Secondary Inter-House Basketball 2011

What a fantastic inter-house basketball competition we enjoyed this last week. A very close fought competition with every house playing their part in a highly competitive competition. The qualifying stages came down to the last game with Cervantes needing Churchill to do them a favour by beating or drawing with Gaudi. This looked a possibility when Churchill drew level late in the second half and the Cervantes fans on the sideline could see their chance of a final spot getting closer. The quality of Gaudi then shone through with two quality baskets by their inspirational leader Sammy Klein and the final place was confirmed. It would be Gaudi versus Newton with Cervantes and Churchill playing it out for 3^rd place.

Despite coming bottom of the league with no wins, Churchill had a surprising victory against a weakened Cervantes team to snatch 3^rd place.

The final was a hard fought occasion with the lead going from one side to the other. Gaudi went into a 6-0 lead with some excellent basketball and rebounding from their senior players. Then Newton captain Matthew Marsden really took the game into his own hands and pushed Newton back into the game with a lovely assist and two lovely baskets, including a fantastic lay-up to draw the game level at half time. Newton then pushed on scoring another two baskets, making that 5 without reply, to take a commanding 10-6 lead. Gaudi then had to up their game and pulled two quick baskets back before the final whistle, leaving us with a draw and another inter-house shoot out to decide the winner.

Each member of the team was to have one shot from the free throw line. With a number of good efforts and near misses the game went into sudden death and Matthew Marsden scored the winning basket to take the title for Newton.

It was an excellent, hard fought competition with very interesting games throughout.

Well done everyone!

The results and tables from the group round can be found below:

Cervantes 4 - 2 Churchill
Gaudi 10 - 8 Newton

Cervantes 8 - 8 Gaudi
Churchill 6 - 10 Newton

Newton 4 - 2 Cervantes
Gaudi 10 - 6 Churchill

                  P    W    D    L    Pts
Gaudi         3     2     1    0     5
Newton      3     2     1    0     5
Cervantes   3     1     1    1     3
Churchill     3     0     0    3     0