Blazers burn through Warriors to complete season sweep

National Under 18 Midlands Conference Game Sat 21st January 2012

Result: Shropshire Warriors 51 Derby Trailblazers 69

 

After already facing Derby Trailblazers twice before this season, once in the SureShot Cup and away in the league, and coming up 0-2 we knew facing this Blazers team would be tough, even with home advantage. Also, this was the U18’s first game of the season after losing previous head coach Anthony Wood who could no longer commit the time to coaching the team; we were sad to be playing without his leadership. However, after watching the Warriors U13’s beat top of the table Notts Nova, we were full of enthusiasm for the game ahead.

The game started off with a confident offensive possession by the Warriors, with Jonas connecting on a mid-range jump shot. Derby came back at us with some fast break and inside baskets. Jonas then scored again with a clever drive into the lane. The game was tied at 4-4 in the second minute of the game, but then Derby went on a strong run scoring 17 points with only a mid-range jump shot from Ryan Harper and three made free throws from Barney as our response.
We did not handle Derby’s full-court press well this quarter and they managed to force us into some sloppy turnovers. Seven minutes into the game we lost influential big man Alex to injury so we knew that we would have to step up as a team to fill his role, especially on rebounding. Score at the end of the first: 9 – 21.

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Early in the second Patric hit a three which was the first of the game for the Warriors. However, Derby will still finding their way into the middle of our defense and this was giving them opportunities to score inside shots and get to the free throw line. We introduced our full-court pressure defense to try and slow down their scoring but they counter-acted it with crisp passing and good team communication. Frank scored on a great move to the basket, Pete got onto the score sheet with strong play in the key while Patric and Jonas continued to contribute points offensively. Aaron provided some quality minutes off the bench this quarter, especially by making smart passes on offense. The score this quarter was more balanced as the Warriors were starting to get into the game: 16 – 19. This left the halftime score at 25 – 40.

At halftime, Warriors interim head coach Carsten Dieterich spoke with the team about the importance about staying calm when breaking the Blazers’ press and about making sure we keep trying to feed the ball inside on offense. He reminded us that even though we seemed to be down by a lot, we needed to just keep chipping away at their lead and that the 15 points we were down was only winning six/seven loose balls and capitalising with scores. This was easier said than done, but provided us with the confidence and inspiration to keep our heads up and have a good go at Derby in the second half.

In the third quarter we played much more efficiently so Derby’s press defense did not force us into as many turnovers. Our offense was looking much more fluid and we started to score some fast break baskets. Derby kept playing at a strong level and continued to score but nowhere near as frequently. Patric again added to his points total in this quarter, with Ryan H, Pete and Jonas also contributing for the team. We had a good quarter on the rebounds and we were started to give ourselves more possessions by sending more players to the offensive boards. Score in this quarter: 10 – 13. Game score with ten minutes to play: 35 – 53.

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The end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarter was the Warriors best spell of the game defensively by far, Derby were making lots of substitutions due to their substantial lead and we did not let their bench players get comfortable on court. In a ten minute spell, spanning the end of the 3rd and start of the 4th, all that Derby could get to go down was a solitary free throw. However, we could not capitalise on our strong defensive showing as we only scored 6 points ourselves during this time. We controlled our defensive rebounds this quarter but did not manage to connect on crucial passes or make important shots that could have made this game more competitive towards the end. Jack McDonald played some good minutes off the bench this quarter and made some good plays down the stretch including a couple of steals and a fantastic wrap-around assist for Frank to score his second basket of the game after a sweet pump-fake.
This final period was very competitive with both teams scoring the same: 16 – 16. However, this was too late for our competitive performance to make any difference to the result as Derby finished up winning 51 – 69.

The team knows that if we are going to make the playoffs this season, we need to go undefeated the rest of the way and hope that the teams above us (Blazers and Mets) slip up. The scorers in this game shows that Derby went much deeper into their bench than us so we need to make sure that if anything we get guys turning up to train and play for the rest of the season.

Scorers
Shropshire Warriors:                                            Derby Trailblazers:
Jonas Dieterich – 16                                              Ollie Brandreth – 19
Patric Morkot – 16                                                            Jono Jessup – 12
Pete Ashton – 8                                                      Ben Brown – 10
Ryan Harper – 4                                                     Deivids Kravelis – 8
Frank Edwards – 4                                                 Tyrell Webster – 6
Barney Blake – 3                                                    Finlay Holland – 6
                                                                                    Matas Audickas – 6
                                                                                    Harry Steare – 2

 

 

Match Report: Barney Blake

Photos: Carsten Dieterich