News Update - 2006-07

HCCA Men regain LMBL Premier Division title

Hackney Community College's Men's Basketball team secured the presitigious London Metropolitan Basketball League Premiership title for the 3rd time in 4 years following a comprehensive 90/65 victory over defending champions Camden Knights a SPACe last Friday night. The young side (averaging just 18) then put the icing on the cake the following day with a close fought 84/81 win over Lithuanian BC and now hold an unbeaten 15-0 league record with just 3 matches remaining.

HCCA were never behind against Camden Knights with all 12 players contributing points led by Eddie Morrison with 16 whilst Darrell Bethune, Dave Ajumobi and Tom Hughes all made double figure scores. The match against Lithuanian BC proved a much closer affair. The Academy sprinted out to a 25/14 first-quarter lead with Courtney Van-Beest hitting 9pts. This was reversed in the 2nd stanza as Lithuanians outscored HCCA 28/15 to take a narrow 40/42 lead into the locker room. The second half proved close throughout with the scores tied at 79 going into the final 3mins of the match before Van-Beest, Leigh Cascoe, Eddie Morrison and Darrell Bethune held their nerve from the line to post a 5pt run to edge a 3pt win. Morrison top scored with 27 helped by double figure contributions from Van-Beest, Cascoe, Bethune, Shaz Hussain and Ali Fullah.

HCCA are in LMBL action again at SPACe this Friday when they take on former Middlesex League Champions Rocco's Raiders in the semi-final of the LMBL Cup. This should be a very tight match. The two sides met in a friendly last season with HCCA coming out on top after overtime. The LMBL Cup is the only trophy HCCA Men have entered and not won in 5 years of trying. The closest The Academy came was a narrow defeat in the Final to local rivals White Heat in 2005.

Meanwhile, in the Final of the SESSA Men's Cup, HCCA just failed to make it 6 wins in a row losing to London Southbank University (LSBU) in a tense and thrilling encounter. With neither side ahead by more than 6pts in the entire match, HCCA held a 5pt lead (64/59) going into the final minute. But LSBU's big Senegalise centre Pappa Kasse moved outside to hit a massive trey. LSBU then pressed and forced a foul off a turn-over and HCCA graduate Issac Omirin held his nerve to sink both free-throws to tie the match. Even then, Eddie Morrison had a shot to win the Cup but this rimmed out to sent the Final into overtime. Once more, HCCA held a narrow 2pt lead going into the final minute. However, team foul trouble led to another HCCA old-boy Tophil Kintu leveling the match from the line. Another HCCA foul sent Omirin to the line and he closed out a 77/74 win.

The 16pt contribution from Omirin proved crucial. The ex-HCCA point-guard came up with scores at key times in the match to keep LSBU in contention (including 2 treys). He also kept his cool from the line when other LSBU players were unable to handle the pressure. In what was by no means a dirty match, the officials called a massive 32 fouls on HCCA player sending LSBU to the line for 42 free-throws of which 25 were converted. In contrast, just 19 fouls were called on LSBU leading to 15 free-throws of which HCCA scored 13.

In the SESSA Women's Cup Final, HCCA made it 3in a row with a one-sided demolition of LSBU winning 92/32. Rochelle Davids ended her Academy career in style with 20pts in the match and was given the honour of lifting the trophy.

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