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KUKRI POWER 4 INVITATIONAL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

The University of Birmingham hosted the second Kukri Power 4 Invitation Tournament on Wednesday 4th February with defending Champions London South Bank University joining Leeds Carnegie, Loughborough and hosts Birmingham in a rousing display of highly skilful student basketball.

As a pre-cursor to the forthcoming British University and College Sport Championships, all four teams were keen to check out each other's strengths and weaknesses.

In game 1 the hosts took on Leeds Carnegie to get the competition underway and found the going tough trying to match the strength in depth of the Carnegie outfit with Leeds prevailing by 69-45 margin.  The star of the show for Leeds was Istvan Herczeg who went for 29 points including 5 from beyond the arc.

Reigning National Champions London South Bank were initially taken by surprise by a spirited Loughborough team high in energy and commitment. Weathering the storm South Bank stepped up their game in the second half to extinguish the Loughborough enthusiasm and cantered home by 65-36.

Next up South Bank were then pitched against the University of Birmingham with former - GB International Julius Joseph swishing three 3-pointers before the home side could even register their first point.  It looked like being an uphill struggle and it was. However, Birmingham adjusted to slow down the South Bank juggernaut and performed well to keep in touch particularly in the second quarter.

After the break South Bank relied on their superior size and athleticism to push ahead to win comfortably by 60-42. Julius Joseph led all scorers with 18 points.  For Birmingham Andy Blakeway has 15 points.  In this game we also got to see Daniel Segoin for the first time and he started off with 9.

Next up was Leeds Carnegie in their match against old rivals Loughborough. The short-handed Loughborough five now had more help but were unable to contain the relentless Carnegie teamwork. 

Aki Fagbohun was on fire, scorching the nets for a massive 30 points in a runaway 81-45 victory.  Badra Badau led the scoring for Loughborough with 15 while Ren Shiang Jiang added 13.

The Men's competition had a break whilst the lady students took to the court with the University of Birmingham entertained Nottingham Trent University.

The first half was hotly contested with the lead changing hands seven times. However in the second half the deadly accuracy of the Trent sharpshooters left Birmingham in the shade as Trent ran out winners by 66-47.

The penultimate game was the Championship game and saw the tournament super powers lock horns for the tournament title. The first half was nip and tuck as neither team was able to draw away and the honours were even at the interval 21 a piece.   

Fagbohun of Leeds Carnegie was the leading scorer but the defensive intensity  meant that points were hard to come by for both teams.

South Bank started the third period with a 12-3 burst with Joseph once again leading the charge. He would drain 10 points including 2 from beyond the arc. 

Despite their resilience and determination Carnegie were not able to rein in the rampant Londoners.  This meant that South Bank under Head Coach Andy Powlesland, would retain the tournament trophy with a hard fought for 55-45 win.

Kukri Birmingham Sales Manager, Will Hemming was on hand to present the Kukri Cup and the voucher for £1,000 of Kukri merchandise.

The organisers would like to thank all the participants, Mike Shaft, Will Hemming and sponsors Kukri GB for making the tournament such a highly successful event.