SL Colliers v Glasgow Rocks

SLBA CUP Under 16 Men

Nov 19th 2013

 

 

The under 16 Colliers took a trip to Knightswood Secondary to take on the Rocks in the SLBA cup.The Colliers opened the scoring with a Chris Duncan lay-up in the first 30 seconds but it was quickly followed by a 10-0 run by the Rocks as they stamped their authority on the game. Scotland forwards Jason Carr and David Adebayo combined for 18 points midway through the first quarter and proved too much to handle for the Colliers.

 

Colliers worked hard on offence to pass and cut, move the ball, and find the open shot and were successful in doing so however the shots weren’t going in as much as they would have liked. Blair Cannon and Drew Clayton managed to get on the score sheet with some nice finishing around the hoop but it wasn’t enough to trouble the Rocks as they took a commanding 31-8 lead.

 

Colliers began the 2nd quarter working on their offensive action but the main focus was limiting the Rocks main scorers points. The Colliers were successful in doing so however, other Rocks players seemed to be on form knocking down their open looks and yet again storming off to an even bigger lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going into the half 62-14 down, Coach Hutton set the target of going into 4th quarter (80-30) and focus on individual and team defence. The Colliers came out and played their best defence so far, limiting the Rocks the 18 points and achieving their target, however, offensively they only managed to score 4 points. Colliers were getting themselves into great scoring positions at times but failed to convert. Furthermore, there were times when the Colliers players made it hard for themselves by driving into 2 or 3 defenders, which resulted in several turnovers (80-18).

 

Coach Hutton yet again set the target for the quarter (100-30) and focussed the attention on playing hard and smart. The Rocks had other ideas and managed to score 16 unanswered points to start the quarter. Promising play by Ciaran Hughes and Ozcan Ogur couldn’t lift the Colliers game to achieve the goal set out at the start of the period. The Rocks ran their bench and displayed a level of basketball, which isn’t out of reach for the Colliers.

 

Coach Ross Hutton commented:

 

“The Rocks team on show was exactly where we are right now 3 years ago. I coached that team back then and was on the receiving end of very similar score lines to every team we faced. With 11-14 year olds we played in the cadet league just as the Colliers do now. 

 

“Every player apart from 2 on the team Colliers faced last night was part of that set up and 3 of them are now Scotland U15 internationalists with another 2 or 3 on the fringes of that level.

 

"So it’s no surprise that we lost last night and have to take as much as we can from it and get better.” “I for one am very excited about the direction we are heading in and very pleased with the improvement I have seen since we started.”

 

Final Score: Rocks 113 - Colliers 24