Brunel 69 University of East London 94

University of East London men’s basketball team cruised to a vital away win against second placed Brunel as they secured a 25-point win at the Brunel University Sports Centre in Uxbridge.

Though they drew first blood, UEL had to fight for control of the early stages of the game as a series of back-and-forth exchanges resulted in both teams quickly racking up points.

A sustained assault from both teams saw the first quarter finish narrowly in UEL’s favour with the score 26-21 in their favour.

The beginning of the second quarter ushered in the more characteristically dominant UEL side seen in previous weeks as they opened up a 19 point lead by the end of the quarter thanks to a series of flowing sequences in attack.

Perhaps the highlight of the match came at the end of the quarter; when UEL’s Smith scored a two-pointer from distance at the culmination of an urgently executed build up which began with only three seconds on the clock, subsequently causing even the hostile crowd to erupt in euphoric disbelief.

The third quarter started heavily in favour of the away team once more as Brunel struggled to contain both the intricate movement of the UEL players and the significant presence and height advantage of a couple of UEL players, as the guests at one point held a 30 point lead over their west London counterparts.

However, a mild confrontation on the court between some players led to a resurgent Brunel led by the number six, Lartey, who singlehandedly scored nine points without reply, including a pair of three-pointers to end the quarter, having reduced the deficit to 72-52.

However, the hosts failed to build on the comeback that they seemed to be itching to mount as a series of missed opportunities and clinical finishing on the part of their opponents set the tone for the rest of the game.

After the game, guard Will Ashby expressed confidence in his team’s ability to maintain their form for the foreseeable future before jokingly acknowledging the height disparity by saying, “We had about six inches on their tallest player.”