Women's
After what was a disappointing loss on Monday night, our women’s team were in a do-or-die situation where they had to win this game if they wanted a chance at playing finals. Unfortunately for them, their opponents, the University of Tasmania were undefeated and had no plans on giving up yet.
UTAS came out strong to begin with, Zoe Banks proving to be a threat early. She showed us she could handle the ball and shoot threes off the dribble.
Josephine Pinkerton was also good inside.
Without Hayley Cumming on court for Melbourne Uni, they struggled to get through offensive sets, and more noticeably, they struggled to get the ball up the court. An intense UTAS full-court press resulted in a whopping number of turnovers.
When they were able to get it over half court, Melbourne Uni found a way to put scores on the board, but not nearly as many as Utas.
As the deficit approached 40 points, the girls were losing confidence, and it was expected to be a long remainder of the game.
A nice surprise was the bench players who were able to provide a spark. There was a definite lift in intensity from the Melbourne Uni team that started in defence and as a result, enabled them to produce some excellent offence. Aimee Wookie added a nice five points to her name and Ariyel Edwards also found some offensive rhythm, opting for the running floater and spin moves over the deep three.
Despite going down by a significant margin, to an undefeated UTAS team, the women were able to fight back late and finish the game down by significantly less than anticipated.
Men's
Riding the high of their comeback win over the University of Sydney, our Melbourne Uni men’s team had another tough opponent to face.
They started their game against the University of Tasmania a lot better than they had against USYD, but it was still slow on the scoring front, only managing 12 points in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, it was Harvey Moore off the bench who provided a quick spark with a flurry of points. But for UTAS, it was Izach Collins who stretched the floor with his three point shooting, knocking down and easy three triples.
After another slow start, Wilson Amos was back in rhythm and his middies continued to drop. This was until he faced a hard fall to the ground and had to leave the game with a suspected wrist injury.
The short break in play saw Melbourne Uni lose a little bit of momentum, but James Avgerinos was quick to change that, he ended the game as top scorer.
The game remained close, but multiple tech fouls called on the UTAS team meant that not only did some of their players fouled out, but that Melbourne Uni were repeatedly sent to the foul line.
Holding on by seven points, Melbourne Uni finished Round 6 two from two.