Tornadoes get blown away

Sharks vs Gateshead Tornadoes

Wickham School – Gateshead

14th November 2009 – 12.30 tip off

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Tornadoes 911 4 4 28

The Sharks had yet to have all their players available for a game this season and this time Eddy was out, but there was the welcome return of Connor Dixon who showed last week that he was straining at the leash with his explosive few minutes.

It was a long trip for the club, but there was a feeling that they were in good form. At the tip off Kenneth won it, but the normal quick basket that we’d come to expect didn’t come. However Connor Dixon (ConnorD) got the Sharks off the mark only for the opposition to reply straight away (game on?). ConnorD got another 2 baskets though and Marcus followed up with one from two at the charity line. At 7-2 up the Sharks were getting a grip on the game. Then the hours of practice and years of experience kicked in. The double act of Josh and ConnorD took over and before you could blink the Sharks were 20-2 up. Garnet then knew he could start the rotation and make sure that all had good court time. The quality of the new payers again took over and Marko and George bagged a basket each. A mini comeback was attempted by Gateshead but Daniel and George were having none of it and the quarter ended 30-9 to the Sharks.

Quarter two opened up with a great trey from David and the best way to describe this half is just to say that Daniel, George, Kenneth, Marcus and Marko were all making baskets. ConnorD was again the quarter’s highest scorer but only managing half of his first quarter’s total of 12. However there was a move that showed skills, passing, movement and a great finish by Conor D’Souza Kelly (ConorDS) that had the supporters on their feet with applause. Yes, the journey was worth it. However there was a downside as Tyler had to retire injured and Josh was on 4 fouls.

A bit of a strange look to the third quarter as there was no score for the first 4 minutes. It looked as though the Gateshead team talk had worked some magic. However ConnorD was brought back into the action. Similar to last week he got 10 points in a short space. It was not just a one man show though as he was ably supported by Daniel David, Marko and Kenneth. It must also be said that without Eddy and with Tyler injured there was a shortage of point guard players. As demonstrated before Michael stepped in to help out and marshalled the troops well.

So onto the final stanza. The score was exactly the same as quarter 3. Just replace Kenneth and Marko for ConnorD and the new big partnership showed that they can be a handful for anyone this season. Although ConnorD had a comeback with impact the fact that the rest of the score was quite evenly distributed amongst the others shows again the depth of the squad.

An interesting anecdote about this victory was on the way out there was an article on the notice board. It read “Conor is back and buzzing” never a truer word said. Another solid performance.

Unfortunately this all adds to the debate about teams at this level and their performances. If you follow any of the forums about basketball there were recent discussions i.e. “At U13, Ipswich and Sheffield played their first 'real' game in the final at final fours.” The supporters can name about 2 North and 3 South teams that are probably of equal strength so is this victory somewhat hollow? Some people are advocating premier leagues at this age level? What do you think? The Sharks have only Newcastle left to play in this league and without being unkind we don’t think they’ll challenge the Sharks. It’s a great way to bring players on and give the squad time to develop. However how can they get ready for more intense matches. At the moment the only solution is to arrange friendlies the other side of the Pennines, so come November 29th it will be interesting to see how they match up to “The Magic”

Team and scorers

Connor Dixon (30), Marko Backovic (11), Kenneth Nwose (10), Marcus Welsh (9), Daniel Jenkinson (8), Conor D’Souza Kelly (7), Josh Edwards (7), David Frost (7), George Naylor (7), Michael Carnall, Tyler Gayle