Business as usual

Sheffield Sharks vs Leeds Carnegie

19th December, tip off 1.00pm

Carnegie Sports Centre, Leeds

Sharks 2214 2616 78

Carnegie 1012 1310 45

The best way to start his week’s report is to give the summary. As normal for this season, the Sharks played well as a team. The depth of squad held them in good stead and although no players had a bad game, some took their turn to shine. In fact this statement can be copied and pasted for most of the U14 reports at the moment, so who took the limelight this week?

Although ConnorD (Dixon) lost the tip Josh was soon charging to the basket to open his account. Daniel soon made it 4-0 before Marcus got a one from two. Tyler and Eddy joined in and before we knew the 11-2 lead showed signs that the game was going to be the Sharks for the taking. Uncharacteristically (normally not until the fourth quarter anyhow!) they took their foot off the gas and the score was soon standing at 13-10 with Conor DS (D’Souza Kelly) the only Shark scoring. Connor D was sent back on and with Eddy and Conor DS playing a good quarter everything was put back to rights at the end of the quarter with a 22-10 lead. An example of the Shark’s depth is that seven out of the ten on the bench had scored.

Quarter 2 saw two different approaches. The first was that the ten were split into two fives who each played 5 minutes each and the second was that the coach decided to sit back and not give then the normal “encouragement”. The outcome as interesting in that they edged the quarter 14-12 and David and Kenneth registered themselves on the scoresheet. Again it shows the depth and flexible options open to the coach. At 36-22 the game was still slightly in that balance although the buzzer beater from Connor D had left the Sharks in an upbeat mood.

At the break the supporters thought the Sharks needed to kill the game off and wondered what the coach would do. The answer was that he coach must have been thinking the same as the starting 5 stepped up a gear. Marcus had picked up early fouls and had to tread carefully so Connor D and Josh took the lead as the trio racked up 21 points this quarter. Towards the end of the quarter a confident Eddy wanted to join the part and did so with a great trey and fittingly Conor DS added a basket to this tally with another break down the left. End of the quarter, job done.

Would the Sharks lose their third consecutive fourth quarter? Luckily Kenneth entered the fray again and kept the Sharks ahead and with Josh as support the game was run out in the Sharks favour. Towards the end of the quarter Conor DS had mastered his breaks down the left and bagged another couple of baskets. With just over a minute on the clock all of the Sharks had got on the scoresheet apart from one player. Not wanting to miss out on the party George picked his moment to get a great trey. An interesting fact is that though everyone got a score only one player scored each quarter; well done Conor DS.

So, congratulations again, half way through the season a 100% record and a play off place seems a certainty. Just keep the effort going next year and enjoy the Christmas break.

Team and scorers

Connor Dixon (27), Conor D’Souza Kelly (12), Josh Edwards (10), Eddy Brownell (9), Kenneth Nwose (8), Marcus Welsh (3), George Naylor (3), Tyler Gayle (2), David Frost (2), Daniel Jenkinson (2)