UPAC 2019: Who wins the Universities Basketball Championship?

The battle line have been drawn for the semifinals in the ongoing 2019 Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges (UPAC) Basketball Championship.

University of Ghana (UG), Takoradi Technical University (TTU), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Accra Technical University (ATU) are the teams who have qualified to the last four stage of the competition on Saturday.

Defending champions, UG were the first to book a ticket after topping Group A followed by TTU who sealed their first ever semifinal berth since the inception of the tournament.

UG recorded an impressive win over TTU and Catholic University College before mauling Koforidua Technical University 60-32 in the last group game. Although TTU lost their first game to UG they manage to regain their form to win remaining games to qualify to the next round.

KNUST won all three games to top Group B defeating ATU and Marshalls University College in a magnificent style before crushing Radford University College 43-40 in the last round of games to stay unbeaten. After losing their opening game to KNUST, the two time champions, ATU, bounced back to beat Radford and subsequently Marshalls University 32-27.

The most achieved teams in the championship, UG will square it off ATU in the semis whiles KNUST take on TTU in the other encounter.

University of Ghana are hunting for their 4th trophy having won the championship for three consecutive times, in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The kings from Legon defeated their long standing rivals, ATU in 2016 to win the tourney and edged them out again in next year in the semifinal before proceeding to win the trophy ahead of Marshalls. UG displayed dominance again over ATU last year by beating them to the prestigious trophy for the second time at their home grounds.

ATU won the maiden edition of the Championship following their triumph over University of Education, Winneba and proceeded to live up to expectation by winning the succeeding year after beating KNUST to the spot. The Accra based side have made 4 finals, won 2 and lost 2 to UG.

No team outside the capital have annexed the trophy before since its emergence in 2011, the only team who came close to annexing it was UEW and KNUST. Now the Kumasi giants have the chance of winning it if they are able to shatter the hopes to TTU in their encounter. KNUST missed an opportunity to lift the cup in 2015 following a defeat to ATU. Since then the team has placed third for 3 consecutive times.

TTU on the other hand are not strangers to the championship having placed 3rd in the maiden edition and 4th in 2016. The team has been refreshed with new players who are ready to surprise spectators after being tagged as underdogs in the competition.

As coach Samori looks continue the feats of Mimi Falcona, former coach of UG, all the three teams are determined to break the jinx at the dreaded Legon hard courts to evade UG’s chances of winning their 4th consecutive cup in the presence of an intimidating and charged support base on Saturday.