LSBU - BUSA Final 8 winners in their HOSANA Teamwear

London South Bank University’s (LSBU) men’s basketball team recently proved the form book wrong to win the (BUSA) Championship at the English Institute of Sport.

The ten - strong team of players travelled to Sheffield on Thursday 13th March to take on seven other qualifiers including the University of Worcester - the winners of the championship for the last three years. LSBU progressed smoothly through both the quarter-final and semi-final rounds knocking out the University of Northumbria and Brunel respectively.

The surprise was not who LSBU faced in the final, but the manner of victory. The Worcester players are also part of a basketball franchise that plays in the top league in the country. Worcester fielded all of their professional players but they still did not prove a match for LSBU players, who led throughout the entire game. The final score was 90-84.

The result comes as a massive achievement. It was only three years ago that the team was competing in tier two of the South East division of BUSA.

Out of the top eight teams, who competed in the National Championship, LSBU and Brunel University are the only two to not have national league club sides, which acknowledges, in part, the success of the Elite Scholarship Programme and excellent partnerships in place within the Academy of Sport at LSBU.

Team players:
Paul Mundy-Castle (captain) (MA Education) - 21 points
Avelino Antonio (BEng Civil Engineering ) - 17 Points
Demba-Kasse (BSc Sport & Exercise Science) - 15 points
Ladi Brown (BA Accounting & Finance) - 13 points
Armand Anebo (BA Business Studies) - 12 points
Laurie Lewis (BEng Electrical Engineering) 8 points
Isaac Omirin (BSc Sport & Exercise Science) - 4 points
Benvido Garcia (BA Accounting & Finance)
David Ajumobi (BSc Sport & Exercise Science)
Jon Johnson (BSc Sport & Exercise Science)

Papa Demba-Kasse was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and was selected for the England University Squad along with Ladi Brown, Armand Anebo and Issac Omirin.

Assistant basketball coach and the Director of the Academy of Sport, Physical Activity and Wellbeing at LSBU said: “Achieving this victory has been the culmination of three years of hard work, setting up partnerships, and supporting our student-athletes. We were delighted and proud to win such a prestigious event against the three time defending champions. The team is very talented and this competition provided the opportunity to see exactly how well we compare with the other HE Basketball programmes."

Ladi Brown was also able to provide a full on commentary of the lead up to their victory, read on…..

This is my version of our epic story:

Our first season in the BUSA premiere league ended with a victory however, we only finished 2nd. An achievement by normal standards but not by ours, the term "runners-up" was disappointing and we would have to hold on to it until next season but our second place meant we qualified for the championship play-offs.

So now, our concern was being ready for this prestigious event, we began with doubling our training schedule which had instant results, we then played numerous friendlies against top England Basketball Division 1 sides e.g. Reading Rockets (current Trophy holders) and reviewed footage of our recent games in an attempt to iron out any last kinks in our armour.

The days flew by and the tournament was soon to be upon us. We had drawn Oxford Brookes in the final 16, a team who had gone undefeated in BUSA divison 1A, has a national league programme and on a previous encounter we had only been victorious by a point. So tensions were high, after a hard fought battle we were victorious by 10 points, LSBU history had been made as we had never qualified for the final 8's before.

Our next test would be at the BUSA Final 8's Championships in Sheffield against Premiership side Northumbria, who had finished 3rd in the Northern Premiere league. They had a few ex-England juniors but lacked in size which we recognised and took full advantage of allowing an easy 68-58 victory.

We knew from the beginning that at some stage we would play Brunel, the team that hung the title of runners-up around our neck and we had been waiting eagerly. Not only was it a grudge match but a spot in the finals was at stake too. Unfortunately the night before, our small forward David Ajumobi had fractured his hand leaving us 1 player short. With all that in mind we were more hyped up than ever. We had a very focused team talk led by coach Andrew Powlesland who reminded us of our previous mistakes. We came into the game with an undefeatble attitude and raced to a 20 point lead at half time and never looked back from there, ending 78-65. We had booked our place in the final and we were 24 hours and 40 basketball minutes away from making BUSA history!

We had already exceeded everyone's expectations maybe even our own, but there was still 1 game left and the title of British University Champions was up for grabs. We were not fazed by Worcester, who were the three times champions 05' 06' 07', had a team competing in the British Basketball League (currently 6th) consisting of some of the UK's best and imported Americans, one of whom leads the league in scoring at 30 points per contest.

The starters from each team were called out and nerves started to show on some but after the first quarter we led by 15 points, this gave us a much needed confidence boosting, we lead by as much as 20 before Worcester began to show why they are current champions, but strong plays from Papa Demba-Kasse, Avelino Antonio and Laurie Lewis coupled with great defensive efforts from Paul Mundy-Castle and Armand Anebo put us back up by 10. The game then went back and forth and was closed out by Isaac Omirin and Ladi Brown with some smart passing.

The final buzzer went and we couldn't believe we had just dethroned the champions by 6 points (90-84) and achieved the status of British University Champions, the cheer from the crowd was deafening, we all ran into the centre circle and celebrated some with shouts a few with tears from Laurie Lewis and Ladi Brown. Then, the Most Valuable Player award was given to Papa Demba Kasse, with runners up Ladi Brown and Paul Mundy-Castle just missing out.

Winning this tournament doesn't just give us silverware but entry to the European University's Championship being held in Serbia in July. The fact that in three years we have changed a tier 2 team into the best team in the UK is a story on its own.

The term "runners-up" has been completely forgotten... a flash of our potential has been shown!

Full results from the weekend