Men’s Basketball cling on to claim Varsity win

Coming in to their Varsity fixture, the UKC Men’s Basketball team were looking to build on recent success and previous Varsity wins to make sure they secured another point for the overall Team Kent Varsity total. InQuire Chairwoman Natalie Tipping writes.

Making an early break and building a lead, Kent maintained a 10-point gap for the majority of the first and second quarters. In spite of the scoreline, however, the teams seemed evenly matched.

The highlight of the first quarter was without doubt the sensational slam dunk from the CCCU #14, which was greeted with much applause from both teams of supporters, and was only topped by his second dunk in the final quarter of the match.

The Kent team managed to capitalise from more chances despite the even playing field between the two teams, holding a seven point lead at the end of the first quarter, which had increased to 14 points by the start of the third quarter.

The real buzz around the game came from the final quarter however, which began 37-59 to UKC, a comfortable lead with only 10 minutes to play…or so they thought.

A relentless CCCU attack soon followed, with the Christ Church spectators going crazy and driving their team forward to try to decrease their points deficit and find a way back into the match. The C4 team did not disappoint their fans, who saw them score 3-pointer after 3-pointer and free throw after free throw to decrease the points difference to just 11 points, with just over a minute to play.

Despite tense scenes and much nail biting, it was unfortunately a case of too little too late for the CCCU side, who were eventually beaten 71-81 by a rather relieved Kent team.

Due to the double win from the Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams, the overall Varsity score at the end of the day one of the competition was UKC 5-1 CCCU.