GABBA juniors fall to very strong opposition

Last weekend’s two matches played by GABBA teams finished with diametrically opposite results: the Juniors suffering a heavy defeat in the Final of their competition, and the Under 14 Girls pulverising their opponents in the first leg of their Quarter-Final.

JUNIORS - FINAL: Puerto Real 90 - GABBA 39 (Kingsley Sylvester 14) [20-11; 34-10; 16-10; 20-8].
The competition regulations dictate that the Final shall be played on the court of the team with the better season’s record. In this case, Puerto Real were so superior that home advantage was irrelevant. Stronger and better drilled in every aspect of the game, they completely overwhelmed GABBA Juniors who, nevertheless, did their very best right up to the end.
This was, obviously, not the way that coach Abdul Afrah and his boys would have wanted to end the season but they can all hold their heads up high. They started the season back in October with a mediocre showing in their group of 4 teams, registering 2 wins and 4 defeats, finishing in 3rd place. This consigned them to Group 3 in the second Phase of the competition, along with the 3rd placed teams from the other 5 Groups. The incentive was to win the Group, which would give them a Quarter-Final place. Improving with every match, they duly won the Group, with 9 wins and 1 defeat.
Not expected to get past the Quarter-Final, they rose to the occasion, knocking out the team that had easily beaten them twice in the First Phase, and went on to reach the Final, overcoming a heavy defeat in the first leg of the Semi-Finals. The rest is history but the records will show that GABBA finished as “Sub-Campeones” (as Runners-up are named in Spain) of the Cadiz Junior League B Division for season 2025/6, or 2nd of 24 teams.
The Provincial Delegate, Adolfo Magrañal, presented the Cup to captain Marco O’Connor, and medals to the players and coaches.

UNDER 14 GIRLS (INFANTIL) - QUARTER-FINAL (1st Leg): GABBA 76 (Briella Bagu 34, Lily Mauro 15) - Cadiz 26 [29-7; 28-15; 19-4; 0-0].
GABBA’s aggressive full-court defence and running game, led by the prolific Briella Bagu, put paid to this Quarter-Final as a contest, reaching the +50 points mark after 7 minutes and 2 seconds of the 3rd quarter and, effectively, leaving the second leg as a formality.
In fact, this was also the case in 2 of the other 3 Quarter-Finals, with the teams placed 1st and 2nd in Group A registering +50 scores against the 4th and 3rd placed teams from Group B. GABBA were 3rd in Group A and were expected to find it hard to beat Cadiz, 2nd from Group B, but it is evident that Group A was much stronger, and this was proved to be the case when the Group B winners scraped through by 4 points in their Quarter-Final against the 4th placed team from Group A.