The team beat the league’s four time champs in a fast and furious game.
Student Digz B fought through freezing weather and an aggressive match against the Brainwashers to win the 2019 Wits Internal Netball League with a score of 31-27.
The game kicked off with a sluggish start as the bitter cold kept players from playing as fiercely as they could have, considering the high stakes of the match.
. Brainwashers quickly responded with one of their own.
The first quarter was an entertaining game of tit-for-tat as the Brainwashers made sure to equalise any time their opponents scored.
The Brainwashers, clad in gold and green, took the first quarter 8-5.
From the moment the whistle blew to signify the beginning of the second quarter, the change in the players was easy to see.
“They’ve warmed up now, that’s why,” said a spectator.
A pep talk by their coaches after the first quarter may have been enough to motivate the players to battle the cold and their opponents, but there was little they could do to stop the wind from whisking the ball away from the basket just as the crowd was sure it would sink in.
Despite this challenge, Brainwashers opened the quarter with a goal but the tides of the game soon changed.
Student Digz netted goal after goal, ratcheting up nine points to close the quarter with 14 points to their rivals’ 13.
The third quarter mirrored the second and though the scorekeepers were heard marking the Brainwasher’s goalkeeper as the man of the match, Student Digz B’s goal attack Jackie Manzunzu was the clear star of the game.
The crowd’s chant of “Jackie! Jackie!” drowned out every groan by Brainwasher supporters after every goal he netted.
The runners-up grew increasingly desperate and ferocious as the third quarter reached its end, but no amount of rough play and quick snatches of the ball from their opponents could save them from Student Digz B winning the quarter 23-19.
The Brainwashers raced against time in a fast-paced final quarter to catch up before the final whistle blew.
Student Digz B had an answer for every move by their opponents and won the quarter and match by 31-27.
Lwazi Nyathi, Student Digz’s wing defence, said the win was a surprise for the team, which was promoted to the top league at the start of the season.
“Last year we came second and got moved to pool A. We have been training hard and every game we played, we played with our last breath,” she told Wits Vuvuzela.
Brainwashers coach Klaas Mokgomole was visibly disappointed by his team’s loss.
“We have won four titles in a row and this should have been our fifth,” he said. “Our lack of training showed.”
FEATURED IMAGE: Student Digz B were promoted to pool A of the Internal Netball League at the start of the season.
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