WCBA 2010 Men Final – Vets vs. CPUT – Game 2

Already a Game down after the Vets exploits in Game 1, CPUT had to step it up or go home. So they decided to step it up a notch and ran riot doing it.

There was the return of Junior Ongenda to the Cats starting line up after he missed the first game of this 3 game series. This seemed to give them an additional scoring option with his experience and for the first 5 minutes of the game the Vets were struggling to get a basket. It was all CPUT… But then Vets decided to take the game to their big man inside, namely G. Thompson who was having a field day in the post.

CPUT were playing as a unit throughout executing both on defense and on the offensive end. They were playing at a good tempo with a lot more control than they had in the first game and they made sure that whatever the referees decided down the line wouldn’t affect them come the final whistle. At the end of the first half the Vets were still in it with a shout with only 4 points in it.

From chatting to Cats coach Kimathi Toboti, he felt that if the team was going to win this game, they needed to win the third quarter. In game 1, The Vets had taken this quarter by 9 points and by the time the Cats wanted to catch up in the 4th it was too late. So the emphasis was on a big performance in the 3rd Quarter and his boys didn’t disappoint. Junior set the tone by opening the quarter with a massive 3 pointer, then Brendan Mettler followed this up with 2 quick baskets and not to be outdone by the rest of the “Triple threat combo”, Vincent Ntunja added another quick 2 baskets and before you knew it the Vets were 11 points down. E. Norman had another solid performance in this quarter by being aggressive and making key plays when required. With Zoran Slavkovic injured after the first half and their offence running out of option, The Vets couldn’t match the intensity of the Cats. They tried to go back inside but by that time the bigs were tired and their decision making was suspect. Quarter ended with CPUT leading 63 to the Vets 46.

With the 3rd Quarter out of the way it was a matter of maintaining what they had and the Cats did that with aplomb. Whenever it looked like the Vets were about to make a run, this was shortlived with a defense stop or a crucial basket and it was a total team effort with regular rotation. The fact that no one got fouled out for the Cats speaks volume for this victory. The last man standing for the Vets was Matthew Skade who had his best quarter of the game but it was in vain as the CPUT took game 3 with ease.

With the Vets having played 5 intense game already in the post season and some of their teammates a bit battle weary, you wonder if they are going to be able to raise their game like they did in Game 3  of the semi finals against the Montana Vikings. CPUT have the momentum now and they should wrap this up on Wednesday night at home at 2oh00.

Scores breakdown by quarter:

Q1: CPUT 16 – 11 Vets

Q2: CPUT 36 – 33 Vets

Q3: CPUT 63 – 46 Vets

Q4: CPUT 82 – 64 Vets

In other results:

UWC got their own back against Montana Vikings 3rd team to force a game 3. This time it was a one sided affair with UWC running riot over their part-timers opponents.  UCT’s 2nd team game out on top again against The Eagles to take the division 2 title.

Article by Victor Shakineza

Tags: Basketball, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, CPUT, Montana Vikings, UCT, University of Cape Town, University of Western Cape, UWC, WCBA, Western Cape Basketball Association