YBL Lorna Tull Griffiths Cup R2
WBA D-Squad 45 Vs 55 Leadonites
(Q1: 12-17 / Q2: 7-12 / Q3: 13-12 / 13-14)
After last week's great win away at Bournville Bears in the regular league schedule it was another trip up the M5 to Birmingham and this time to the rather plush surroundings of Sandwell Academy, opposite The Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion FC.
WBA D-Squad Basketball Club are part of the WBA Foundation and run a number of teams at in the YBL and at the higher National League level. And so WBA had a 12-man squad with just two U15s, a couple of U13s and the remainder all U14 in age.
Josh Spriggs won the tip-off and Leadonites were soon in front through a deuce from team captain Michael French. WBA came straight back with a 3-pointer to take the lead and that proved to be their only lead of the match as JJ Hobson replied with a 3-pointer of his own. From their on the strength and height superiority paid dividends over and over for Leadonites as the offensive presence of Spriggs and the defensive power of Teo Calvo-Whitelegg pushed the Ledbury club on to a 15-12 end of quarter lead.
With Alessio Miccio and Finlay Chalkley joining Spriggs, Hobson and French on the second quarter score sheet Leadonites were 29-19 ahead at the half-time break.
WBA came out in the second half with renewed purposed and set about cutting into the Herefordshire club's lead so much so that Leadonites coach, Ian Robb felt forced into calling a time-out to stem the Black Country club's flow of play. The ploy worked and though the quarter was lost WBA were only able to pull back one point from the deficit with the three-quarter time score at 32-41 to Leadonites.
A similar time-out from coach Robb in the fourth quarter put the boys back on track regarding offensive ball movement and a basket from French ( 6 pts), two-apiece from Hobson (15 pts) and Calvo-Whitelegg (6 pts) and three more from Spriggs, on his way to a game high 20-points saw the Leadonites home despite a late 3-pointer from WBA's Clarke.
This was a good win for the boys against a young but well drilled and motivated West Bromwich Albion team. That's 4 wins out of 5 matches for this season from the U15s so far this season. Last season's U14s only won 3 games throughout the 2016/17 season in total!
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