International Success for our U14’s 18/05/2015
London United’s U14 team has topped their very successful season with the victory in the international tournament in Tournai, Belgium.
The tournament was held in the beautiful city of Tournai where our players had the chance to see and learn about other cultures. The organisers were very friendly and our youngsters really enjoyed whole time spent in Belgium.
United started off with a game versus the local team Kluisburgen which came up to be easiest of the tournament winning comfortably, 58-15.
The second game however, was a completely different matter when Lille BC provided very stern resistance but United still managed to end up on the right side of a 40-27 result
The final game of the group stage was against the also undefeated BC Bourbourg. The first half was a shock to our team with the French side playing really good defence and shot the ball on a high percentage. At half time United was down 7-22. The second half our U14’s started with much more aggressive defence which led them to easy fast breaks. With 45 seconds to go United tied the game 30-30, on the last possession United’s Point Guard Rangel Adap went for a layup giving our Londoners a 32-30 win.
On the second day of the tournament in the Semi Finals our u14’s faced the very talented Stade Francise de Paris. Our players knew they couldn’t get away with the slow start like against Bourbourg and from the very beginning put up a great team performance. A very balanced offence led by R.Adap, J.Tiongson and P. Njeru led to a very important win 41-28. We were off to the final to yet again face BC Bourbourg.
The final game of tournament was watched by over 100 supporters who actively taken part in supporting both teams.
It was United which took the first quarter 17-15 but the French team never gave up and made it level at Half Time. The third quarter saw United taking a 10 point lead but at the beginning of 4th quarter a barrage of 3 three pointers saw Bourbourg cutting the lead to just 1 point. Our Londoners replied with great team offence and secured a 56-47win.
Head Coach Daniel Szatkowski said: “It was such a great experience for our young team. We knew we will have to play our best if we want to compete in this strong tournament. We moved the ball really well and communicated on defence which helped us achieve what we achieved. It was great to see some players stepping up with their game. It’s definitely not our last international tournament before next season and we’ll be looking to build up on this experience. Big thanks to my Assistant Coach A.Kolesnikovas and all parents who helped to make it all happen.”
It’s worth mentioning that our captain Kevin Kolesnikovas took part in the final of the 3 point contest. He eventually came 3rd which is a great result. Well Done!