Four From Five

Four of the five matches played by GABBA teams in the Cadiz League competitions ended in wins: a big one and two comfortable ones, and a hard-fought comeback win.

FULL RESULTS:

UNDER 18 men, Sancti Petri Chiclana 58 - GABBA 65 (Lee Davis 24, Javi Andrews 16, Marco O’Connor 12) [13-11; 26-17; 8-19; 11-18]

The locals raced to a 12-points lead midway through the second quarter after an even first quarter, but GABBA held on and at half-time no further damage had been suffered. Our boys had suffered an embarrassing defeat last week, squandering an 19 points advantage at half-time to lose. On Saturday, they proved that they have the character, attitude and good basketball which can turn a match in their favour. Missing Kingsley Sylvester, and with Javi Felice in early foul trouble, Skipper Marco O’Connor masterminded a brilliant and significant recovery, brilliantly spearheaded by Lee Davis and Javi Andrews, having their best performances of the season. Excellent defence and sensible offence tied the scores at 47 by the end of the third quarter, and they never looked back, extending their lead to 61-49 with 3 minutes left and holding back the locals’ desperate efforts to save the match.

UNDER 16 boys, Camoens Ceuta 67 - GABBA 34 (Ben Lejeune 11) [15-9; 21-11; 17-7; 14-7]

GABBA came up against the best team in their group and, hard as they tried, suffered their biggest defeat of the season. Down by 16 at half-time, any hope of a comeback went up in smoke as the skillful and well-drilled locals ran up a 17-0 blitz in the first 7 minutes of the third quarter.

UNDER 16 girls, GABBA 64 (Chloe Balban 19, Brylee Costa 12, Briella Bagu 10) -Algeciras 27 [18-3; 23-6; 15-6; 8-12]

One-way traffic throughout the first three quarters and then GABBA took the foot off the accelerator in the fourth, and that was that.

UNDER 14 boys, GABBA 55 (Max DeHaro 20, Jake Torres 10) - Portuense 33 [17-8; 5-5; 18-10; 15-10]

The visitors were only able to cope with our boys in a low-scoring second quarter, but Max DeHaro led GABBA to victory in the second-half of a match marred a couple of minutes from the end with an incident which resulted in two players from each team being disqualified.

UNDER 14 girls, Algeciras 38 - GABBA 61 (Erin Doherty 21, Briella Bagu 15) [16-7; 6-20; 10-18; 6-16]

The locals won the first quarter but it was no more than a mirage as our girls took the match by the scruff of the neck from then on to register a comfortable win, their sixth in 8 matches at the end of the first round in the Group Phase, leaving them in 3rd place, the top four playing off with the top four from the other group. - JG