GABBA junior men reach Cadiz League semi-finals after memorable recovery

Seldom has a team and its supporters celebrated the end of a match, in spite of losing it, as GABBA’s Junior Men did in Chipiona the Saturday before Easter. Having won the first leg of the Quarter-Final at home by 9 points, GABBA lost the return by 8 to reach the Semi-Final (see report below).
The Under 16 Girls lost the home leg of their Semi-Final, played in Los Barrios, against Adesa; the Under 14 Boys lost at home; and the Under 16 Boys recorded our only win of the weekend.

FULL RESULTS:

JUNIOR MEN (UNDER 18):
QUARTER-FINAL (2nd Leg): Chipiona 68 - GABBA 60 (Kingsley Sylvester 19, Javi Andrews 16, Javi Felice 14) [23-19; 25-6; 5-10; 15-25];
AGGREGATE SCORE: GABBA 117 - Chipiona 116.

GABBA started well, going 6-0 up in under 2 minutes, to extend the overall lead to 15, but Chipiona drew level (8-8) 2 minutes later, only to fall behind (10-15) by the 6th minute. The hosts, with strong support in the stands, outscored GABBA 13-4 in the
last 4 minutes to win the first quarter 23-19. They then scored 6 points in the first minute of the second quarter to go 29-19 up and go ahead in the aggregate score for the first time. GABBA fell apart and Chipiona ran away to lead by 23 (14 in the tie) at half-time. Javi Andrews was GABBA’s mainstay at this stage, scoring 14 points.
Regular top scorer, Javi Felice, without a point so far, sank a 3 seconds after resumption to spark off what was to be a memorable recovery. Coach Abdul Afrah changed his defence from man-to-man to a match-up zone. This blunted Chipiona’s offence, and they only scored 5 points to GABBA’s 10, with Kingsley Sylvester hitting two 3’s.
The deficit was now 9, and 8 points from Felice reduced it to just the 1, with 5 minutes to play.
The scene was set for a heart-stopping finish: Chipiona 61-48 up (GABBA 4 down); Felice, Sylvester and Lee Davis score consecutive baskets to reduce difference to 61-54 and put GABBA 2 up in the aggregate score. With the clock running down, Chipiona hit a 3 (64-54), Sylvester gets 2 baskets to counter a home basket (66-58) and then, already in the last minute, Chipiona score 1 free-shot (67-58) to tie the aggregate. Felice gets a basket (67-60), and he and Marco O’Connor are fouled in quick succession as Chipiona desperately attempt to regain possession. The consequent 4 free-shots are missed, Assistant Coach Tom Tunbridge, uncharacteristically, bags a Technical Foul, the free-shot is converted (68-60), but the inbound pass which follows is intercepted, the final buzzer sounds, GABBA are through to the Semi-Final by just 1 point, and Chipiona are devastated.
They were placed second, on head-to-head, in Group 1, with all other First Phase Group winners, while GABBA qualified for the Quarter-Finals by winning Group 3, with teams placed third in First Phase Groups, so Chipiona were hot favourites to win this tie, and joint favourites to be champions.
The GABBA team were happy with the officiating, which the coach rated as the best this season. The downside, however, which luckily had no repercussions, was their abysmal free-shot record. 14 scored from 28 attempts was bad enough in the first leg, but 3 from 18 this time is unacceptable and a lot of work must be dedicated in the days leading up to the Semi-Final against CB Algeciras.

CADET GIRLS (UNDER 16):
SEMI-FINAL (1st leg): GABBA 47 (Briella Bagu 16, Lily Mauro 11, Erin Doherty 11) - Adesa 57 [6-19; 10-19; 9-7; 22-12].

A woeful start saw GABBA fall 22 points behind in the first-half to a team that they had beaten 2 months ago. There was an improvement in the third quarter, but only 25 points had been scored in the first 3 quarters - 9 by Doherty and 8 apiece from Bagu and Chloe Balban. The improvement continued in the last quarter, where Mauro sank 3 three-pointers and 2 free-shots and Bagu got 8. GABBA actually reduced the deficit to 7 late in the match, eventually going down by 10. It will be very difficult to overturn Adesa’s advantage on their court, but it’s not impossible.

CADET BOYS (UNDER 16):
Gymnastica Portuense 43 - GABBA 65 (Shae Felice 20, Youssef Laghrich 12) [5-10; 14-27; 10-15; 14-13].

An 11-0 burst in the middle of the second quarter paved the way to a comfortable 18 points’ half-time lead, and a 9-0 start to the second-half put GABBA out of reach for the hosts.

PASSERELLE (UNDER 14 BOYS):
GABBA 53 (Max De Haro 20, Ralph Falero Manktelow 13, Kristian Mifsud 12) - Algaida 77 [18-32; 14-16; 10-17; 11-12].

An improved performance against the joint leaders.