Briella Bagu sets new season high

Thirteen year old Briella Bagu set a new season-high individual score by any of GABBA’s players from the five teams participating in Cádiz League competitions in a weekend where players’ absences, because of the schools’ mid-term break, hurt the Under 16 Boys and the Under 14 Girls, started and ended with wins but also suffered 3 defeats in between these, all on Saturday.

Briella’s 36 points takes her season total to 200 points in 10 matches in the Under 14 League. She also plays in the Under 16 League and here, she has scored 113 points in 10 matches, having missed the only match which the team lost.

This prolific scorer and precocious talent is one of the harvest of up and coming promising players whom GABBA’s coaching set up is confident that they will deliver a bright future for women’s basketball.

FULL RESULTS

UNDER 18 MEN: Gymnastica Portuense 54 - GABBA 61 (Javi Felice 16, Javi Andrews 15); [16-13, 14-13, 11-15, 13-20].

Abdul Afrah’s boys had to dig deep to win this highly physical match, played before a noisy and, on occasions, hostile crowd in Puerto de Santa Maria. The home team were never behind until midway through the third quarter, when GABBA, who had kept in close contact throughout, their biggest deficit being 7 points, finally took the lead (32-34). The third quarter ended 41-41, with Javi Felice contributing 16 points up until then. This was to be the match-high as he did not score in the last quarter, but this team has other players who step up to the plate, and this time it was the rapidly improving Javi Andrews. GABBA went 48-41 up (4th min.) but Gymnastica fought back to lead 51-50 (7th min.). Eight straight straight points in the next 2 minutes, including a 3-pointer and a 2-and-1 from Andrews proved crucial, giving GABBA the match-winning lead, which keeps the team in top place in the Group.

UNDER 16 BOYS: Puerto Real 50 - GABBA 39 (Shae Felice 13); [21-6, 10-12, 4-11, 15-10].

An 11-0 run in the last 3 minutes of the first quarter opened up a 15-points’ lead for the home team which GABBA, hard as they tried in the rest of the match, proved to be unassailable in the end. They took the second and third quarters, keeping their opponents down to just 4 points in the third, to start the fourth 6 down. This was narrowed to 3 after 4 minutes and the difference was still the same with 2 minutes to play (41-38), but Puerto Real reeled off a 9-0 run to clinch the match.

UNDER 16 GIRLS: La Montera 21 - GABBA 71 (Erin Doherty 21, Briella Bagu 16, Tasnim El Yettefti 11); [8-20, 4-18, 4-21, 5-12].

This match was played before a small and friendly crowd in Los Barrios, and Kira Ruiz Afrah’s girls gave a polished display, led by Daniela Martinez, who has become a role model for the team, particularly the young Under 14 talents who are so important to the overall development of women’s basketball. This result guarantees second place in the group, and it could have been first had the team not been depleted when they played and lost against Adesa in the last match before Christmas. They won the return match here but the margin of victory was not enough to win the head-to-head, which will deprive them from winning the group.

UNDER 14 BOYS: Puerto Real 78 - GABBA 27; [21-9, 11-7, 22-5, 24-6].

UNDER 14 GIRLS: GABBA 55 (Briella Bagu 36) - Chiclana 69; [11-16, 11-14, 14-26, 19-13].

GABBA led 5-4 after 4 minutes but Chiclana scored 8 straight points and never looked back, their superior physicality, particularly under both baskets, where a complacent referee seemed unable to differentiate between aggressiveness and downright aggression, made a big difference. Down by 8 at half-time and by 24 (32-56) a minute from the end of the third quarter, Andrew Teuma’s girls, led by the diminutive but deceptively tough and fast Bagu, staged a revival. A 10-0 burst, after 4 points before the end of the third quarter had narrowed the deficit to 20, now halved Chiclana’s lead to 10, but the unbeaten leaders recovered to win a pulsating match which ended with both sets of players having a group photograph to mark the occasion.