Gerke's best beats Hugh's
Women's Basketball Cuppers Final
Corpus Christi 43, St Hugh's 41
THIS YEAR'S women's basketball competition ended in a quite extraordinary game at Iffley Road on Wednesday, which saw a seemingly well-drilled Hugh's team collide with a perhaps less skillful Corpus team, lead by German superstar Stefanie 'MVP' Gerke writes Ben Wong.
The contrast in style between the teams could not have been greater. Corpus ran everything through Blues point guard Gerke, who handled the ball on every possession, coached and captained the team, took most of the shots and dominated on both ends of the floor. Hugh's, conversely looked a team where all the duties were shared. Coached by men's university players Raphael Mokades and Carl Phillips, absent in hospital at the time of the final, Hugh's saw as many as five players (Helen Lawson, Claire Gifford, Sally Wetten, Jo Zhuang and Jess Metcalf) share point guard duties having gone ten or eleven deep during the course of the season.
On Wednesday the two teams, one the epitome of collectivism and the other, "the embodiment of the Fuhrerprinzip", both hitherto undefeated, finally clashed. The central focus of the game was beautifully simple: could Hugh's, widely acknowledged as far the better team, stop the outstanding individual Gerke? Which would triumph, team ethos or individual brilliance?
A sizeable crowd watched the action unfold. Initially it seemed that the occasion had got to the less experienced Hugh's guards, as Lawson and Gifford made a series of unforced errors, and Corpus jumped out to a 6-3 lead. However, the North Oxford side gradually clawed its way back behind some strong interior play from Miatta 'Shaq' Fahnbulleh and Jo Zhuang. Fahnbulleh's three-point play as the halftime buzzer sounded, gave Hugh's a 19-18 lead after twenty minutes. The Hugh's box-and-one and triangle-and-two defences were working well at containing Gerke, with Helen Lawson doing an outstanding job on the smaller, quicker, stronger Blues player.
The second half began in similar fashion as Hugh's stretched their lead to six. But disaster struck as Blues forward Jo Zhuang picked up her third foul. As she headed to the bench, Hugh's morale wilted visibly, and Corpus perked up and began eating into the lead, with Gerke driving to the hole or else finding her teammates for open layups under the basket. Bad went to worse when Lawson, who had become Hugh's defensive sparkplug, injured her ankle and was forced to leave the game. Gifford took over defensive duties on Gerke but the damage had been done: the German was now rampant. Hugh's had let the genie out of the lamp, the always vocal Corpus crowd was going crazy, and their team soon tied the game up.
Time out Hugh's, six minutes left, scores level. Coach Mokades reinserted Zhuang and Lawson - the former one foul (Cuppers allows four instead of the usual five) from elimination, the latter clearly injured but insisting she would play on - in one last desperate throw of the dice. And initially it worked. Zhuang lifted her team with some superb high post play and provided solid defence. Hugh's reestablished a lead. But with ninety seconds left and Hugh's up by three, Gerke drove the lane and collided with the apparently stationary Zhuang. Ref Diego Angemi whistled the Shanghai-born forward for her fourth foul and, despite her vocal protestations of innocence, she was gone. And with her, perhaps, the hopes of St Hugh's...
Sure enough, Corpus levelled up the game and as time expired it appeared there could be only one winner. Going into overtime Hugh's looked tired and battered and Corpus seemed irresistible. One ray of hope for Mokades' team, however, was the fact that Stef Gerke was on three fouls. One more and she would be gone, and Hugh's would surely win the game.
Overtime, however, saw Hugh's raise their game another notch. Fahnbulleh made a huge basket inside and, after a Corpus miss, Metcalf drove the lane and collided with Gerke. Hugh's hopes were raised - would their most feared adversary be gone? No, no call, and, at the other end of the floor, Gerke finds a teammate for a wide-open layup. Time runs out. Overtime part two.
Baskets are traded and the tension is almost unbearable. With forty seconds left, Metcalf takes a huge defensive board and lopes down the right side of the court. Gerke, lying prostrate on the floor, instinctively grabs her as she goes past. Metcalf hits the deck, the whistle blows, and Hugh's begin celebrating. With Corpus' floor leader gone, the game is theirs. But no. Hugh's are awarded the ball, but no foul is called on anyone, and Gerke remains in the game. Hugh's miss, and Gerke has the ball again. Thirty seconds. Twenty. Ten. She holds for the final shot. With eight seconds left she makes her move. An exhausted Lawson is beaten off the dribble and the Blues star somehow finds her way through Hugh's box defense, and puts up a layup that, with two seconds left in the game, drops through the net. Corpus win. A triumph for Oxford's best woman basketball player, and the end of a dream for St Hugh's.