Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
University of York Men’s 1sts 66 – 74 University of Leeds Men’s 2nds
Leeds’ quick start, putting eight points on the board before York could reply with a three by Marcus Johansson, set the tone for the game. York managed to sink some more points during the first quarter, but a combination of Leeds’ superior zone defence – which shut down any interior offence by York – and a fast-passing offensive double-act between the two guards, which broke down the York zone defence all too easily, saw Leeds finish the first quarter thirteen points ahead.
A flagging York team was reinvigorated by Deniz Ekren, Sergio Black, Rodrigo Donadi, and Johansson in the second quarter. All four played aggressively, Ekren and Donadi causing the first real problems for Leeds under the basket, Johansson using his strength to drive through the gaps in the zone, and Black causing serious problems with his strong hustle on defence.
However, as the game became more physical, the inevitable happened: York went over the team foul limit during the second quarter, something they would go on to repeat in the next two quarters. Nevertheless, this did not prevent York from closing the gap to nine points, ending the half 36 – 27 behind.
The third quarter started in similar fashion to the second. Within two minutes, Leeds had outscored York 6 – 0, particularly thanks to their ability to grab offensive rebounds, and it looked as if all the hard work put in by York in the second would be negated straight away.
In fact this proved not to be the case. Samuel Bentley and Johansson rose to the occasion, scoring over half of York’s points between them, to keep York in the game on offence. Defensively, a misfiring Leeds could not capitalise on their early successes and, through their inability to score with the regularity they showed in the first half, allowed York to pull back to within 7 points by the end of the third.
The fourth quarter brought some serious déjà vu, as again Leeds scored the first points but York quickly rallied to strike back, bringing themselves within four points of the lead with just six minutes remaining. Sadly though, York’s foul trouble finally caught up with them.
The physical defence they showed in the second quarter had petered out by the fourth, as more and more players began to pick up three or four fouls (the limit being five before the player must be substituted). This caused York’s zone to weaken when tasked with defending close to the basket, thus allowing Leeds’s centre to come alive in the third, making his presence felt, and by the fourth he had begun scoring with worrying regularity.
To taunts of, “You can’t stop me!” York’s Brendan Moran became visibly infuriated and was replaced by a surprisingly quiet David Nalton with two minutes left in the game. And despite initially closing the gap, York were unable to take control of the game.
It's a big blow to lose to a team we have already beaten.
Donadi continued his strong play, grabbing rebounds, stealing the ball, and scoring close to the basket, whilst Johansson sunk two late three pointers under pressure, but to no avail. Leeds kept control of the game and eventually won by their initial leading margin of eight points.
Speaking after the match, captain Dane Vishnubala commented, “We had a poor start and let slip too many schoolboy turnovers, but we did recover to play some very good basketball. The boys hustled hard, so it's a big blow to our season to lose to a team we have already beaten once.”
The frustration shown by Moran was felt by many other York players as well. York played really hard in their attempt to regain the lead throughout the match but, although they had a lot of heart, they could not repeat their victory of a week ago. Nonetheless, sitting third in the table at Christmas - having played only half the number of games of their rivals - York's men can be happy with their campaign so far.
Sheffield Hallam University Women’s 2nds 17 – 58 University of York Women’s 1sts
On the road this week, York’s ladies brought home an easy win, despite not playing the most orthodox game of basketball. With no substitutes and playing a much shorter match than usual, York did well to win the game by such a large margin.
A miscommunication between the two teams led to York arriving in Sheffield thirty minutes after the game should have commenced, restricting the to match to quarters of seven minutes rather than the usual ten. And this was not the only problem York faced. For a second time they were only able to field five players with, amongst others, Daphne Barkshire missing due to illness.
Had this been a more competitive game, York could have easily had problems, but they didn’t. Taking the lead from the start, York stayed in front with ease throughout the game. President Kate Smith netted 15 points and Marta Marscionkaite doubled that with a marvellous 30, constantly grabbing offensive rebounds and breaking through the Hallam defence with ease.
Smith did note that Hallam were actually playing better than they did in their first encounter, in which York stormed to a triple figures victory, but again the opposition simply weren’t good enough. An easy win for the women, in strong contrast to the men’s game, finished their term on a high note, climbing to second in the table just in time for the holidays.
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