Great wins for U14 Girls and U16 Boys in basketball

Pride of place this week must go, in equal measure, to Andrew Teuma’s Under 14 Girls and Tim Azopardi’s Under 16 Boys.
The former came back from Cadiz with a thumping win over San Felipe Neri, to whom they had lost by just 1 point when the teams met in TSH at the end of last November. The result gives them a head-to-head advantage which may be significant if both teams finish level in the final Group A table. At the moment, GABBA have 10 wins and 3 defeats and the Cadiz team are on 9 and 2. In theory, GABBA should win their remaining 3 matches while San Felipe Neri host unbeaten leaders Chiclana in the last round of matches. If they lose, both could finish with 13-3 records which is where the head-to-head would come into the reckoning and decide second place in the Group, ahead of the Quarter-finals.
The latter had suffered a heavy defeat (34-67) when they met Camoens, in Ceuta, in mid-January, and were clearly keen to avoid a repetition. The unbeaten leaders of Group 3 had “closed the score-sheet” - scoring stops when the difference gets to 50 points - in 6 of the 8 matches which they had played so far, but GABBA got their revenge with a brilliant performance (see report below).
In the other 3 matches played, the Under 18 Men dug deep to end their Group 3 competition, which they won last week, with a win in Algeciras; and the Under 14 Boys suffered two heavy defeats but, all credit to them, came back from their match in Puerto Real, where the leaders “closed the score-sheet” in the 7th minute of the 3rd quarter, to face UB Jerez in La Linea 24 hours later. This team easily won their Group in the first phase, which gave them a place in Group 1 with the winners of the other 7 Groups and they are having a hard time, yet, most of the players are manfully turning up every weekend.

FULL RESULTS

UNDER 18 MEN (JUNIOR): CB Algeciras 63 - GABBA 67 (Javi Felice 20, Marco O’Connor 17, Lee Davis 11) [16-14; 15-18; 11-17; 21-18];
Under strength and with nothing at stake, GABBA had a sluggish start, trailing 13-6 after 6 minutes, but reacted to narrow the deficit to 2 points by the end of the quarter. They took the lead midway through the second quarter and were up 31-32 by half-time. CBA were then 41-38 up after 6 minutes of the third quarter but GABBA went on an 11-1 assault to end the quarter 49-42 ahead. CBA fought back to within a point (53-54) 5 minutes from the end, GABBA, on the back of 2 three pointers from Evan Lima, stayed ahead and held off the local team to win.

UNDER 16 BOYS (CADET): GABBA 63 (Shae Felice 21, Ben Lejeune 18) - Camoens 56 [14-13; 5-15; 17-6; 14-16; 13-6];
With both teams playing defence all over the court, it was obvious that the intensity displayed from the beginning, and both referees (from Cadiz) allowing a lot of contact, the spectators were in for an exciting contest. GABBA had the better of the initial exchanges, leading 14-8 after 6 minutes, but the boys from Ceuta, a well-drilled team, forced turnovers to narrow the gap to 14-13 by the end of the quarter, and win the second quarter 15-5 to lead by 9 at half-time. Any doubts with regard to our boys’ physical condition, resulting from the intensity of the proceedings in the first-half, were quickly dispelled as they set about reducing the deficit to level (30-30) after 6 minutes, and lead by 36-34 at the end of the third quarter. There were never more than 3 points between the teams throughout most of the fourth quarter, but 7 straight points put Camoens 50-45 up with just over a minute left. With excitement at fever pitch on the stands as well as on court, Jaylan Pareja sank a 3, GABBA stole the ball and Felice was fouled. He made the first of two free shots (50-49), Camoens again turned over and Lejeune was fouled, bravely driving for basket. The visitors’ best player bagged a Technical foul for dissent so it was now a free-shot for the Technical, which Felice coolly scored to tie the match but Lejeune missed both his free-shots and the 40 minutes were over. And so to 5 minutes’ overtime. GABBA controlled the situation beautifully, never behind but still only 1 point up (57-56) with a minute to play. They kept their cool as Camoens desperately tried to keep their unbeaten record but a basket each from Youssef Laghrich and Felice and 2 free-shots from Lejeune sealed a fantastic result, in which every single player contributed.

UNDER 14 BOYS (INFANTIL): Puerto Real 60 - GABBA 9 [22-5; 25-2; 13-2];
GABBA 30 - UB Jerez 70 [10-15; 5-18; 4-14; 11-23.

UNDER 14 GIRLS [INFANTIL): San Felipe Neri 48- GABBA 75 (Briella Bagu 31, Erin Doherty 19, Lily Mauro 11) [15-14; 9-16; 14-21; 10-24];
The first quarter was, as expected, very evenly contested, and it was much the same for practically all of the second, but then GABBA scored 7 points without reply in the last minute to take a 30-24 lead and they never looked back, ending the match with a 17-1 blitz which, as already explained above, could well give them second position in the Group.

TWO QUARTER FINALS THIS WEEKEND

The Under 16 Girls play the return leg of their competition’s Quarter final against Xerez on Saturday, tip-off 7:30 pm. They lost the first leg by 14 points, so will need as much support as possible in the TSH stands to carry them into the Semi finals.

The Under 18 Men will, likewise, be grateful for support when they face Chipiona in the first leg of their Quarter final on Sunday at 11:00 am, also in TSH. The teams met earlier in the season in the First phase, with Chipiona winning at home by 20 and in TSH by 12. It will be difficult but our boys have improved since the turn of the year so hopes are high.

After this match, the U14 Girls play Algaida, tip-off 1:00 pm.