Two Wins And Two Defeats In Second Weekend Of Cadiz League

In a weekend where GABBA played one of its two scheduled home fixtures in La Linea, by courtesy of the neighbouring city’s Ayuntamiento and Union Linense de Baloncesto club, who both promptly accepted GABBA’s request to play in La Linea against any opponents who opted not to play in Gibraltar, pursuant to a regulation which allows clubs to refuse to play outside the province of Cadiz, namely us and Ceuta, our teams recorded 2 wins and 2 defeats. All 4 teams were missing players, away for the school mid-term holidays. The most affected were the Under 14 Boys, who only had 5 players.

Our wins came in the first and last matches of the weekend’s programme.

The Under 18 Men (Junior Masculino), with only 6 players available, called upon 2 Under 16 Boys to reinforce the team and faced ADESA 80, from San Lucar de Barrameda, in La Linea. It was a tense, exciting tussle, with vociferous support for GABBA, who edged the first 2 quarters 11-8 and 15-13 to establish a slender 21-16 half-time lead, however, their main scoring threat, Kingsley Sylvester, was already on 4 personal fouls. The scoring rate increased in the third quarter, which ended 17-17, and in which, the visitors fought back to tie the scores twice, at 28-28 and 34-34. Then a timely 3-pointer from Callum Lightbody spurred GABBA to race ahead to lead 43-38 at the start of the last quarter. Sylvester had sat out most of the third quarter but sealed an outstanding performance in the last quarter, grabbing 10 points to take his tally to a match-high 27 points. Special mention to Javi Felice, who scored 15 points and directed the team performance with great aplomb, culminating in a satisfying 65-55 win, for which every member of the team, including Coaches Abdul Afrah and Tom Tunbridge deserve credit.

The Under 16 Girls (Cadete Femenino) celebrated their first match in the Cadiz League and the first match played on the new TSH floor with a hard fought win over Mergablo Conil before an appreciative and sizeable crowd at midday on Sunday. The visitors looked the better side in the first quarter, which they won 13-16, and continued their marginal superiority to stretch their lead to 13-21 after 6 minutes of the second quarter.
That is when our girls shook off their nerves, upped their defensive intensity and began to run. The inclusion of Briella Bagu, one of 3 Under 14 players, gave the team a different dimension and GABBA led 22-21 at half-time. They won the third quarter 16-11 to lead 38-32 and were 41-34 up a minute into the fourth quarter, before Conil reacted and hit a 10-0 burst in the next 5 minutes to go 41-44 ahead with 4 minutes to play. A 3-pointer from the mercurial Daniella Martinez tied the scores 46-46, and with excellent contributions from Erin Doherty and Lily Mauro, the 2 other Under 14’s showing how valuable they are to this team and the future of our women’s basketball, GABBA romped to a deserved 58-50 win. Martinez 22 and Doherty 11 led the scoring, but the end result would not have been the same without the efforts and commitment of every player and Coaches Kira Ruiz Afrah and Valerie Doherty.

U14 Boys (Infantil Masculino) Coach Victor Carrasco and his assistants Yasmine Ben Youssef and Nadine Delgado travelled to Cadiz with only 5 players to face Gades. The boys showed a lot of character and must be applauded for their efforts. They narrowly lost the first quarter 14-11 but were overwhelmed 17-3 in the second. They recovered to win the second-half 14-13, losing the third quarter 5-6 and winning the fourth 9-7, a magnificent reaction. Kristian Mifsud was top scorer with 17 points.

The Under 16 Boys (Cadete Masculino), coached by Tim Azopardi and assisted by Laurent Lejeune, fought out a close first-half in Algeciras against CBA. Down 14-19 after the first quarter, GABBA took the second 11-8 to narrow the deficit to 27-25 at half-time, but collapsed in the second-half, never recovering from a 15-2 blitz by the home team, to lose both quarters 24-7, 11-5, for a final defeat by 62-37. Jake Canepa 15 and Ben Lejeune 13 were top scorers.

FOUR MATCHES THIS WEEKEND

Four matches this coming weekend, with the Under 14 Boys not playing and the Under 14 Girls (Infantil Femenino) playing their first match in the Cadiz League, at home in the TSH on Sunday against CABU, from Ubrique (tip-off 12:00 noon).

The other 3 matches are all on Saturday:

At 10:30 am, the Under 16 Girls (Cadete Femenino) v CBA in the Pabellon Dr Juan Carlos Mateo, in Algeciras;

At 12:00 noon, the Under 16 Boys (Cadete Masculino) v Cadiz Rojo in the TSH.

At 6:00 pm, the Under 18 Men (Junior Masculino) v San Felipe Neri in the Colegio SA Felipe Neri, in Cadiz.