Northants Basketball Club coaching co-ordinator John Collins has described last weekend as a ‘wake-up call’ for all at the club as all six matches played were lost - including two to recently-formed county rivals the Northants Titans.
Collins was disappointed with the performance of the teams, and said: This is bit of a wake up call for coaches and players alike.
All we can do is work harder in practice in order to get back to winning ways.
Junior Men’s Premier Division North
Northants Thunder 63 Sheffield Saints 67
For long periods of this Junior Men’s game it looked as if neither team really wanted to win with an absolute plethora of errors and poor free throw shooting.
The game lacked any great quality but was always competitive and played in good spirit.
It was therefore all the more surprising that so many fouls were called which resulted in no less than 88 eight free throws being shot.
Thunder shot 50 of these free throws but could convert only 50 per cent of them, and this was a major contributory factor in the defeat.
Another factor was an appalling start which saw them fall 10-1 behind after just three minutes of play.
Thunder did sort themselves out and thanks to the defensive efforts of Luke Lewis and Matt Yates actually took the period 19-18.
Having got themseves back into the contest, Thunder were then responsible for sloppy offensive play and poor defensive rebounding in the second quarter which allowed Saints to pick up easy points close to basket.
The visitors took the quarter 22-12 to take a 40-31 half time lead and from then on Thunder were playing catch up.
They narrowly won the third and fourth quarters and despite a grandstand finish which included a huge three point score from Andre Arissol and some good offensive play by Kyle Hobbs and Yates, Saints held on for the win.
Thunder coach Rob Eddon was left to reflect on the fact that his team had won three of the four periods of play, shot more free throws than their opponents and turned the ball over on the same number of occasions, but decisively Saints won the ‘battle of the boards’.
Matt Yates top scored with 27 points but Luke Lewis and Jack Thomas with 14 and 10 were the only other Thunder players to score in double figures
Junior Women’s Midland Conference
Herts Warriors 95 Northants Lightning 54
The Northants junior women made the short trip to Bushey to take on Herts Warriors expecting a very tough game.
Warriors didn’t disappoint coming out for the first quarter with an aggressive full court man-to-man press which caught the Lightning players cold.
The home side took the first period of play 25-10 and the second 22-9 to put the final result beyond any reasonable doubt by establishing a 47-19 half time lead.
Lightning were much more competitive in the third quarter which they only lost 19-17 but Warriors turned the heat back up in the final stanza which they won 30-16 to close out a 40-plus points win.
In the heavy defeat only Izzy Johns with 18 points and Rio Blessyn with 14 were able to score in double figures but Coach Stacey Shakespeare made special mention of the defensive work of Karla Pinney.
Under 14 Boys Midlands Conference
Northants Thunder 58 NEBC Titans 80
There was obviously a lot of tension at the start of this local derby, but it was Thunder who started slowly and without the services of Jacob Round, who was on East Midlands duty, struggled to find their game both offensively and on defence.
A 16-0 run in the first quarter gave Titans a healthy 18-2 lead, but a charge from Thunder got the score back to 10-20 at the end of the period. The second quarter was a nightmare one for Thunder as they threw the ball away and were guilty of not competing under the boards.
Titans outscored the home side 24-6 in the period to take a 44-16 lead into the half time break.
There were strong words from the coach Mickey Paul at half time, and this led to an improvement in the third period with Thunder passing the ball better and converting more chances.
They lost the quarter 21-17 but were able to finish the game on a positive note outscoring their opponents 25-15 in the final period of play.
Regrettably the damage had already been done and Titans ran out worthy winners despite 36 points from David Nieva.
Thunder know they face a another tough afternoon in the reverse fixture at Wellingborough this weekend
Cadet Men’s Premier Division North
Northants Thunder 59 NEBC Titans 68
With two minutes and 56 seconds of this local derby remaining, Titans held a narrow 58-57 lead.
At this stage Coach John Collins played his trump card by re-introducing his starting players back into the game.
With these players having rested, his hope was that they would produce a grandstand finish and secure the win for his team.
In fact these experienced players were guilty of committing some elementary errors which had a large crowd totally bemused.
For their part Titans were able to exploit the Thunder errors and go on a 10-2 scoring charge to take the game by nine points.
After trailing 18-12 after the first quarter, Thunder got the score back to 30-32 by half time then by the end of the third period of play had taken a 46-45 lead.
Titans were relying heavily on a pressure zone defence, while at the offensive end St John and Grill kept the scoreboard ticking over
and were ruthless when Thunder ended the game by ‘gifting’ them the ball on numerous occasions.
In the heartbreaking loss which gave Titans a double on the day, the Thunder scoring was led by Pauli Laurinolli with 25 points, while George Paul contributed 12 points and George Calvey hauled down 12 rebounds.
Not for the first time this season, coach John Collins despaired about his team’s total of 46 turnovers.
Under 14 Girls Midlands South Conference
Southend Swifts 77 Northants Lightning 61
On numerous occasions in the past, Northants girls’ teams have been guilty of not being physical enough.
For their first national league game of the season, coach Karen Goodrich insisted that her team should play with more physical presence against a Southend team who are always physically committed to the cause.
Goodrich was pleased with her team’s efforts, but slightly bemused at the end of a game which saw her team called for 20 fouls in comparison to Swifts 11.
The Southend girls shot 34 free throws while Lightning were awarded just 12, but regardless of these facts Swifts were good value for their win.
Lightning started the game well jumping out to an 18-12 lead but then went scoreless as Swifts poured in 14 points to take the first quarter 26-18.
The second period of play was a much lower scoring affair which the home side took 19-8 to extend their lead to 45-26 at half time.
This lead was extended to 67-43 by the end of the third, but Lightning could at least reflect on taking the final quarter 18-10 to reduce the final deficit to 16 points.
For Lightning, Ruchae Walton had a superb game scoring 35 points and pulling down 18 rebounds and she received good support from Caitlin Stewart who contributed 12 points and claimed 13 rebounds.
Coach Goodrich also made mention of debutant Catarina Askham who pulled down eight rebounds.
East of England Under 13 Girls League
Northants Lightning 47 Ipswich Bobcats 75
Last Saturday was a big day for several young ladies at the Basketball Centre as they played their first competitive game of basketball.
Against a bigger and much more experienced Ipswich team, the young Lightning team suffered a heavy loss despite the best efforts of Ellie Soloman who scored 26 points.
In fact, Lightning were competitive in all but the third quarter which they lost 22-9 and will have learned a lot from the game which for most of the team was their first competitive experience.
In addition to Soloman, Holly Winterburn scored 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds after returning from injury.
Rounds are Young Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year
Sam Round and younger sister Sarah made it a family double at last week’s Northampton Leisure Trust Sports Awards.
The presentation evening was held at the Guildhall in Northampton with Sam and Sarah picking up the award for Young Sportsperson of the Year.
Both siblings have represented their country over the past 12 months, although Sam is currently out of action following a knee ligament operation.
There was double delight for Sarah the next day when she was named in the England Under 16 women’s training squad.
Northampton School for Boys (Team of the Year) and John Collins (Long Time Contribution to Sport) were also short listed but did not win their specific categories.
Basketball Centre closed
After considerable debate, it has been decided that the floor of the Northants Basketball Centre at Northampton School for Girls will have to be totally replaced.
This decision has been made because over a period of time several areas of the floor have risen.
This has resulted in a number of small but expensive repairs with the problem continuing to occur.
The Centre will close this coming weekend as the installation of the new floor will take up to three
weeks.
The school and the Northants Basketball Club hope to have the two-court hall back in use on Monday, November 12.
In the meantime, most of the club’s practices and games will transfer to Kingsthorpe Community College, which is situated in Boughton Green Road in Northampton, although some home games will now be played away.
Karen Goodrich, administrator of the Northants Basketball Club, said: “This will obviously cause a major disruption to our practice and game schedule, but looking on the positive side we will have a brand new floor with the new international court markings on all three courts.”
FIXTURES
Saturday, October 20
9.30-11am: Under 13 Boys Practice
11.30am: Junior Women v Sporting Club West Bromwich
1.30pm: Cadette Women v Gloster Jets
All these games will be played at the Kingsthorpe Community College which is situated in Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7HR
Spectators are welcome and admission is FREE
Under 12s play in the Northants Central Venue League
Under 14 Boys travel to NEBC Titans
Under 15 Girls travel to Nottingham Wildcats
Junior Men travel to Sefton Stars
Sunday, October 21
11am: Under 14 Girls v NASSA
1pm: Cadette Women v Reading Rockets (National Cup)
3pm: Junior Men v City of Birmingham II (National Cup)
All these games will be played at the Kingsthorpe Community College which is situated in Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7HR
Spectators are welcome and admission is FREE
Under 15 Boys travel to City of Birmingham
Senior Men travel to NEBC Titans (National Shield)
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