Collier’s Basketball girls on the up

 

The South Lanarkshire Colliers U16 and U14 girls programme are now looking to be a force to be reckoned with. After only one year the U14 girls team has gone from finishing 2nd last to finishing 3rd in the West regional development league and the U16 team finished 6th in their first season in the National League division 2.

 

The U14 team are made up of players who are all under the age of 13 which gives them all one more season within this age group and to finish in 3rd place is testament to how hard they have worked and how committed they are to getting better.

 

All of these players also play in the u16 national league team with 3 of the players also competing with the Colliers U18 team in NL Division 1.

 

With such a young group of players competing at several different age groups and doing well, the future is bright for these youngsters. The Colliers have 8 girls involved with the Future Starz programme, which is a programme, aimed at finding the next Scotland International players.

 

The U16 girls finished 2nd in the Strathclyde League and recently progressed through to the semi finals of the National League division 2 play offs (March 15th) with a tough win over 3rd placed West Lothian Wolves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Head Coach Ross Hutton commented: “It was an end to end game right from the start with neither team really making a break for it.

 

“We knew they had some really good players and as we were missing 4 of our players, we had to come together and really focus on playing as a team.

 

“Going into the 3rd quarter we didn’t capitalise on all the easy chances we managed to make for ourselves and this cost us as Wolves took charge of the game.

 

“It didn’t help with Katie Burn leaving the game with 5 fouls, but that wasn’t the end of us.

 

“The whole team managed to find another gear and their hours and hours of practice paid off as they managed to claw back the lead through Carla Crowther and Rachael Tonnar who scored all 20 points in the fourth quarter between them.

 

“I am so proud of what this group of players has achieved so far and am excited about what lies ahead for all of them.”

 

We look forward to seeing what this group of players does next!