UBL Competition heating up
Drayton Manor High School continues their relentless campaign in Wild West Division by beating Dormers Wells High School 71-41. The result certainly does not reflect the true nature of this physical encounter played at “Drayton Den”.
Dormers Wells, strengthened by Reuben Montero who has returned to their roster from injury along with the powerful Raeed Islan scoring under the basket put Dormers Wells ahead by 10 points by the end of the third quarter despite a much taller Drayton frontline.
In the fourth quarter Draytons Brooklyn McCoy finally was able to establish his dominance under both baskets and the final result of the game became a forgone conclusion.
In the Big East Division two very young teams of Alec Reed Academy and Haydon High School inaugurated their campaign in the UBL. ARA superbly guided by Dominic Kolesnikovas had a slight advantage from the very beginning of the game. However, Haydon led by Ollie Wade was never trailing by more than 6 points. Superb defence from Liam Campbell and a couple of long distance shots from Kolesnikovas allowed ARA sail to a 46-36 victory.
Haydon’s mood certainly was not improved two days later when they travelled to William Perkin CofE School and found themselves on the wrong side of a 35-15 result. William Perkin led by “Twin Towers” Kai-ern Thompson and Karol Loskot dominated the paint and were scoring at ease from close range. Haydon led by the diminutive Bethel Mandozana was scoring quite well from outside but their ability to penetrate was significantly reduced by the presence of a powerful Wiliam Perkin frontline. Haydon must take a lot of comfort from the fact that despite fielding the youngest team in the entire league they are able to successfully compete against much more physical opposition.
In the second game in the Wild West Division we witnessed the introduction of yet another team which could be seen as one of the main contenders in the league. Brentside High School showed their strength by beating Elthorne Park High School 58-11. Brentside led by Shahan Ali Raza and Jawad Yzdani applied a pressing defence from the beginning of the game which caused havoc among Elthorne’s team. Brentside also capitalised on their advantage in size which allowed them to dominate both boards. Elthorne was limited to responding via their two ultra-fast guards Nezelle Soberano and Josh Descades who found penetrating Elthorne defences increasingly more difficult while the game was progressing.
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