-Sargeant, and Rhianne Williams took over as the three split all 14 points of the quarter to see the Lady Sharks lead 14-4.
The second quarter started to become more scrappy as the Knights started to figure out how to get around the press and they started to pull the score back, outscoring the Sharks 15-10 in the quarter, which was largely due to some poor free throw shooting on their part, as the Knights missed 8 out of 9 fouls shots, which could of made a drastic difference in their comeback attempt. But the missed shots meant they could only cut into the lead as halftime rolled around the Southampton Uni kept a 5 point margin 24-19.
The third quarter led to some very physical and sometimes possibly dangerous play, Â but switching sides proved a difference in the discrepancy in the number of fouls called, with Southampton getting to the charity stripe for the first time in the game, but unfortunately suffered from the same problem missing many of the free throws which kept the game close as Winchester Uni desperately tried to fight back, getting the game within 1 point at 31-30, but clutch shooting by Hannah Kirkham and Kimberly Fenton pushed the Sharks as they finished the quarter leading 38-32.
As the fourth quarter started, one could tell it was an early season game, as both teams started visibly tiring; but both teams kept digging and fighting, but early on you could see the high pressure Southampton defense had a longer lasting affect on the opposition as Winchester definitely appeared to be a bit more sluggish of the two teams. Freya Mumby, who had played most of the game in foul trouble, really stepped up her defense, stopping multiple fast breaks where she was outnumbered 2-1 and preventing the opposition from getting into any sort of rhythm. The Sharks got the W, 47- 38!
Team captain Freya Mumby stated after the game “it was a good game, we did make some silly mistakes and we weren’t always great at rebounding, but I think we played really well as a team considering it was our first time playing together! A much deserved win! Also definitely great we kept our composure, all in all happy with the effort and excited to keep playing with this team!
Newly appointed head coach David Senart added to that saying “what hurt us the most was just poor execution of play, but this is not a lack of skill or ability, but lack of repetition due to only having one training session this season so far. However this was made up for with hustle and effort as when any given lady was on the court, she tried with everything she had which is great to see from a coaching stand point” And to further compliment the team opposing head coach Rich Styants was quoted saying “my team was telling me that they couldn’t tell a difference between the bench players and the starters” which is a great credit to the depth of this team.
The Sharks have a few more training sessions and one more friendly before they start their meaningful BUCS and SABA seasons.
Game MVP goes to Freya Mumby for an intensive defensive effort, with honorable mentions going to Hannah Kirkham and Kimberly Fenton.
Moving on to the Men’s team, which saw a mash up of the 1st and 2nd players face a disjointed Winchester side for their first game of the season.
Fielding a side of 5 new players, captain Omar Alkhanji picked a starting 5 with no fewer than 4 new recruits. This could of proven to be a risky decision, not knowing the playing level of the Winchester side, however the quality of the new players shone through with Southampton racing to an early 10 point lead with very little fight back. This lead was largely achieved thanks to the now experienced Aurélien Toussaint who grabbed SUBC’s first 7 points starting of from an uncontested 3 in first minute. David John Laurence, new to the club, was also confident for his first game adding to the growing lead. Winchester showed some small signs of a fight back as Southampton began rotating players while P.Bryne added a two quick successive baskets, however it was clear that Southampton were the team in control with a comfortable 26-9 by the end of the 1st quarter.
The story of the second quarter was not much different as strong defence from Daniel Mayorga Serna reaped its rewards through steals and easy buckets. Winchester were clearly rattled as they struggled to get into Southampton’s half turning the ball over to loose passes and violating the 8 second rule. Aurélien Toussaint carried on relentlessly with his scoring run providing no fewer than 14 of Southampton’s points of the quarter. Embarrassingly, Winchester failed to score during the 2nd period.
More of the new players found their form in the second half with Shiloh Saartori driving to the basket with some ease to register a promising points total on his debut. Also, big man Kevin Lee showed his strength with some neat posting moves, always a threat to the opposing side. Unfortunately, the second half turned out to be a rather scrappy affair with both sides in foul trouble with plenty of free throws being taken making it hard for the game to really get going.
However, Southampton did not lose their concentration and composure as they continued to work hard on offense and defence drawing the game to a close with a comprehensive 87-28 win with Aurélien Toussaint as topscorer with 25 points.
Many positives can be drawn from the game as the new players got a good win under their belts with some strong performances. Also, the fact that every player managed to get points on the board was testament that, despite not having a coach, the players shared their time on the court equally. On the other hand, with both teams in the same BUCS league this season, future games will be much more challenging with stronger opponents than today.
Bring on the first National League game tomorrow, Saturday 5th October in the Jubilee, 2pm.