Maties Basketball's men's and women's teams have both qualified to participate in the national university championships (USSA) in July after victories in two close games on Friday.

The teams had to win their play-off matches for third and fourth place in the Western Cape USSA Basketball League to qualify. The men's team beat UWC 62-60 while the women's team had to go into double overtime to beat the home team UCT by 42-40.

Law student and team captain Nicholas Serafino said that the men had managed to hold on to their lead after getting a good start. "Everyone had a good game," he added.

He thinks it is great that the teams will be travelling to the USSA tournament in Johannesburg together.

It won't be a first for the women's team. They qualified for the national tournament in 2013 and reached the quarterfinals of the competition.

Captain Lerato Ngakane, currently working on her Master's degree in communicable diseases, described their game on Friday as "nerve-wrecking and emotional".

She praised her team mates for training very hard and playing as a unit.

"We are very excited about going to the national tournament and our objective is to reach at least the semi-finals."

The men's team hasn't competed in the national tournament before.

"In my first year we would sometimes struggle to fill up one team," said Serafino, who has been a member of the Maties Basketball Club for five years. "Awareness of the sport is definitely growing."

Their objective is to finish in the top eight at the USSA tournament to qualify for the Varsity Sports competition.

"We have a very good team dynamic and I think this will stand us in good stead in Johannesburg."

Maties Basketball has recently been named one of the High Performance sport codes at Stellenbosch University (SU). The teams are coached by new head coach Zarko Krkeljas (men's team) and assistant coach Aggrey Ofula (women's team).

The club is made up of three teams: the men's A team, consisting of players with established basketball skills; the men's B team, a developmental and recreational team for students who want to play basketball recreationally or are interested in learning to play; and the women's team, which welcomes both established and new players.