UEL Men’s first team maintained their winning start to the season, as they defeated 4th place Essex 86-67 at SportsDock.
UEL continued their remarkable form winning all four of their opening games, topping the table on the maximum tally of 12 points and in the process inflicted Essex’s third defeat of the season.
UEL Men’s 1st team are looking like the early title favourites and have stretched their lead at the top of the table, following the 19-point victory over Essex, to three points.
Dominant Start
UEL started strong with a string of two pointers from both Brandon Peel and Justin Black. Black went on to put in a good performance blocking shot after shot from Essex and regaining possession from multiple rebounds where many of UEL’s points came from, demonstrating UEL’s alertness and drive to score.
Black went on to add to the home team’s score with a three-pointer, closely followed by a show-stopping dunk bringing the score to 15-9.
London Lions’ Peel also heavily contributed to UEL’s scoreline started by two free-throws awarded to the home team following a cluster of fouls by the away team, showing their carelessness, which UEL managed to respond well to.
However, UEL also gave away their fair share of fouls throughout the first quarter allowing the opposition to gain on UEL’s lead. Thankfully, UEL’s defence stayed strong throughout the entire game, with Essex failing to take the lead once in the entire match.
The east Londoners maintained a strong defence as their opponents continuously played catch up. By the end of the second quarter UEL had a 15-point lead, with the score sitting at 44-29 to the home side, with two more quarters to go.
Testing Response
Essex came out strong just after half-time scoring the first points of the third quarter from their number 10, Winter. However, Essex’s good break into the third quarter did not last for long as the team continued to give away fouls to UEL.
This gave the home side the chance to keep the scoreboard ticking over with more free throws, which UEL gladly took advantage of.
The tempo of the game started to slow towards the end of the third quarter with fouls constantly breaking up the play.
Combative End
The final quarter got underway with some strong defensive play by UEL, with Jonathan James blocking an Essex shot and later going on to score two points for his side racking the score up to 67-50, with Essex trailing behind by 17 points.
However, play was stopped following an injury to UEL captain and power forward Dzaflo Larkai, after taking an elbow to the face, from one of the Essex players.
Several fouls by Essex, allowed the home side UEL to rack up a collection of points, followed by three-pointers from James and Black.
UEL were not far behind their opponents for giving away fouls, as they away side were awarded numerous free throws in a matter of minutes which allowed Essex to try and claw their way back into the match trailing at 84-67 to UEL.
Unfortunately for them, Essex couldn’t keep UEL at bay with a closing two-pointer from Matt Denham to seal the deal and finish the match 86-67 to the host side UEL.
“Collective Energy”
Rising East spoke to a happy Oluwesi Oyelowo after the game who said: “I think we played really well, especially in the first two quarters we played with a collective energy.”
UEL’s Basketball first team’s start has been commendable and they remain unbeaten this season. Oyelowo believes the team are going in the right direction:
“We are definitely on the right track to even winning the league, we played a lot better than last week, especially defensively…we now understand what the coach wanted us to do.”
UEL go on to face the University of the West of England (UWE) Men’s 1st team, and the East Londoners will be aiming to continue their impeccable form and grab another three points next week.
