A team made up of mainly U16s but also four players from the U14s travelled to Bourneville
College in Longbridge, south Birmingham for this pre-season friendly. Although played as an U16s match both coaches added younger players to their rosters as a last chance to get some much
needed game time ahead their respective league campaigns that start next weekend.
For the Leadonites Joshua Spriggs and Mark Lamando were making their debuts.
Despite a close end of match finish Leadonites were never
behind during the match with Kaisan Tulloch opening the scoring in the first minute. Further baskets
from Kylop Holland, Thomas Davies (4 points), team captain Daniel Falicki and Fin Hunter (6 points) gave Leadonites a 16-10 lead at
quarter-time. With each team missing two free-throw opportunities.
The Falcons chipped away at the deficit in the second quarter but their eight missed free-throws proved costly and allowed Leadonites to retain their lead at half-time, with two baskets apiece from Leo Stanley and Kaisan making it 24-20.
Thom, in foul trouble, was sat out of the third quarter by Coach C and the defensive
duties were shared around the rest of the team with Kieran Rawle and Dan particularly effective. Despite scores from Leo (7 points) and the youngest member of the team Finlay Chalkley, eight unanswered
points for Frankley pulled the scores level at 33-33 by the ninth minute. This
sparked Leadonites back into action as the whites went on their own scoring spree with six points from Kaisan and another two for Fin leaving the three-quarter time score at 41-33 to Leadonites.
With the hosts chomping at the bit Coach C decided to put out the four travelling U14s players (Finlay, Alessio Miccio, Josh and Dylan Kitchin) on court to allow each to get their game time in. This was tempered with the addition of Kieran to
give them some defensive backbone against the Falcons' final quarter onslaught. The five Leadonites fought well and another score
from Finlay meant that Leadonites were still 4-points ahead when Coach C subbed in the older
players at the three and a half minute mark and proceeded to rotate the same eight players in and out of the match.
The last five minutes became pulsating as Falcons ate
into the Leadonites lead time and again only for the whites to edge out again. The fouls were mounting up on Leadonites with Dan and Thom each just one foul away from being fouled out of the game. Steady scores from Finlay, Thom (4 points) and Kaisan (4 points) took their points tally up to 51. Frankley squandered more free-throws, eight in total, which allowed Leadonites to keep their nose just about in the lead as the gap narrowed to just three-points with less than a minute remaining. Coach C's tactic of rotating Mark, Lewis Clark, and Fin in with the others to keep the final five on court fresh for the final minutes and to keep Thom and Dan from fouling out nearly back fired.
Falcons’ upped their offensive pressure and mistakes galore from both teams increased
the tension still further. This came to a head when Dan was called for a foul on on a Falcons shooter at the edge of the 3-point arc and everyone held their breath in anticipation of what decision the referee would give. He gave two free-throws of which the Frankley player could only covert one to reduce the gap to just 2 points.
Frankley were now in full-court press defence and the Leadonites players, never before in a match so close, were faltering. A defensive foul by Frankley in the Leadonites half gave Leadonites an inbound with eight seconds to go. The inbound was thrown across court without anyone touching it and thus the ball was taken back to the same spot for a Falcons inbound. Frantic defensive play by the Leadonites resulted in a stop and quick outbound pass to Leo who raced past two strand opponents to make the result safe with an uncontested lay-up with
just 3 seconds of the match remaining.
End of match hand shakes from a very sporting Frankley Falcons
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