22 Jan 2024

Dolphins have been crowned the men’s 2024 Platinum Warriors Mental Health pre-season champions following their exceptional 74-73 win against Police V at the SSKB courts over the weekend.

With both teams evenly matched in terms of championship tittles between them, Police V were on paper hot favourites to triumph over their much youthful opponents as they assembled an array of stars in their camp this season.

Dolphins nonetheless started the game on a high note with an impressive lead in the first quarter but, however, architectured their own downfall as they squandered a healthy lead in the third quarter to go down trailing by four points going into the final quarter of the game.

In the absence of key players, and with a reedy inexperienced bench, the youthful Dolphins were their own worst enemy, hitting just 6-of-20 from the field in the period, including 2-of-8 on three-pointers hence could not maintain consistency in all the quarters and gave away a lot of turnover balls.

Things went haywire for Dolphins in the third and fourth quarter onwards with Police V reflecting well on the offensive side of the court and sustained pressure on Dolphins to make it a nail-biting one-point game at the final buzzer.

On the ladies side, Police ladies team were also crowned pre-season champions after defeating BDF V ladies 74-62 in a tightly contested game.

The ‘Poplets’ as the ladies Police team is affectionately referred to, were no match for their BDF counterparts, dominating them on both ends of the court and took the lead in all quarters of the game.

BDF V ladies, however, squandered a healthy led in the first quarter to go down trailing at the halftime interval buzzer of game and could not deal with Police’s physicality and technical awareness.

Meanwhile in individual accolades, Police’s duo of Kagiso Jankey and Thuto Shai won the tournament’s Most Valuable Payers for ladies and men respectfully.

Speaking in an interview post games, the tournament organising committee public relations officer, Baone Ramokone expressed delight on the overall turnout of the games.

She said the committee was impressed by the teams and spectators’ response towards the games saying:

She said it was pleasing that the spirit of competitiveness was high during the games though the games were pre-season with only bragging rights at stake.

She indicated that the primary focus of the tournament went beyond the competitive spirit of the game as a start off to the season but rather aimed to shed light on the importance of mental health for athletes.

Ramokone urged the league organising committee to build on the success of the pre-season tournament in ensuring the deliverance a competitive league this coming season. ENDS