Vs South Bucks Comets (14/11/10)

The Shenley Scorpions U16 Boys had a slow start to the 2010-2011 Buckinghamshire Basketball League season in their first game against South Bucks Comets. Having not trained together much as a complete unit prior to the game it really  showed on the court in the first two quarters with a high number of unforced turnovers and a lack of offensive awareness (having already started down 5 points after failing to field 10 players for the game) and most disappointingly a failure to box-out effectively, something that we have been working on a lot in training. The team headed into halftime down 18-6. There were some signs of improvement heading into the third quarter with much improved team defense and communication, far better boxing out and a little more offensive production. However, everything seemed to be dropping for South Bucks and despite getting within 6 points at one stage the hole had been dug early in the game which the team just couldn’t get out of. There were lots of lessons to be learned from this game, particularly the importance of shot selection and looking after possession. The game ended with a final score of Scorpions 22 – 40 South Bucks Comets.

Vs Hertfordshire Warriors (14/11/10)

The team really benefitted from the hour break and took the time to go over its first game and assess where improvements could be made. As a result the team pulled together much more and finished the first quarter up 9 – 2 after some excellent give and go’s between Jonny Brown and Justin Thornhill (after gaining 5 points for Warriors only fielding 7 players). This more cohesive play continued throughout the second quarter with the Scorpions going into half time up 17 – 8 after some very spirited defense and boxing out on a much bigger opponent from Jay Najafi. Despite every player getting onto the score sheet the team struggled to maintain its efforts on the glass and started to let the Warriors get back into the game with second chance points. Again, disappointing that boxing-out and rebounding is not coming more naturally after the amount of work already put into it. Towards the end of the game it almost looked like the team were going to let the Warriors back into it and it is worth noting that without the 5 points gained from Warriors being down players this game was far closer than it needed to be. We have to work on closing out games the right way. The final score was Scorpions 35 – 27 Hertfordshire Warriors. Man of the match for this game was Jonny Brown who went for 10 points off 56% field goal shooting adding 2 steals, 1 assist and 1 rebound (although going 0-6 from the free throw line!). We are headed in the right direction but with a lot of work to do!

See full statistics for both games as well as for the season below:

https://shenleybasketball.org.uk/teams/under-16-boys/u16-boys-statistics/