United finish second in inaugural Hoopsfix Pro-Am

Despite being by a large margin the youngest team in the league, London United came agonisingly close to winning the inaugural Hoopsfix Pro Am Summer League which was set up to bring together the best of British basketball, targeted at elite level players.

London United which was based on a roster of our Academy after finishing second in the group stage was pitted against Thames Valley Cavaliers in the semi-finals. Cavaliers which largely rely on their Division One roster had no answer to United’s fast ball movement and constant fastbreaks. United steadily led by Daniel Azancot and Afra Khalil gradually pulled away as they established a double-digit advantage in the third and never let up with Peter Turay putting the finishing touches on the win in the final period. United has led effectively throughout the entire game and sailed to a relatively comfortable 63-52 victory,

In the final United faced Glacier Boys who, bolstered by GB Senior players Carl Wheatle and Robert Gilchrist were seen as hot favourites.

As predicted, Glacier Boys started strong and jumped out to an 8-2 start. However, London United responded quickly as Romario Spence netted a couple of triples to put his side 13-10 ahead after 10 minutes. Glacier’s sharpshooter Joe Hart’s three sparked a 6-0 close to the half as Glacier Boys moved back ahead at 26-22.

In the third quarter Glacier had 35-29 advantage soon became a 35-42 deficit as the trio of Spence, Tomiwa Sulaiman and Peter Turay combined in a 13-0 burst to put London United on course for the title. Not to be undone, experienced Glacier Boys found an answer in the fourth and re-took the lead at 50-47 after an acrobatic 3 pointer from London Lions Bradley Kaboza. From that moment both teams traded baskets and no side was leading by more than 2 points. Unfortunately a couple of costly mistakes in the last 60 seconds denied United the title.

Despite just missing out on the title the United roster put in some stand out performances with Peter Turay earning the Hoopsfix Pro-Am tournament MVP averaging 17.5 points per game with 60 points across the first three appearances in the league.