England Basketball Celebrated
the FIBA Europe
Year of Women's Basketball
England Basketball hosted an Inter-Regional Girls U-17 Tournament as part of the celebration of FIBA Europe Year of Women's Basketball. Held over three days at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, the event brought together top players from the U-17 age group, representing all ten regions.
The teams will competed in over a total of 30 games, culminating in tournament playoffs to establish the top basketball region in England. Attended by England Under 18 coach Deirdre Hayes, the event opened on Friday 30 June 2006 with the first tip off scheduled for 12:00pm.
The Year of Women's Basketball scheme, established by FIBA Europe, aims to increase the popularity and recognition of women's basketball. England Basketball is pleased to support and promote the scheme, starting with what promises to be an exciting weekend of basketball. For more information on the Year of Women's Basketball and the aims of the scheme, visit the FIBA Europe website. Over the weekend of the 30th June - 2nd July a select group of under
17s girls competed in the FIBA year of the woman tournament held at
the English Institute of Sport Sheffield. The Yorkshire squad had
been hastily formed and short of team practice, the team consisted
of young stars from Doncaster Panthers, Sheffield Hatters and
Hatfield Fliers National League programs. Yorkshire were drawn in a
tough group with South West and London teams, the team played
superbly on the first day beating East Midlands comfortably then
disposing of the East with ease. The final game of the day saw a
big team effort from the Yorkshire girls who dug deep to defeat a
tough London team by a narrow margin. Colette Hunt and Naomi
Campbell lead the team in scoring but Frankie Morton came up with
three crucial plays on both the offensive and defensive end to help
ice the game, Jade Skelton hit a clutch three pointer to end any
chance of a London comeback, capping off a terrific team
performance.
Yorkshire U17 Girls
suffer heartache at final hurdle
after glory was
within grasp
After some much needed rest and rehydration on Friday night the
team re-assembled Saturday morning keen to continue their winning
streak and cement the top spot in Group B with a victory over the
South West team who were also undefeated in the tournament so far.
The game posed a tough challenge for the Yorkshire squad because the
South West team was made up from under 18 England players and their
domestic team mates this connection showed on court as they played
very well together. The Yorkshire teams impressive skills and
fundamentals helped them to overcome a tough full court press
keeping the game close leaving Yorkshire just six points behind with
five minutes remaining in the game. The five on five off tactic
proved the undoing of the Yorkshire comeback and the South West
increased their lead to twenty points in a short period of time, the
game ended with Yorkshire going down by a margin of sixteen points.
The team had a six hour wait till their next game because of
their success in previous matches giving the girls a chance to
recover from a punishing group decider. even though the team had
suffered a tough loss the teams moral was not low and spirits were
high because they still had a shot at the gold medal. They had to
play Group A's winners South East, another tough team with the
majority of players coming from the same club. After some team bonding exercises, some good nutritious food and
numerous energy drinks the Yorkshire girls took the court with full
intention of dominating the game to get another chance to play the
South West. Despite the Yorkshire girls determination the South
East ran away with the game winning by a sizable margin. Once again
the five on five off tactic made it hard to find any continuity but
the girls did show signs of how good they could have been if they
were given more chance to prepare. All was not lost as the girls
had the game of their lives Sunday competing for the bronze medal.
After a good nights rest probably dreaming of emulating the
England National Women's team who competed in the Common Wealth
games. The girls tipped off against the team who were the
pre-tournament favourites the North West. Animosity over the
refereeing could be seen from both teams early on in the completion
with both Jimmy Mcginn and Neil Lovell expressing themselves at some
of the more questionable calls which left Frankie Morton and Naomi
Campbell in foul trouble early with Campbell forced to sit out much
of the first half. Colette Hunt let the scoring for the home side
and there were strong defensive efforts off the bench from Amy
Field, Frankie Morton and Becky Turner helping Yorkshire to a one
point lead at halftime. The second half mirrored the first with
each team battling and making big plays. Although the game was
shadowed by bad calls from the officials with a total of six points
from Colette Hunt being waved off after perfect execution of the
step through move, sending the Yorkshire coaching staff and fans
into a frenzy. Then both Frankie Morton and Naomi Campbell were
fouled out. This left the girls up by two points with just over a
minute to go. Kerry Matthews displayed tough defence in place of
the fouled out Morton to keep the advantage in the home sides favour
entering the last thirty seconds. Bedlam erupted as the official
gave a blocking foul against a perfect Yorkshire defensive play
allowing the North West to display their talents and tie the game up
with eight ticks left.
Everyone was set for a dramatic overtime
finish when the North West committed a crazy foul with 1.4 seconds
left sending Yorkshire to the line. Unfortunately Yorkshire was
unable to convert either sending the game into overtime. Both teams
showed their character by playing excellent defence keeping the
score tied until Kerry Matthews broke the tension by hitting a tough
left handed runner in the lane with the shot clock running down
putting the Yorkshire girls up by two points. There was more tough
defence from both teams before a foul sent the North West to the
line where the knocked down one of two. Another tough runner just
fell short as the shot clock expired then each side turned the ball
over. North West was once again sent to the line and converted both
but this was because of arguably one of the worst calls of the
tournament. Coach Lovell called a time out to give Yorkshire a
final chance but the North West defence was too strong and the
inbounds pass went to a player cutting away from the basket and
sadly time ran out in a hard loss for the Yorkshire girls, but for
the neutral this was definitely one of the best games in recent
memory.
Sadly for the Yorkshire girls no medals were gained but the
experience can only have benefited what was a great young Yorkshire
team who can be very proud of the adversities they overcame and
their accomplishments through the weekend. " Well done girls you made
everyone in Yorkshire very, very proud. Your professionalism on and
off the court and your skills on the court are a credit to
yourselves, your clubs and your families that you represented ", Nick
Dawson Team Manager.
Report by
Andrew Marr
Yorkshire U17 Girls 2006
