Men's Basketball slam through to semi's
Friday 8 February 2013
UEL looked to bounce back after suffering a heartbreaking defeat the previous week losing a 17 point lead in the final 10 minutes of the game to receive their first loss of the season. Dougie Bennett opened the game with a three pointer, which would be a sign of things to come as he finished with six in the game. This vengeance was on display early as UEL pressured Medway full court with suffocating defense and connecting on their first five shots. UEL jumped out to an early lead of 30-8 from forced turnovers on defence and pinpoint shooting on the offensive end. Brandon McGill was nursing a back injury that had hampered him the last two weeks, but came out strong scoring 9 points in the opening period giving UEL a 37-16 lead.
Second period featured an offensive onslaught from Henry Utku who score double digits in the second period carrying UEL throughout a drought. Medway were steady in the second period as UEL didn't connect at the same rate from the first period. Medway switched their defence form man to man to zone, which helped slow down the pace and limit the opportunities of UEL. UEL made it a point of emphasis to feed the ball into the post to Utku to get easy baskets and he delivered virtually every time. Sloppy play from UEL with unforced errors left the second period balanced as UEL only outscored Medway 21-16, taking a 58-32 lead into half-time.
After not closing the game and blowing a huge lead in the previous game, UEL came out focused and poised on making sure the third quarter was as strong as the first to put the game out of reach for Medway. Dougie and McGill, much like the first period did most of the scoring for UEL increasing the lead and creating offense for the rest of the team. With UEL hitting a high % from the outside it made McGill's job as the point guard much easier and gave everyone a lot of confidence, which was lost after last week's performance. In order to speed up the game back in their favor UEL pressed full court the entire period causing many turnovers and leading to easy points, which featured a fast-break dunk for McGill. CJ who spent the last month in the states got his feet under him in the third period where he recorded three blocks. UEL outscored Medway 33-11 in this period, taking a 91-43 lead into the final period.
To start the 4th, Medway went on a run connecting on their first four shots forcing Coach Chris to call a timeout in order to make sure his players didn't lose focus and continued to play at a high level. Medway finally got out of their zone defence in order to create more offensive opportunities to score more points. This strategy worked in their favor as UEL did not execute on the offensive as they did in the first 3 periods. Utku continued to dominate in the paint scoring eight more points in the 4th, which have him his season high of 25 points. Jamie Hayes also contributed a lot in the final period grabbing a lot of rebounds and converting on his teammates missed shots. Will Ashby continued his hot shooting from behind the arc helping secure the dominant 116-68 victory for UEL!
Douglas Bennett led all scorers with 29 points, Utku had 25 points and 7 rebounds and McGill added 22 points and 10 assists.
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