Article Written By:
Joy Ndlela
Basketball is back on our campus and Nux Online caught the match between the UKZN Beavers vs. PMB Heat. In a pre-game interview Beavers player, Sonke Magagula, said that he ear-marked one of the Heat’s players, Bongani, as the man to watch. He said, ”if we keep Bongani at bay we got a fair chance.” On Friday evening the game started with high impact and energy which resulted in the first free-throw going to the Beavers. They were hard on the offensive after the free-throw and it seemed as if they were in a rush to accumulate points without having taken time to settle into their team rhythm, this resulted in air balls and counter- attacking opportunities for PMB Heat. Steals, interceptions and high flying manoeuvres from Bongani and his team kept the Heats in the lead as the whole team worked well together. Meanwhile, the Beavers eventually found their rhythm and started to kill the Heats. However, as soon as that happened the Heats stole 2 points while the Beavers were distracted and let their defence down they defence down. The 1st quarter was tightly contested as the Beavers were behind 17-08. Bongani was not making it easy, he was unstoppable, weaving himself through the Beavers’ players and the only way to stop him was by blocking him to the ground. The 2nd half started off on the same manner except that the Heats brought on the heat and “Big Mike” and his team mates started to dominate the game with 3 pointer after three pointer. It was starting to look bad for our boys but they fought back with fast pace running and organised offence that yielded great game ball play. Lelo and Nkanyiso then came to the party with 3 pointers to bring the score up to a respectable defeat. Final score: PMB Heat 79 and UKZN Beavers 60.
LEAGUE INFORMATION ABOVE PROVIDED BY:
DUKE MADUBEKO – Chairperson of UKZN Beavers Basketball Club