LU Basketball has had a week off while the National U23 Championships was being played but all teams are back into it this week and rearing to go for play-offs.
All four Lincoln University Basketball teams are tracking well as they head into the play off stages of the competition. The Men's Premier team have started the championship round with four straight wins over Checkers 76 – 65, Gators 83 – 75, first round and Hoben Trophy winners Pacers 77 – 66 and a 81 – 70 win over Atami two weeks ago. They take on the fourth placed Wolverines this Saturday followed by the current 3rd placed Canterbury University.
The Premier Women are in the same scenario having beaten Halswell 67 – 34, Gators 74 – 52, Default win over the now withdrawn Minties, and a 78 – 40 win over Canterbury University. They will take on the Wolverines this Saturday followed by Pioneer.
Once the top 6 teams have been found in both the Premier Men’s and Premier Women’s grades there will be a quarter final round on the 2nd of September then the semi-finals on the 16th of September (options for an earlier semi with the 3x3 teams in China). The Grand Finals for all grades will be held on Saturday 23 September.
As well as the regular Basketball competition four of our Premier Men and four Premier Women players will be travelling to China to play in the 3x3 FISU World University League 2017 from the 11 - 19 September, Xiamen, China. After the CBA Finals we move into defending the Men’s title and competing in the Women’s grade at the UTSNZ Basketball Tournament being hosting in Christchurch this year.
The Men’s and Women’s U23 sides are both progressing well on the road to the finals although the U23 Women’s side has a slight blip in proceedings when they went down to UC Maroon by one, 60 – 61 on Sunday. With the notified default during the Uni break against the Wolverines the team is now sitting in 2nd place in the table. They will play UC Gold this Sunday followed by Halswell and the Wolverines for the last two round robin matches. From here they move into the quarter finals on the 3rd of September followed by semis on the 17th and finals on the 23rd if they qualify.
The U23 Men still remain unbeaten after 66 matches and three and a half seasons of ball. They are one match into the Top Six round robin and will play Gators, Checkers, Pioneer, and UC A over the coming weeks before moving into the top four semi-finals on the 16th and Finals on the 23rd if they qualify.
The LU Basketball Club would like to congratulate the Canterbury U23 Men's team on their National U23 Championship victory last week, especially James Cawthorn, Ben and Josiah Williams and Ben Bowie. The Canterbury U23 Women’s team had Lincoln University representatives in the form of Bianca-Raquel Ah-Ken, Caitlin Grice, Lucy Brown and Tessa Stewart Morrison and lost the third place match to Otago.