Game on...

Sheffield Saints U16 vs Cheshire Juniors

Northern Premier League
Saturday 1st October 2011, 4.00pm

Saints 14 29 58 76
Juniors 17 26 36 48

This opener was always going to be a barometer for the season ahead as Cheshire teams have been a perennial thorn in the Saints side over the years. How would they respond to the challenge on the opening day?

With George, Tyler, Marcus, Connor D and Kenneth starting the season the tip was lost but possession quickly regained and Kenneth drew the a foul in the D. A two nil lead was established and the Saints were on a roll. Marcus, Tyler and another free throw from Kenneth shocked the visitors who hastily called a time out at 6-0 down. Juniors number 11's three and a two put them back in the game before Marcus hit a trey in response. Josh, Eddy and Daniel joined the fray and another trey, this time from Josh and then a basket from Connor D kept the Saints 5 in front. Garnet continued rotation with David getting court time. However the opponents had an 8 point rally that saw the 5 point lead become a 3 point deficit at the end of Q1. A pity that all the hard work was not reflected in the score.

Not to worry as Q2 got underway as although a one from two saw Cheshire extend there lead David's trey pegged them back. Connor D, Marko and Josh shared the scoring from here in, but it was the strength of the team and the way they stood up to Cheshire that was the outstanding highlights from this quarter. Solid defence, blocks and steals started to play a part and George and Tyler were picking up good defensive rebounds. Cheshire had hit the wall called the Saints and a six point quarter advantage meant a two point lead was taken into the locker room.

At half time the supporters noted that Cheshire had played four of their starting five for the first half whereas the Saints were sharing court time around. In a game of this intensity it would be interesting to see how team stamina would pan out in the second half.

The first three minutes of Q3 was had a familiar look about it with a hard fought battle taking place. As Saints tried to pull away they weren't allowed to capitalise on it. At 31-30 which way would the game go? Then the game started. Kenneth, Marko and Josh decided to take Cheshire to the cleaners. An 11 point run took the game into familiar territory for the Saints. Again steal after steal and handling errors from Cheshire meant a period of play had the crowd applauding and the smell of victory filled the air! A 29-10 quarter and a 22 point lead meant the game was in the bag?

In quarter four we saw Montell literally assisting the team with some nice handling and Conor DS drawing fouls and getting court time. Eddy and Josh had some nice interplay with Eddy getting on the scoresheet. David popped up with his second trey of the game and the Saints were seeing out the game like a well oiled machine. Good to see no rust from over the summer.

It's been said in the past and will probably be said again but these youngsters play a team game that's a delight to witness. As starts of seasons go we saw them move up a gear when needed and a top two place still the target. Well done.

Teams, scorers. NB taken from official scoresheet.

Connor Dixon (19), Marko Backovic (17), Josh Edwards(11) , Kenneth Nwose (10), Marcus Welsh (7), David Frost(6), Tyler Gayle(2), Eddy Brownell(2), Conor D'Souza-Kelly(2), George Naylor, Montell Gordon

Other notable statistics, The team took 21 steals from Cheshire a measure of their hustling! Saints 37 points from the bench vs nil for Cheshire a measure of their depth!