The Alan Paton Hall was busy on Saturday as the players and spectators from hosts Maritzburg College and visitors Westville enjoyed the competitive basketball.

No less than 18 matches were played, which is a tremendous collective effort of all those involved. Of the 18 matches, College won 10 and Westville 8. Of the 4 “premier category” matches, College won 3 (1sts, U16A and U14A) while Westville won 1 (U15A).

College first team coach Zinhle Cele reports that the long-time rivalry with Westville provided a good start to the season.

“Shaking the cobwebs off, College won a number of the day’s  junior games, which set a nice pace for the open teams.”

Zinhle said the College second team suffered a disappointing loss (39-24) which made the first team more determined than ever to work towards a welcome victory.

The teams were evenly matched in the opening exchanges with neither side able at that stage to pull away significantly from their opponents on the scoreboard .

“No side held the lead for too long in the first quarter and it looked for a while as though it would be a close final score.”

Into the second quarter of the match Maritzburg started to pull away.

“With an impressive defensive play by Mbonambi and Mthimkhulu, and hard-to-stop fast breaks from the likes of Sithole and Janse van Rensburg, Maritzburg College were able to establish a promising lead,” said Zinhle.

And once College’s rising star Henman got into the swing of things it became clear that the home side were not going to falter.

Henman added a hefty 17 points from the scoring opportunities that came his way.

SCORES
(from the Maritzburg College perspective)
1sts won 71-56; 2nd lost 24-39; 3rd lost 20-27; 4th lost 19-27.
U16A won 24-18; U16B won 27-15; U16C lost 18-26; U16D lost 19-20.
U15A lost 28-30; U15B lost 20-25; U15C lost 18-28; U15D won 18-15; U15E won 27-2.
U14A won 20-8; U14B won 21-4; U14C won 22-6; U14D won 18-6; U14E won 31-6.
* College won 1 out of 4 of the senior age group matches.
* College won 2 and lost 2 of the U16 matches.
* College won 2 out and lost 3 of the U15 matches.
* College 5 of the 5 matches in the U14 category.