Thriller at Greenford

The first “almost buzzer beater” took place at Greenford High School who beat Alec Reed Academy 39-37 courtesy of Marcus Rodrigues’s shot 3 seconds before the end of the game. From the very beginning it was a very closely contested encounter where Alec Reed’s movement and outside shooting made up for their severe physical disadvantage. Alec Reed was leading by 12 at the interval but Greenford’s dominance of both boards started paying dividends and “Green Army” reduced the deficit to a single point at the end of the third quarter. The last stanza was dominated by trading  baskets with neither side able to take a decisive lead. The diminutive Liam Campbell was performing heroics on both end of the court for Alec Reed Academy, however they were not able stop Rodrigues from taking last shot securing a win for Greenford High.

Cardinal Wiseman High School has waited over 2 weeks to be introduced to the UBL, but what anintroduction it was! Very well organised and quite deep, Wiseman’s team started dominating the game from the very beginning when fast moving guards Nicolo Di Martino. Gracjan Skorrzewski  and Jacob Oliva easily penetrated Northolt’s defences. Very soon Wiseman also established their dominance on both boards allowing them to score easy points from very close range and also initiate deadly fastbreaks. Coach Afiz Olaniyan was able to use his entire squad and still sail to 59-14 victory. Northolt’s main offensive threat came from a very hard playing Alan Todd.

Dormers Wells has recorded their second win by defeating Elthorne Park 36-30. The introduction of Will White and Da’King Thomas has transformed Elthorne into a very combative unit which based their strategy on aggressive full court defence and relentless driving to the basket. Their tactics were reasonably successful up to the mid of the third quarter when a much bigger Dormers team led by the athletic Alizahid Razaie was able to build a double digit advantage. Despite of the late rally Elthorne was unable to change the outcome of the game but certainly must feel very encouraged by their much improved performance.

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