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USSA Gauteng qualifiers – 14/03/2009

By on March 15, 2009 in League

The University of Pretoria hosted the final part of the qualifiers, with the ladies teams finalizing their preparations for this year’s tournament. The USSA tournament will be on week of the 05 – 10 April 2009 and the Venue for the National Tournament is in Tshwane, at the University of Pretoria, Gauteng. The tournament is in April due to the World Student Games taking place in July 2009. This year ONLY the boys will be participating in the tournament in Belgrade Serbia, with the ladies apparently not considered a priority by the powers at USSA or SASCOC. With Vaal Univesity of Technology (VUT) and University of Johannesburg (UJ) already qualified, it was down to Wits to confirm their place in the tournament with 2 crucial games back to back on the day.

With teams pitching early for the games starting at 09h00, the game between UJ ladies and Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) didn’t take place because the latter didn’t turn up, maybe they knew that they were in for a tough match against last year’s runners up. The game between Wits ladies and VUT was a contest between 2 teams going through the motion, with Wits keeping an eye on their next game against Medunsa which was more important. VUT just had too much ammunition for Wits to handle, despite playing like a disjointed unit.

The next round of games at 11h00 saw Wits ladies play Medunsa; and with this being a crucial clash you would have expected a bit of competition but it wasn’t to be. Wits walked all over Medunsa with (Wits 6) and (Wits 15) running the show. They were doing layups after layups and by half time the game was up. It wasn’t much of a spectacle for the little fans that were present but at least now the teams can start preparing for the tournament with the knowledge of what they have to fix leading up to it… The final score Wits 74 – 13 Medunsa. The other game was a friendly between the University of Pretoria (TUKS) men and VUT, who decided to bring their 2nd team. After some early jitters, TUKS managed to come out on top but it wasn’t that comfortable throughout the match.

At 13h00, VUT ladies played against UJ in a pointless match that was more for bragging rights before the tournament than anything. This match was interrupted by an accident to a VUT player that saw her land heavily on her head and with no first aid crew around, it was up to the two coaches and some of the team members to come up with a plan. After stabilizing the injured player, the ambulance came to pick her up and the game resumed. Despite having a 3 point lead at the half, UJ went down to the VUT ladies. In the other game, CUT came all the way from the Free State to play a friendly against the TUT ladies who managed to make it in time for this game. In the end, CUT ladies were triumphant and with each passing game the ladies are getting more confidence in their system of play although they should work on making their layups.

With 3 weeks left, this year’s USSA will be hard to predict for the ladies section. The defending champions, University of Pretoria are not at their best yet, UJ are still inconsistent, VUT are still trying to gel but they need to do a lot more team work, Wits are the dark horse because of they show great fighting spirit.

Gauteng qualifiers for 2009:

Men:

1.       Vaal University of Technology (2008 Champions)

2.       University of Pretoria (Host)

3.       University of Johannesburg

4.       University of Witwatersrand

Ladies

1.       University of Pretoria (2008 Champions and host)

2.       University of Johannesburg

3.       University of Witwatersrand

4.       Vaal University of Technology

Article by Victor Shakineza

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There Are 2 Brilliant Comments

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  1. kim says:

    LADIES NOT A PRIORITY!?!?!?!

    HOW THINGS CHANGE….

  2. baller says:

    ladies basketball has never been a priority. i feel for you as you coach ladies. with your prayers it will one day be a priority to the powers that be.

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