Chichester students make their points on basketball court

Chichester’s start was confident and pressure on St Mary’s defensive players allowed for an early foul and free throw from club president Katie Doubleday to put the first points on the board.

With equally tough defence, Chichester managed multiple steals taking full advantage of slow and inexperienced passes to deny St Mary’s.

With no shots at the basket until at least five minutes in and a multitude of successful fast breaks from Chichester, St Mary’s used two of their time-outs in the first quarter alone. Chichester’s dominance saw them end the quarter 27-2 up.

Although St Mary’s started the second quarter with a good shot, the period was very much driven by Chichester. It became clear Chichester’s stamina outranked that of St Mary’s, who struggled to keep up with the fast pace.

New team member Kiely Reed stepped up to score an impressive run of lay-ups to further the points gap to 44-6. This allowed Chichester to introduce less-experienced players to improvetheir skill and confidence levels. Chichester ended the first half leading 51-8.

St Mary’s came back reading the game more effectively and Chichester stumbled as they fought to revaluate their game tactics. Coach Stuart Hardyman called his first time-out and much to the hosts’ frustration, Chichester came back on to court to deny them the ball once again to end the quarter 73-16 ahead.

Chichester used the last quarter to substitute numerous players to run through set plays to improve and determine their effectiveness.

As the game neared its end, Chichester’s energy levels were beginning to drop. Yet Chichester continued to push until the very last minute proving further their dominance over St Mary’s.

Top scorers were Chichester’s Abby Swieton, Doubleday and Meg Martinez, who together scored 56 points.

Captain Martinez said: “It was a great victory for the team, which every player enjoyed to the full; however it’s time to carry on working hard and strive for promotion.”

UNI ROUND-UP

The University of Chichester sports teams racked up 12 wins as a number of teams moved into league title contention.

Their women’s rugby team faced top side Sussex University at Bishop Otter Campus and the previously-undefeated opposition were given a rugby lesson as Chichester ran in five unanswered tries in a 35-0 victory. Rosie Tugwell (2), Gilly Thomas (2) and Hannah Dart were on the scoresheet.

Both men’s rugby teams were victorious at Oaklands Park.

Twos captain Sam Davies inspired his team with a man-of-the-match display in a 31-14 win over Westminster. The first team maintained their 100 per cent league record with a hard-fought 14-12 win over St George’s.

Despite setbacks for the men’s football ones and twos, the rest of the club maintained their impressive start to the season with three wins.

The threes edged out Portsmouth thirds 1-0 thanks to a second-half goal from Ben Wickens. Jay Lovejoy’s fourth team overcame Brunel IV 3-1 away from home with goals from Rickman, Gain and Jones. Finally the fifths came away from Sussex with a 3-2 win, man of the match Perry bagging two, De Gruchy with the other.

The netball club once again enjoyed a clean sweep.

See www.bucs.org.uk for all results and tables.