Paris 2002 Entre2Basket Tournament

PRESS RELEASE: 30 April 2002

The year of the games

In their first international tournament this year, London Cruisers women fought a hard battle against a tough team from Paris, to win the Entre2Basket. In the "Eurovision Song Contest" in the evening Diva Yvonne lead the women to success with ‘We are Family’.

In the lead up to the Sydney Gay Games in November, the London Cruisers Basketball team entered their second tournament in Paris hosted by Entre2Basket. On Sat 27th April, two women’s teams from London were amongst the 18 international teams, including a team from Washington, playing in a well-organised and hard-fought competition. This year the Cruisers had built up sufficient numbers and with league experience entered twice as many teams as last year, when the women were runners up.

After six harrowing games, the pressure was on as the Cruisers A team took on the stronger of the two Paris teams in the competition.

After a flying start, the Cruisers took the lead. With brilliant defensive rebounding from both Faeza and Laura, Paris were under pressure from the start as each of their shots failed to go in. The London team’s score was further increased following a couple of well-timed steals from Ade. The team seemed to tire coming up to the break and Paris came back slightly, leaving only a gap of 4 points at half time. After the break, the combination of Debbie, Lisa and Helen at the top of the key thwarted the Parisian attempt at a comeback. Seeing the end in sight the noise from the supporters on the bench reached a crescendo. The Cruisers again took their combined feet off the gas and let the French back into the game. With a minute and a half to go and only 2 points in it, the team were lifted by a timely 3 pointer from Yvonne. Grabbing the bull by the horns, the rest of the team followed her lead and ran out winners, pulling off 24 to 19 points at the final whistle.

Echoing their victory over Paris in the Eurogames when the final went to 3 extra-times, the men’s final was full of suspense and emotion. The men had a hard time against a strong and exceedingly tall Dutch team. When ball handler Gustavo was wheeled out of the stadium by paramedics, the game could have been all over. But the guys held out with 3 pointers from captain/coach Neil and Blas taking the game to a 26-26 draw before winning convincingly in extra time, 32-28.

The women’s B team played well together, with a tough zone defence and working through offensive moves as instructed by Coach Joolz. Similarly, the men’s second team looked strong and confident at both ends of the court.

The Cruisers are anticipating a successful end to their first season in the London League before heading to Amsterdam in August to hold on to their title in another Tijgers tournament.

In order to take two women’s teams to Sydney, the London Cruisers needs sponsorship — funding for flights, accommodation, entrance fees etc. The Sixth Gay Games to be held in Sydney in November will be a high profile event and an excellent opportunity for advertising in the international gay community.