The international students have been playing basketball for a little over a year and a half, but their first competitive match came on Wednesday 17th March at the Vetrnik Indoor Courts against the Czech Team whom had the Dean of the faculty playing for them. Preparations for the Internationals could not have gone any worse; the team had been ravaged by niggling injuries, coupled together with the long term injury of Vishal Kakkar, player coach Tariq Kwaees, whom was also out with an injury, had to settle for a makeshift line-up. The starting five players, Captain Jonas Hermann, Paul Waschk, Spyros Drakopoulos, Alex Lazaridis and Stefan Pinkava had their hands full, as the first quarter saw them produce an uncohesive performance ending 17–7 down. The passing, marking and shooting were woeful and could have been attributed to first big game nerves. The break brought about a verbal tirade from Jonas to rally his troops after an insipid first quarter performance. Substitutes Ray Krishnan, Fabia Cerqueira and Jerry John were brought on to freshen things up.
A much better second quarter performance was seen, with the Internationals passing and moving a lot better, with the overall offensive play of decent quality. With the quarter drawing to a close, the Internationals had cut back the deficit to 6 points and they looked to be ending the half on a high until a 5 point salvo from the Czechs burst that bubble. The Czechs led 27–16.
The third quarter started in similar vein as the second had ended, with the Internationals on top determined to draw level, but the Czechs continually sucker punched the Internationals by countering very quickly on the break, and only two 3 pointers from Spyros kept the Internationals within any sort of distance. With both teams tiring rolling substitutes were being used liberally. The third quarter came to a close with the Czechs leading the Internationals 39–27.
The fourth quarter from the Internationals was superb and they were playing like they had nothing to lose, two more 3 pointers from Spyros and one from Paul drew the Internationals close, but in the end it was not enough; the Czechs won a highly challenging match 54–43. With their hearts pumping and sweat dripping the Internationals made a fair account of themselves. The rematch has been made.
14th April when the Internationals will be beat the Czechs.
Man Of The Match: Spyros Drakopoulos
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