UEL Women’s basketball coach Tope Alli-Balogun was slightly critical of individual performances from some of his players as the East London side ran out 55-54 in a tightly fought match in the quarter final of the Women’s Basketball Trophy against Bournemouth University 1st team.
Two periods of overtime were needed at Sports Dock to decide who would advance to the semi-finals of the cup competition.
“We won and it’s always good to get games that are that close, but it shouldn’t have been that close in the first place,” Alli-Balogun said.
Both UEL and Bournemouth were top of their retrospective divisions coming into the game, and both changed their style of play to be more conservative in the face of such tough opposition.
“It’s good to get the win and go through in the cup but we’ve got a lot of work to do and we needed bigger performances out of some players for certain.”
Injuries
UEL have struggled this season with a high number of injuries, and Alli-Balogun revealed that those problems are still lingering for a number of his players.
“Some players like Alex Sasabes and Brenda Kipewu, their bodies are broken at the moment and they were dragging their legs up the court,” Tope explained. “To play six periods of basketball is not easy so it’s a big sacrifice for them, but we needed bigger performances out of some players for certain.”
With the University of Bristol 1st team already confirmed as UEL’s opponents in the semi-final, Alli-Balogun wants to see an improvement from his team.
“The game today was really tough, hopefully it prepares them and gives them a kick-start to practise a bit harder and better because today’s game was tougher than it should have been.
“We should have been comfortable against that team, and we weren’t. We’re going to have tougher competition in the semi-final, so we’ve got to be ready to go.”