University of Leeds basketball team lose in the cruellest possible way in a tightly fought match against their bitter rivals.

The University of Leeds suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Leeds Becket, the game finishing an extremely close 65-63.

As the match commenced, Leeds Beckett applied continuous pressure at every opportunity. This gave them a strong advantage, as they were able to steal the ball and break down the pitch. 

Whilst the University of Leeds were not short of chances, they couldn’t capitalise on their opportunities, which prevented them chasing the score.

During the second quarter, Yipeng Zhang had a brilliant layup which was blocked by Beckett, and the score line remained close. 

The University of Leeds were 28-34 down to their rivals, with both sides counter-attacking fiercely. Both the home and away crowd were cheering on their team, with both sides completely evenly matched.

The support seemed to ignite the Uni Of, who were now shooting more diversely, especially through jump shots. 

Nevertheless, we missed a lot of free throws, which resulted in us only having 54% free throw percentage. This allowed Leeds Beckett, whom were more accurate throughout the game to secure the victory.

‘It’s the first time we have all played as a team this semester’, the University of Leeds basketball president, Elliott acknowledged. 

‘We have a lot of freshers playing, along with returning students so we didn’t have enough time to train. However I’m impressed with our performance today.’

The captain of our team also spoke to us, who claimed ‘We will spend time to solve the mistakes we made during the game. But everyone already tried their best.’ 

Such enthusiasm to rectify the team’s errors suggests the University of Leeds basketball team are driven to succeed this year and will return next year for revenge.