News Update - 2006
Basketball Academy take 2006 British Colleges National Championship Double
The Community College's Basketball Academy U19 teams put in a perfect performance in Nottingham this weekend to win both the Men's and Women's British Colleges National Championships. For the Men, this was a record breaking 3rd win in a row. For the Women, this marked their first National title. HCCA became only the second College Academy to win both titles in the same year, emulating the achievement of East Durham Academy in 2003.
The Men's Championship proved to be the strongest yet. All regions were represented by Colleges boasting Academy programmes and the standard of play reflected the hard work Colleges are putting in to raise levels of British Basketball in the run up to 2012. At least six U18 England Internationals were on show with the vast majority of other players involved in the Championship turning out for teams in the Junior and Senior National League.
The Group Matches (12min stop-clock) were played on Saturday with pre-tournament favourites HCCA and Filton College Academy drawn apart. HCCA won Group B comfortably with victories over Glan Hafran College Academy (Cardiff), Matthew Boulton Academy and 2002 Champions Richmond College Academy. Of these, Matthew Boulton proved the toughest test, holding HCCA for the opening 7minutes in a highly physical battle. Eddie Morrison broke the Matt Boulton resistance scoring 6 unanswered points. Matt. Boulton's Ryan Lewis instigated a brief fight back before HCCA's England Internationals Orlan Jackman and David Ajumobi combined to stretch the lead to 9pts and a 25/16 win. The best match in Group B saw Matt. Boulton overturn a 6pt deficit going into the final 2 minutes against Richmond to win 28/26 and book their place in the semis as Group runners-up.
The real fireworks came in Group A as East Durham opened the Tournament with an overtime sudden-death victory over West Notts. Filton College had a shocker losing all 3 group matches. Despite their undoubted individual talent with England Internationals Greg Streete and Lee Treasure in the squad, the Bristol-based Academy were unable to replicate the form of just 3 weeks earlier where they pushed HCCA to the buzzer in the BCS Nat Cup semi-final.
West Notts really found form, destroying a Stockport Academy side containing England Internationals Richard Reid, Adam Gerami and Stuart Thompson in a high-scoring match (46/25) that saw 3pointers flying in from all around the arc. This left Stockport needing to beat East Durham in the final group match to stand any chance of progressing. The match proved to be a thriller, with Stockport hitting a trey on the buzzer to take the match 26/25.
With East Durham, West Notts and Stockport finishing the group with a 2/1 record, it was time to get the slide-rule out to determine the placings. Confusion with the rules in this situation lead to formal protests from the Head Coaches of all 3 teams. The Arbitration Committee finally came to the decision late on Saturday night that West Notts would progress as winners with Stockport as runners-up. This left East Durham to play-off for the minor positions, despite having only lost one match by a single point.
The semi-finals pitted HCCA against Stockport and West Notts v Matt. Boulton. The smart money seemed to be on an HCCA/West Notts final. HCCA did their bit by going on a 18/0 run from the tip to put the match beyond Stockport in the first 4 minutes. Three treys from Albert Margai and dominance inside by Jackman and Babs Somoye, combined with the trade-mark Hackney defencive intensity blew the Manchester side apart and allowed coaches Sol Ayinla and Tony Garbelotto to run the bench, resulting in greater parity as HCCA ran out winners 32/19.
The second semi matched the cultured set play of West Notts against the tenacity, athleticism and work rate of Matt. Boulton. Once again, the match went down to the wire. Despite the best efforts of West Notts led by Dave Watts, Matt. Boulton hung in and managed to hold a 1pt lead with just 10secs of the match remaining. The pressure got to Ryan Lewis who turned the ball over giving West Notts inbounds from the half with just 1.3 secs on the clock. The well-drilled West Notts side went straight to their buzzer-beating set play, throwing the ball into the key for Watts. Watts glided in, catching the ball in mid-air but missed the lay-up. However, he appeared to be hit by a Matt. Boulton defender on the way down and one referee seemed to call, then retract the foul. Following a couple of minutes heated debate, the result stood with Matt. Boulton reaching their first National Final at the first attempt.
The Men's Final saw Matt. Boulton attempting to use their all out aggression and work rate to overturn HCCA in a repeat of the previous day's Group B match. With Sky Sports cameras rolling, first points went to Matt Boulton as Emile Hopkins hit 2pts from the perimeter. HCCA replied with points inside from Somoye, Tophil Kintu driving into the paint and a trey from Eddie Morrison to open up 6pt gap. The sides traded baskets before HCCA broke clear with an 8pt run to extend the gap to 19/11 thanks to Jackman, Ajumobi and Kintu. Dave Ajumobi then went on the rampage scoring 9 unanswered points. Albert Margai sealed victory with his trade-mark 3pointer from beyond the arc. Sol Ayinla ran the bench for the final 2 minutes as HCCA secured their 3rd successive title with a 38/17 win.
West Notts beat Stockport for 3rd place, Filton improved on their day 1 shocker to come in 5th. HCCA proved to be the stand-out team once again, with only Matt. Boulton getting within 10pts of the Eastern England Champions. HCCA scored 170 points in their 5 matches, conceding only 72, a defencive record that was particularly satisfying for coach Sol Ayinla.
"We take great pride and put great emphasis on our defence, so to concede on average less than 15pts per match was really pleasing. Defensive intensity forces turn overs and I was pretty happy with our execution following turnovers in the semi-final and final. Our performances improved over the two days, which is exactly what coaches look for in tournaments."
HCCA have now scooped the two Men's BCS trophies for the second year running after beating East Durham in the Nat. Cup Final just two weeks ago.
The Women's Championship looked like being dominated by the two stand-out teams so far this season.....Bilborough College and HCCA. Only past winners Richard Huish College Academy (RHC) looked remotely like threatening the East Midlands and Eastern Regional Champions who had battled each other over 4 quarters in the BCS National Cup Final last week.
Bilborough had the tougher group draw, being in the same section as RHC and Peter Symonds College (PSC), plus Welsh Champions Glan Hafran from Cardiff. Bilborough came through with some ease with RHC predictably taking the second semi-final birth. HCCA were grouped with the three weakest teams in the Championship.....Greenhead College, Matthew Boulton and last year's runners-up Cheadle. Without their Manchester Mystics guards, Cheadle were a pale shadow of last year's team, but managed to scrape past Matt. Boulton and Greenhead in low scoring contests to claim a semi-final spot behind HCCA. Meanwhile, Hackney steam-rollered through to win the group, scoring 101pts and conceding just 20 to set up a semi-final meeting with RHC.
Bilborough comprehensively swept past Cheadle 32/6 in the last match on Saturday to book a place in the Final for the 2nd year running. HCCA met RHC early on Sunday morning in the 2nd semi-final. HCCA had beaten RHC in the BCS Cup semi-final in mid-March by 25pts. However, this match had been close in the first period and RHC were obviously confident that their discipline and well drilled set offences could rattle HCCA over 12 minutes. Also, RHC had caused Bilborough problems in the group stage, only going down 16/10 to the tournament favourites. Sure enough, this proved to be a tense and low scoring affair, until HCCA broke free thanks to two consecutive 3pointers from Bobbi Thompson. This gave HCCA just enough breathing space to hang on for a win that wouldn't have dented the confidence of the watching Bilborough squad. RHC went on to take 3rd place beating Cheadle whilst PSC came in 5th.
Bilborough came into the Final with the psychological advantage, having withstood a 2nd quarter onslaught from HCCA to take control in the final two minutes of the BCS Cup Final and force a narrow win. HCCA were absolutely determined to take their first National title and coach Tony Garbelotto had worked with the girls on a defencive strategy to negate the twin threat posed by Bilborough's England Internationals, forward Nikki Blakeway and point-guard Rachel Smith-Adams. These two had combined to hit 40pts against HCCA last week. Playing this final on their home Notts Wildcats court and with fellow Wildcat Melanie Hill in their line-up, Bilborough had all the confidence needed to secure their 2nd Naional title of the season at Hackney's expense.
The final tipped off with Bilborough taking the initiative by opening up a 4pt lead following some swift passing to leave Victoria Hope open to drain points from the perimeter. Carlene Harris and Bobbi Thompson hit back to level the scores in the 3rd minute as the defencive intensity of HCCA led to a rising foul-count in Bilborough's favour as Blakeway was sent to the line, but uncharacteristically only sunk 1 from 2. Rochelle Davids then took control with 4 unanswered points before Smith-Adams hit the only trey of the match to level the scores at 8 each. The incredible commitment of the HCCA defence forced Bilborough into pressured shots to beat the 24 sec clock, but unlike last week's final, the ball refused to drop. Guards Jade Harris, Lorrell Shirley, Rochelle Davids and Bobbi Thompson were rotated frequently and were able to prevent Smith-Adams from penetrating the key, while Carlene Harris and Jo Djoboga repeatedly boxed out Blakeway to control the boards helped by the aggression and focus of Fiona Scarlett coming off the bench. The scores were tied at 10 going into the final 3 minutes, but this time HCCA took control. Forced turn-overs were ruthlessly punished by Shirley who combined with Carlene Harris on the break as HCCA extended the lead to 4pts. Smith-Adams went to the line and felt the pressure missing both, before Harris and Shirley completed a 10pt rip to seal a 10pt win and their first National Championship.
Carlene Harris top scored with 10pts supported by 4 each from Lorrell Shirley and Rochelle Davids. Meanwhile, HCCA had managed to restrict Blakeway and Smith-Adams to just 8pts. HCCA won this title the hard way, having to beat two of the top College sides in the Country ( Moulton and SEEVIC) to qualify as Eastern England Champions, before coming up against Bilborough on their home turf and the obstinant and structured resistance of RHC. Again, Head Coach Tony Garbelotto used the full-court press for extended periods to pressure the opposition. This has now become the norm and used by all Men's teams in 12minute matches, although rarely used in the Women's game. It'll be interesting to see how many coaches adopt this strategy next year.
Both HCCA teams now look forward to their 3rd National Finals of the season when the Men take on either Matthew Boulton or Loreto College in the English Schools National Academies Cup Final. The Women take on old adversaries Moulton College in their ESBBA Final after the Easter break.
HCCA Men (with total BCS Tournament points, not including the Richmond match): Orlan Jackman (24), Ashley Whilby, Alex Baker-Mason, Eddie Morrison (15), Sam Iwueke (2), Tophil Kintu (13), Albert Margai (26), Shahzad Hussain (6), Dave Ajumobi (28), Harry Innis, Babs Somoye (13)
Results:
HCCA 36 v 14 Glan Hafran
HCCA 25 v 16 Matt. Boulton
HCCA 39 v 6 Richmond
1/2 Final - HCCA 32 v 19 Stockport
Final - HCCA 38 v 17 Matt Boulton
HCCA Women (with total BCS points, not including RHC and Cheadle matches):
Jo Djoboga (9), Tanine Nicholas, Bobbi-Jay Thompson (13), Ndey Manga, Fiona Scarlett (6), Rochelle Davids (17), Jade Harris, Alisha Robinson, Lorrell Shirley (14), Carlene Harris (28).
Results:
HCCA 28 v 2 Greenhead College
HCCA 31 v 6 Matt. Boulton
HCCA 42 v 12 Cheadle
1/2 Final - HCCA beat RHC
Final - HCCA 20 v 10 Bilborough College
Chris Morris
Sports Academy Administrator
The Community College Hackney
3/4/06
LONDON UNITED BASKETBALL CLUB
Website content copyright of London United Basketball Club, 2006-07. Website design copyright of WebElementary 2006-07
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