7 & 8 Boys Basketball v Gordano

On Wednesday 24 May a team of year 7 & 8 basketball players travelled to local rivals Gordano School to contest their third match up this year. Changes in personnel were on the cards once more due to a clash with the NS athletics championships. That didn’t make any difference to the boys as I have never known a group so desperate to play basketball – it’s great to watch!

In the first quarter the boys dominated the early possession and were moving the ball well up the court. Seb and Ajay in particular were demonstrating really strong passing and movement. When the boys worked the ball up the court more often than not they manoeuvred it into a good shooting position but were struggling to convert their efforts. It was Zaeem who eventually broke the deadlock; little did he know at this point in the game that he would go on to have his best game for the school in an excellent performance that would earn him MVP. Ajay and Seb were a really effective combination on the left and the right hand side of the court and this gave the team great balance with Zaeem under the hoop. Ajay (4) and Seb (2) both added points in the first quarter but it wasn’t just year 8 boys that were playing well. Both Nana and Ari were also moving the ball sharply and accurately up the court and were often the starting point for SK attacks.

10 boys travelled and so the second quarter saw a complete change of personnel. Having built up a strong lead there was the potential to play with a little too much freedom which meant that boys were a little too eager to dribble the ball. Kyle Barrett led from the front as every good captain should do with an excellent performance in offence and defence. Kyle scored his first two pointer with just seconds of the clock having passed from the start of the period. Kyle received the ball from Tom Evans who bulleted a chest pass at him. Kyle pivoted and put up a swish jump shot which drew great applause from his team mates. Kyle added a further 2 later in the period after Ruffin had added 2 points of his own. Tom and Ben were both a real nuisance for the opposition in defence and stole a huge amount of ball for Shadrach, Kyle and Ruffin but unfortunately the scoring rate halted a little due to an insatiable desire to dribble the ball rather than pass it up the court.

The third period saw the boys get back to some of their excellent passing and this meant that they worked a few opportunities. Their shooting had gone cold at the start of the period but it didn’t take long for Ajay to find his range again. Being a left handed shooter gives him a little edge over his competitors and it also helps that he is a great natural shooter of the basketball. Ari and Shadrach weighed in with two point efforts of their own in the quarter and the boys managed to increase their lead. Every time Gordano were on offence invariably it would be Ben who stole the ball. Ben is a great athlete who has a fantastic reach across the court and up in the air. Whenever Ben stole the basketball more often than not it found its way to Seb who was really taking up the mantle as the ball handler. He has excellent dribbling skills and also has the vision to pick a pass. The five boys that played the third really worked well together as a team.

The heat was really starting to take effect in the final period and some of the boys were starting to look a bit tired and weary. Their shooting was suffering the same effect and this meant that they didn’t add as many points to their tally as they would have liked during this period with one exception. Zaeem was on fire at the end of the match. The boys were readily getting the ball to him in great shooting positions and he was knocking them down scoring on each occasion he attempted a shot. Kyle Barrett added the final points and the boys finished on the winning side.

There was a lovely atmosphere at this match and it was great to watch the improvements that both sides have made. Players on both teams worked really hard despite the temperature inside and it was great to see students enjoying playing sport with huge smiles on their faces. MVP has to go to Zaeem for his points but this wasn’t the only offering he made in the match. Zaeem looked after the ball brilliantly and passed it with real zip as well as helping himself to a number of steals to give a complete performance.

Well done gentlemen.

Mr Cook