Cambridge 60 - 76 Warwick

After their tour to Serbia, where the Blues basketball team lost all four of their matches, the squad returned to a difficult challenge. They would need to reinvigorate their side if they wanted to win either of their remaining BUCS matches against strong Warwick and Oxford Brookes teams.

In the first of these, Cambridge faced Warwick, who are the top side in the division. When writing about the defeats in the recent tour captain, Richard Martin said, “As a learning experience, lessons don’t come much better than that!” But the lessons were evidently not enough, as Warwick rose to a 76-60 victory.

Puzovic, the Serbian forward from Jesus, helped the Blues open and close the first quarter with points, and his unstoppable play kept them three points up at the buzzer.

Despite this, some sloppy passing and poor decision-making were punished by Warwick and the home side were never able to open up a points gap.

Soon Cambridge were being outworked all over the court and despite losing the lead they battled on for the next 20 minutes to keep the score within eight points.

In the crucial fourth quarter, Cambridge failed to put pressure on the away side and never managed to mount a challenge on the league leaders.

A disappointed Martin said, “This was a hard blow for the coaching team and committee to take, as Cambridge normally leaves everything on the court regardless of the result.”

With Varsity coming up in February, the Blues have a hard month ahead of them. Although it may seem like the Blues are being forced to take on all of their biggest challenges in one go, Oxford Brookes, who beat Cambridge 86-66 earlier in the season, will be the best warm-up possible for the real thing.