The Silver of the Student Games
- Published: Monday, 17 May 2021 08:13
Men’s and women’s basketball teams of NMSTU won silver medals of the regional student games.
By participating in the regional student games men’s and women’s basketball teams of NMSTU finished the eventful 2020/21 season. Equally intense matches of the student games were played in Chelyabinsk from the 14th till the 16th of May. Competitors of the Magnitogorsk students were student teams of the Chelyabinsk Region, also playing in the Tankograd division. So, our basketball players knew strengths of competitors well, but sport always involves unpredictable turns. That is a reason why we love sport, don’t we?
Participants of a main group included eight men’s and six women’s teams. However, there were pleasant surprises for our teams already in a quarter-final. The opponent for the quarter final, Steel Wings team, representing the Air Force Academy, got a forfeit defeat (0:20), as they did not arrive on time. The women’s team of NMSTU also overcame a quarter final barrier without any physical effort. According to a tournament bracket, the women’s team, as well as the team from South Ural State University, started directly from the semi-final.
At that stage, the team had to maintain their position on parquet. Both men’s and women’s teams of NMSTU met the team of Chelyabinsk State Universities. The team, shored up the roster with Roman Kryukov and Valery Kolbin playing in adult Metallurg from Superleague-2, faced no big problems in a match with the Chelyabinsk opponents. The Magnitogorsk team did a lot of work to ensure a comfortable margin in the first quarter (38:7), lost the second quarter, but after half-time increased the gap amounting to 104:60. Roman Kryukov said that he was very glad to play in the student team and missed playing away. His match highlights proved his words: he scored 32 points.
The NMSTU women’s team left no chance for opponents from Chelyabinsk State University. The team coached by Valeriya Alimbekova did not lost any quarters and expectedly headed to the finals – 59:33.
“The game was rather good”, considered Valeriya Zagray, a point guard of the NMSTU women’s team, “All the players of our team scored points and tried to respond to the coach’s commands. Sometimes we had failures on the defensive side, but we also implemented fast and successful breakaways”.
Both NMSTU teams took on with basketball players from South Ural State University. The first team to enter parquet was the women’s one presenting a true thriller to all the fans. This was not a final of the Tankograd division, but a short film could be shot. A happy end was for the girls from Chelyabinsk, though. Steel Hearts were leaders along the match, but the last quarter was not in accordance with the NMSTU scenario. The girls earned many fouls and many of them were doubtful. Number of fouls was representative, namely 20:12 for NMSTU. However, if we remember the Tankograd play-off matches, the Magnitogorsk team played much more disciplined. Sofia Grechannikova earned five fouls and early terminated the match. The team played out the final in a group of five players, and at crunch time South Ural State University clinched the match with a 47:52 win.
The men’s team coached by Maxim Sinelnikov played the opponent even in the first quarter, but the opponent began to pull away in the second quarter – 34:48. However hard the Magnitogorsk team tried to restore the balance, in the second half South Ural State University only increased the lead – 56:74.
The NMSTU teams came back with silver medals of the regional student game. Cheer up – the taste of victory will be sweeter in a new, highly anticipated season. The teams will take a break and then there will be a training camp, tryouts and first matches.
