The Scorpions U12 Mixed team showed dramatic improvement from it’s previous showings in it’s two Buckinghamshire Basketball League games yesterday (Sunday 3rd February 2013). Their first game saw them meet Aylesbury Dux for the first time this season, a team who lost by only 1 point to AHS Hornets (who Scorpions are yet to play) and AGS Hornets (who Scorpions lost 9 – 50 in their first meeting of the season). There was a far more confident start to the game with the team looking far more organised and aggressive. After ending the first quarter down 2 – 6 the team persevered and began to put together some smart play, making decent passes with Juan K. making a layup in his debut and Alessandro M. also applying lessons from training in the game hitting a layup and Jonathon A. getting a nice rebound and putback to keep the Scorpions in contention, ending the second quarter trailing  6 – 10. By the end of the third quarter the Scorpions were down by only 3 points (10 – 13) and despite quite a high rate of turnovers it looked like they might be close to their first victory. Unfortunately, despite a great team effort from everyone the U12s were not able to completely close the gap and the game ended 14 – 15 to the Dux. Nishanth P., Juan K., Alex S. and Josh S. all made their debuts and played well, demonstrating the depth of this team and how places in the squad will become more competitive as players continue to improve.

Strengths: the team looked far more likely to score than they had before thanks to their layup footwork and movement without the ball
Weaknesses: far too many turnovers due to players failing to triple-threat and take care of the ball and pass out of double-teams.

With a renewed confidence at how close they had just come to beating the Dux the Scorpions U12 Mixed team went into their game against the Didcot Devils (the team they had lost to by a score of 4 – 31 on their previous meeting) ready to play, and it showed! The court spacing was much improved and the scoring opportunities presented themselves early and often as a result. For the first time the Scorpions sought to fastbreak and attempted far more layups than they had been able to in previous games. Nishanth P. and Ali A. both did well on the boards collecting 5 rebounds each. The Scorpions were only down 1 point at the end of the first quarter (5 – 6) and built off this momentum by taking the lead in the second quarter, finishing up by 1 point at the end of the second quarter (8 – 9) despite a buzzer-beating attempt by Clarel B. being waved off coming just a second after the buzzer sounded. The players confidence was there now and they were excited about how close they were and it remained a nail-biter through the final two periods where the Didcot Devils focused their attack through their tall post player and the game came down to defence, rebounding and execution. Unfortunately Didcot managed to get one final basket passed the Scorpions and as time expired with Didcot in possession the Scorpions were left wandering what could have been but also positive at how much they had improved.

Strengths: the team defence and rebounding really picked up as the game went on
Weaknesses: The field goal percentage was just too low as the Scorpions got chance after chance to push themselves ahead but failed to convert, rushing several shots towards the end of the game due to lack of experience.

The signs are very good for this team as long as the players continue to work on their weaknesses their first victory cannot be far off.