Road to Roses: Basketball

Last year basketball was one of the most closely fought sports at Roses, with both men’s 1sts and women’s 1sts matches going right down to the wire. This year, the York basketball teams are looking to have a much more straightforward weekend by recording comfortable victories. But can they manage it?

The men’s team will certainly have their work cut out if they are to overturn last year’s narrow defeat at Roses.

Lancaster have one of the strongest teams in the country, residing currently in BUCS Northern 1A, where they finished mid-table this year. York, meanwhile, sit in Northern 4B.

Yet to give York no chance would be unfair. In 2012, only six points separated the two sides at the end of their Roses clash.

And for this year, they have been working hard to integrate themselves more as a team, rather than a group of individuals. If it works out, it could be the difference between a disappointing day and a memorable one.

The gulf between the sides in women’s basketball is not nearly as stark, but Lancaster will probably enter the weekend as narrow favourites.

The red rose have secured promotion from Northern 2A after losing only one league game all season.

Our own girls finished 5th in the parallel league Northern 2B, though this would have been higher had it not been for points deductions incurred across the season.

Last year, though, it was York who came out on top, and they fully intend to repeat that feat this time around.

“It will be a tough game to win, [but] we want a win more than ever this year!” women’s president Janne Billiet told Vision.

“We have had a lot of new players join the team this year, which took some getting used to in the beginning. We have come a long way though since our first training.”

The basketball matches are all on Sunday, and could turn out to be pivotal in this year’s tournament which is expected to be very close. The women tip off in the morning in the Main Hall, before the back-to-back men’s 2nds and 1sts matches in the sports tent in the afternoon.