As the automatic doors to the reception creep open, you’re greeted by Nas’ The World is Yours – there’s no need to read the signs telling you where basketball varsity is taking place. Overflowing rows of fans line the railings after the crowds of players who had already played their game had descended on the few chairs behind each hoop. Chants of ‘defence, defence’ ring out loud enough to drown out the silky voice of the announcer at mid-court, while the cries of ‘MONEY’ upon each made three-pointer are louder still. In this moment, it doesn’t feel like a cramped sports hall somewhere near the Cotswolds, but an arena fit for gladiatorial duel. But Oxford switched out their swords, spears and nets for brooms and buckets as all four teams competing against Cambridge walked away victorious.
While some games were more one-sided, the day was littered with dramatic moments from beginning to end. None more so than the conclusion of the game between the Women’s Second teams. After what had been a low-scoring defensive thriller in which momentum had fluctuated to and fro throughout, Rebecca Smausz came up clutch to secure the win for Oxford. Her floater from the baseline looked to take the game away from Cambridge, but the real final moment came after she tracked back and covered Cambridge’s fastbreak. She simply stole the ball off of the Cambridge player as the buzzer sounded and jubilation immediately ensued.
Both men’s teams blew Cambridge comfortably out of the water, with a combined +32 point differential between the two as M2 walked away 74-60 winners and M1’s offence put up 87 on a Cambridge side that battled hard owing to the efforts of Alex Ramsay. But as I mentioned before, basketball is a sport where games can be decided when one player takes over and it was a ‘masterclass’ from Brian Amabilino-Perez that took the game away from Cambridge. Although Amabilino-Perez stole the headlines (at least on the official Oxford basketball Instagram account), he was supported well by the likes of captain Justin Hadad and Martin Moreno-Delgado.
The final game of the day was the clash between the Women’s Blues, Oxford being led out by captains Lauryn Foster and Ruby Luzzatto. With the sweep on the line, and chants of ‘get your brooms out’ repeated by the likes of M2 on both sides of the court, it fell to the women to get it done and wrap up the day. That they did in style. Tahri Phillips and Lorenza Prospero immediately took over the game, and while the whole team put in a fantastic shift to keep Cambridge out of touching distance, it was those two that were swarmed at the final whistle with chants of ‘MVP, MVP’. Sienna Tounger flew under the radar for parts of the game, but came through with a momentum-grabbing three that stemmed the flow of what had been a concerning run for Cambridge in the fourth quarter.
While she may have put one to the sword on the court, both sides owe a lot to Tahri Phillips, who was critical in the organisation of the day, which was certainly a spectacle worthy of the oldest game of British basketball. From DJs to Kappa-sponsored limited time stash, it will go down in modern Oxford basketball history as THAT year that they won it all.
