Friday night saw our U16s and U19s basketball teams play at the home of the Newcastle Eagles in the Newcastle Schools Finals. Having already secured the league in both age groups the teams were confident but certainly not complacent.
The U16’s were up first against Dame Allen and led from tip to buzzer as they put on a very controlled accomplished performance with all players making significant contributions whilst on the floor. Mathew and Nye shooting well from long range was a particular highlight of the performance whilst the guard skills of Will and Riley kept us in complete control of the game Arrad, Ali, Bruno and Emanuel brought some much needed energy from the bench to see us home in a comfortable win.
Next up the U19s faced off against the same school but a very different prospect where our team lead by Y10 and Y11 players would take on a “fully fledged” sixth form team. This was a much more heated battle with two great match ups between Harry from JPA and Jack from Dame Allen and Charles from Dame Allen verses Joseph. Our boys were defensively so strong that it set the tone for an intense encounter, which at times threatened to spill over but great discipline on our behalf ensured that it didn’t. The lead changed hands several times and the game was a great advert for school basketball with some very high level talent on display from both sides. A highlight of the game was George dropping his man and then hitting the three to get the bench on their feet. Dennis, Josh and Leonardo were particularly impressive as they continually attacked inside and rebounded hard. With thirty second to go we found ourselves two points up but with the quality of Dame Allen’s three point shooting it was not in the bag yet. We called a time out and set up our defensive plans which the boys carried out to the letter playing extremely physical defence and not even allowing them to get a shot off. Winning by two points.
