| Men's Blues News | |||
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| Date | News | Posted By | |
| 04/03/2007 15:16:32 | Men's Blues qualify for third consecutive Final 8' Men's Blues beat Northumbria 74-72 in overtime to qualify for the National Final 8s tournament. The Blues spent a night in Sheffield preparing for the game and arrived in Newcastle determined to cause an upset. Northumbria had previously only lost at home to title favourite Worcester. After a patchy start, the Blues quickly found their rhythm, building a 14 point lead in the second quarter. In the second half, Northumbria slowly fought back and Blues' lead was reduced to 4 points with one minute to play. Northumbria then made a three-pointer, stole the ball and got fouled. Only one of the two free throws was made, however. The Blues got the ball back and Northumbria fouled them with 9 seconds to play. Michael Causey of St.Hughs made both free throws to put his side up by two, but Northumbria stormed back to tie the game with a tough hook shot at the buzzer. Northumbria dominated the first minutes of the overtime, but the Blues, led by some timely shooting from Univ's Dan Woodbridge, eventually pulled ahead and won by the narrowest of margins 74-72. The Blues head to Sheffield on March 9-11 for the BUSA finals. With a Varsity win in the bag, they now get a chance to improve on the 7th and 5th place performances of the previous two seasons. Drawing Brunel as their quarterfinal opponents, the Blues are up against a formidable side that has won 5 of 7 encounters over the past three seasons. With the confidence from their big win in Newcastle, however, the Blues are ready to take on the challenge. |
Pat | |
| 16/11/2006 19:39:38 | Oxford Blues 76, Brunel 79 OXFORD – With 10 seconds left on the clock, the Oxford Blues Men’s Basketball team was down by 3 and had possession of the ball. The Blues got the ball to their point guard, who fired up a heavily-defended 3 pointer. The shot was on target, but the ball bounced off the back of the rim sending the Blues home with another close defeat. Déjà vu? Yes indeed. Two games ago the Blues missed a 3 pointer in the final seconds that would have sent the game into overtime against Middlesex. The Blues, led by Jonny Wright, Chris McCallum, Pete Anderson, Maher Bitar and Dan Woodridge, kept the game close throughout and managed to secure a one point lead at halftime against Brunel, the number one team in the conference. However, they had trouble containing Brunel’s two-headed monster—the penetration and sure shots of their two stars Rousoupoulis and Khatain. In the first half, the Blues got into foul trouble early against the Brunel stars. In the second half, however, the Blues stayed out of foul trouble, but ironically this was to their disadvantage. With 25 seconds left in the game, the Blues needed to stop the clock. Normally this late in the game a foul would have sent the opposing team to the free throw line and a subsequent change of possession would be the likely outcome. But, in order to get the foul penalty, the Blues needed to foul 4 times in the final 25 seconds. By the time the 5th foul sent Brunel to the charity stripe, half that time remained. It was a heated game, with both teams issued technical fouls—for swearing by the Blues and for touching an out-of-bounds player by Brunel. Brunel narrowly escaped two more technical fouls. The first, when Khatain threw the ball at Blues guard Patrick Premand. The second, when another Brunel player slammed the ball down against the court. The Blues look for their first home win next week against St Mark & St John. |
Josh Fisher | |
| 16/11/2006 19:38:18 | Oxford Blues 109, Southampton Solent 78 SOUTHAMPTON – The Oxford Blues Men’s Basketball (1-3) team got their first win of the season, and what a win it was. In the first half alone, the Blues outscored their opponent 46 to 22. So, naturally, the team felt they could use some improvement in the second half. They picked up their intensity to score more than double their first-half score. The Blues’ season high 109 points are the season leading record for the entire conference. “We’ve got 12 guys who can really play,” said co-captain Mike Rivers-Bowerman. Blues coach, Dr. Josh Fisher, in his first coaching game, played his bench and played them often. The result? Seven players in double-digit scoring and nine of eleven players on the scoreboard. The Blues defensive intensity was electric during the first half. They pushed the ball all night thanks to blistering defense and commanding domination on the boards. Southampton Solent was forced to turn the ball over and take poor shots again and again. And, by the even scoring distribution, the Blues shared the ball, trusted in their teammates, and played solid team basketball. The team had a bit of a scare when a Southampton Solent player got his feet tangled up with Blues guard Woodbridge while running downcourt. Woodbridge was knocked forward with his body twisting in the air landing hard on the court. The team emotion went from a fear of injury to a fear of landing their traditional technical foul as Woodbridge jumped to his feet and approached the referee angrily for not calling a foul on Southampton Solent. Fortunately, everyone kept their cool and play resumed as normal shortly thereafter. Notes The Blues team arrived at last year’s Southampton Solent court, apprehensive about the poor condition from their previous year’s experience. The court was in worse condition that they expected – it was currently being torn up in renovation. Fortunately, they arrived early and found the new court with time to spare. |
Josh Fisher | |
| 24/08/2005 09:39:00 | BUSA Fixtures 2005-06 The Fixtures for the BUSA league have now been added to the site and can be viewed here: Men's Blues Women's Blues Men's Twos |
John | |
| 13/03/2005 10:01:57 | Read Cherwell Online story Read Cherwell Online's story of Oxford's exposure of Manchester and their disqualification from BUSA championships |
Admin | |
| 06/03/2005 14:49:58 | BUSA Final 8's With a 78-65 loss to UWIC to begin the tournament, the Blues finished with a 79-63 victory over Northumbria. This ranks the Blues #7 nationally. Against Brunel on Saturday, the Blues received good play from Brian Cook hitting short range jumpers and defending big men. Graham Ewen hit key baskets and used his physical strength to keep Brunel’s inside players away from the goal. The Blues will be without Cook and Ewen next season, as they complete their Mhil and Dhil degrees, respectively. Unfortunately, the Blues fell to Brunel 70-69 from a game-winner by Brunel’s point guard. In the final match of the season against Northumbria, Woodbridge and Wright continued their top perimeter play with penetration to the basket, solid passes inside, and long-range jumpers. P. Premand also had an exceptional tournament performance with outstanding three-pointers throughout. Chris McCallum contributed very well at the high-post. Encouragingly, Christian Burckhardt played effective defense on some of the top players in BUSA. K. Townsend handled the ball well on the perimeter and contributed with assists. Decker Walker played tough defense as well and Matt Bloem scored consistently against Northumbria. A very pleasant surprise against Northumbria came with the intensity of freshers Dave Riley and Tommy Duncan. They have set the tone for the Blues next season. |
Admin | |
| 02/03/2005 12:00:23 | Men's Blues make national finals The Men’s Blues team have progressed to the final 8 of the BUSA national championships in controversial circumstances. Oxford progressed after a formal complaint was upheld that University of Manchester fielded illegal players in the play-off game held at Iffley road on Wednesday 23rd February. Oxford travel to Sheffield on Friday and begin their campaign against UWIC with a 5pm tip-off time scheduled. |
Admin | |
| 14/02/2005 22:53:39 | Varsity Match 2005 The 2005 Varsity Match was well fought by both sides. The first-half ended in the low twenties in a match that might at first appear sloppily played. However, while the low score may in part be due to a poor shooting performance by Oxford, it was also due to a good defensive effort by Cambridge. The standstill could also have occurred because both teams were well prepared for the match, resulting in defenses that were able to predict offensive plays in half-court sets. In the second-half, Cambridge secured a 12-point lead at one stage and it was not until well into the final quarter that Oxford rose to the challenge and started to fight back, cutting the lead to 50-53. Cambridge broke the full-court pressure in the final minute and the game ended 50-59. This is the second year in a row that Cambridge has defeated the Blues. Last year's victory ended one of the longest winning streaks in varsity competitions. The Blues are now faced with the excruciating task of picking themselves up for the BUSA tournament. Oxford fans can only hope the team will use the loss as a positive motivating factor for the tourney. And as the first round of NCAA March Madness will soon prove, during tournament time, anything can happen. |
Admin | |
| 09/02/2005 19:16:20 | Oxford upsets Southampton Inst. 86-79 After just 7 seconds of play, a bizarre injury occurred to a Southampton Institute (7-3) player who banged his hand on a protruding piece of iron hanging off the backboard. Play was stopped, the backboard was fixed, and play resumed after approximately 10-15 minutes. From then on, it was a well-fought match by both sides. Oxford now moves to 6-4 on the year. The first half saw Chris McAllum hitting key jumpers while K. Townsend ran the show at point. Oxford trailed by one entering the second half. Veterans Graham Ewen and Brian Cook played well underneath making solid passes, rebounding, and hitting needed baskets. Matt Bloem rebounded strong for the Blues. In the end, Jonny Wright stepped up big for the blues taking over the game in the mid-third quarter raining threes and penetrating to the hole. Patrick Premand also made several key 3-pointers again this game. The Blues will play Cambridge this Sunday (Feb. 13th) at 4pm away. It is a very long-awaited rematch. Woodbridge will be returning (was out this game) so the Blues should be even stronger on Sunday. The Blues are going to enter the game determined, confident but not overly, and ready to play, seriously ready to play. |
Admin | |
| 02/02/2005 21:00:48 | Oxford 73, Brunel 59 The Blues got off to a strong start and persisted with tough defensive play throughout the match. Woodbridge got into foul trouble early in the first half, but Wright and Chris M. picked up the slack with several long-range jumpers. Matt Bloem contributed with strong moves to the basket and key rebounds. Ken Townsend finished the half with superb ball-handling. In the second half, the blues kept a ten point lead till the game ended. Pat Premand hit huge 3-point field goals to keep the lead. Brian Cooke also played extremely well to finish the game and Woodbridge returned with good play at the shooting guard position. Promisingly, the blues played tremendously well as a team and will be well-prepared for next week's match-up to finish the BUSA regular season. |
Admin | |