CPUT gets one back over the Montana Vikings…
With the WCBA Playoffs a week away, CPUT finally got their act together to beat their much fancied and possible final opponents at the last round of the group stages held at UCT. Montana Vikings had played the day before and maybe fatigue managed to creep in but it was a lackluster performance, frustrating at times.
With the semi-finalists almost decided by the time the game got underway, it was a matter of getting some bragging rights before the post season started.
Game got underway at a fast tempo, with the Montana Vikings opening the scoring through Denwin Jones with a quick layup. From there on, it was a high paced game with the first quarter flying by and ending with CPUT in the lead by 2 points. There were a lot of turnovers throughout the game and this could be attributed to the rush defense that the Cats were using to pressurize the Vikings.
The least said about the 3 officials in this game the better because it seems to be a recurring theme. They made dodgy calls throughout and when they needed to make calls they waived play on.. You have to wonder if they have a different set of rules to everybody else or if they actually go over some of the decisions they make after a crucial game like this.
Back to the game, Vikings were pounding the ball into their big men at the start of the game and it seemed to be working perfectly against a much smaller Cats team.. But during the time out, Cats coach, Kimathi Toboti, seemed to readjust the defense and instructed his players to double team on the low post which seemed to lead to turnovers from the Vikings forwards and some rushed shooting from the perimeter players.
On the Vikings side of things, Lyle Robertson led all scores with 11 points along with Kirk Daniels with 10 points which included a circus shot that somehow went in. The frustrating thing for Coach Craig Daniels was that the officiating was inconsistent and his team couldn’t get any rhythm going with players in foul trouble early…
The CPUT cats had contributions from most of their players and their coach was making the rotations at the right time to keep the players fresh and maintain the momentum. Leading scorers were Brendan Mettler with 35 points and Vincent Ntunja with 12 points.
The man of the match by a long shot has to go to Brendan Mettler who brought his A game to the fixture with his whooping 35 points. He was dunking, shooting 3 pointers (7 in total), giving assists and even getting the odd steal. He even led the rebounds stats for the Cats with 7.
Scores breakdown by quarter:
Q1: CPUT 14 – 12 Montana Vikings,
Q2: CPUT 30 – 27 Montana Vikings,
Q3: CPUT 56 – 41 Montana Vikings,
Q4: CPUT 81 – 57 Montana Vikings.
In other results:
Montana Vikings 2nd team beat the Veterans to secure a place in the playoffs, UCT ladies lost to Future Stars who were without a coach.
Playoffs get underway on Friday 15th of October at UCT so go out and support basketball.
Article by Victor Shakineza, Stats by Tanya Ronnie-Daniels and Tania Molteno
dude… reporting is suppose to be unbiased and indifferent, not hyping a dying star aka montana vikings?!?! the better team was and is, and will probably be for a very long time.. the cats(well as long as they have Brendan Mettler). and on that point Brendan Mettler “getting the odd steal”??? Son, there is nothing odd about that!!! Hype the real star, and not the ones you have to make excuses for about not having game, cause game recognise game and right now these vikings are looking a little unfamiliar… come on now report the facts