Pre-Season Review (1)

Pre-Season for Dorset Storm’s National League teams got off to an early start this weekend as both the Under 16s and Under 18s teams were in action at Rossmore Leisure Centre.

The Under 18s split the two games they played, displaying solid defence and at times showing they are more than capable of breaking down defences with their offensive play.  All the players that played contributed to two good performances, but more work on controlling the tempo of the game to regulate shot selection will be the focus of training over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile the Under 16s stepped on the court for the first time as they look to improve on last years disappointing campaign.  The signs appear to be good with their defensive display in particular improving throughout the day.  There is still work to do offensively but the coaches feel the players are now beginning to buy into the system they are being asked to work within.  Two performances which were better than anticipated for this stage in the season have given the coaches a headache in terms of selecting a team for the first match in four weeks time.

Intensity at practice must now step up a gear for both teams as they continue their preparations for the new season.  To see the National League Fixtures for the 2009 - 2010 season click here.

Pre-Season Review (2)

Dorset Storm Under 18s completed their pre-season this weekend.  A couple of decent performances will undoubtedly please coach Mike Stoddard as his team are now less than a week away from their opening National League match.  Greg Message was in particularly good form as he regularly outworked the other team to score some ‘ugly’ but crucial points in and around the key.  Meanwhile, Jamie Old continued to provide the outside threat, and Martyn Williams played solid defence off the bench as the Under 18s registered two wins on their final pre-season weekend. 

The Under 16s were also in action, playing two matches, both of which were against Under 18s teams.  Quick starts in both games saw them be competitive on both occasions in the first half, but a lack of ball movement and persistence at the offensive end saw them twice fall just short in the second half. Ollie Heath led all scorers with 10 or more points in both games, but with minutes being well spread a total of 13 players scoring.  Gabriel Gordula played tough defence despite being battered all over the place and Seb Darby contributed all over the court making his first appearance of the year.  Two performances that will have again impressed the coaching staff.

The Under 16s have a few more weeks training before their first home match against Wiltshire Wolves.  This gives the players a last chance to impress the coaches before they select their first team of the season.  Meanwhile the Under 18s have just one week to fine tune their ideas before travelling to Barnet to take on the Bulldogs.

To see the National League Fixtures for the 2009 - 2010 season click here.

NBL Under 18s Vs Woking Blackhawks – 10-10-2009

Dorset Storm               (9, 23, 21, 17)          60

Woking Blackhawks  (19, 22, 24, 26)          91

Dorset Storms Under 18s welcomed Woking Blackhawks to Rossmore for a Southern Conference Match.  The team were looking to improve on last weeks performance and would be hoping that home court advantage might make the difference. 

This week the team welcomed back Karl Readhead and Greg Message who missed last weeks match.  Storm started poorly though as Woking took an early 6 – 0 lead thanks to two ‘and-ones’.  Doug Nelson then scored from the wing.  Several plays ensued with the teams exchanging baskets, before coach Mike Stoddard called a timeout with four minutes remaining and the score 7 – 10 to Woking.  Things clicked for Woking out of the timeout however, as they ended the quarter on an 8 – 2 run to lead 19 – 9.

Woking opened with two scores inside, before a Tom Havelock triple got Storm off the mark in the quarter.  Two further scores from Havelock and three baskets from Message saw Storm close the deficit to five points.  Over the last three minutes of the quarter the teams exchanged baskets again, with Havelock taking his tally for the quarter to nine personal.  The final basket of the quarter went to Woking though as they held a 32 – 41 advantage at the half.

Both teams started the second half aggressively, the key difference being the consistency of finishing from the visitors compared with the inconsistent finishing of the home side.  As the quarter went on Storm appeared to drop their heads and this caused several turnovers in quick succession.  In the final three minutes of the quarter seven points from Message helped Storm claw their way back, but Woking were now in control leading 43 – 65.

A huge task awaited the home team in the final quarter and they got down to it straight away as they picked off a couple of early steals.  Unfortunately they failed to capitalise at the offensive end as they committed some turnovers trying to force the action when it was not necessary.  Regular scores from Readhead, Message and Tom Eads keep the scoreboard ticking over for the home side, but they failed to make any meaningful inroads into the visitors lead.  Woking ran out 60 - 91 victors in the end.

Coach Mike Stoddard was satisfied with the effort from most of his team, and felt that the 31 point margin of victory did not represent the difference in between the two sides.  For the home team Greg Message led all scorers with 15, joined in double figures by Karl Readhead and Tom Havelock – 12 and 11 points respectively.  Karl Readhead grabbed nine rebounds and dished out four assists whilst Tom Eads completed four steals to go with four assists playing extended minutes handling the basketball.

The Under 18s will have only this week to work out a winning formula as they face Solent next Saturday in Southampton.

Scorers: *Message 15, *Readhead 12, Havelock 11, *Eads 7, *Nelson 6, Smith 4, *Grey 3, Williams 2, Old DNP.

NBL Under 16s Vs Wiltshire Wolves – 17-10-2009

Dorset Storm              (20, 14, 24, 18)          76

Wiltshire Wolves        (18, 17, 13, 17)          65

Saturday afternoon saw Dorset Storms Under 16s kick off their season with a home match against Wiltshire Wolves.  The team were keen to start the season with a good performance, and provide themselves with a platform to build on for the rest of the season.  During the week training had not been the best, as the first signs of nerves and tension showed as the new season loomed.

Storm took to the floor with Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James at the guard spots while Ollie Heath and Dan Whisken slotted into the forward spots.  Wiltshire opened the match in more aggressive style, with the home side struggling to find a way to deal with the Wiltshire zone.  By the fourth minute, the visitors had raced out to an 11 – 2 lead before the home team had got settled.  A triple by Stephen Mahinay got the home side going and when the team showed patience against the Wiltshire zone they found gaps both inside and out to get good scoring opportunities from.  As the home side got going, scores from Mahinay, Gavin Short and Craig Wren helped the home side take a 20 – 18 led by the time the buzzer sounded.

In the second quarter both team exchanged baskets before back to back baskets from Short finished off some good defensive play to give Storm a 26 – 21 lead.  Their lead was short lived though as some lapses in concentration let Wiltshire score seven points in two minutes to get themselves back into the game.  Heath responded with a score from the wing, before a strong finish to the quarter saw Wiltshire go a 7 – 0 run.  At the half, the visitors led, 35 – 34.

James opened the scoring for the second half, before a tough score by Wiltshire.  Two offensive put backs - first captain David Rudenko and then Whisken – gave Storm the lead.  Storm then came alive as an 8 – 0 tear gave them a 48 – 39 lead.  Wiltshire though would not go away, as Storm appeared to panic when seemingly in control of the game to allow Wiltshire back into the game at 48 – 45 with two minutes to go.  Following a timeout, Storm again settled down and James and Short scored four points each  to help the home side take a 10 point led, 58 – 48, into the final stanza.

With a 10 point lead, Storm should have been confident heading into the final quarter but again they seemed to falter and allow the visitors back into the game.  The home side were timid defensively and gave up too many offensive rebounds for the coaches liking.  It wasn’t until the seventh minute when Whisken picked up his fourth personal foul that the home side had any spark.  Another put back by Rudenko, a basket off his own good defensive work from Short and back to back baskets for Whisken took the lead for the home side back into double figures.  Despite a timeout from Wiltshire to set up a set play and change defence, Storm kept their composure and Short was able to run in two more lay-ups in the closing minute as Storm finished victors 76 – 65.

This win certainly meant a lot to the players who were desperate to get off to a good start. 10 of the 12 players scored a basket and the coaches were quick to praise the contribution to all the players as everybody made a contribution to the victory in some way.  It wasn’t a perfect performance as lead coach Luke Kemish points out:

 “The intensity of the players was first class, we can still work on our concentration and focus which wavered in periods… but with the level of enthusiasm the players are currently showing I am sure this will come in time. We will keep on at the players and insist that they are striving for excellence.”

For the home side, Gavin Short led all scorers with 28 points, with Conor James contributing 14 to the cause.  Two charges from David Rudenko helped him led the way at the defensive end along with Mylo Ofei-Kwatia who also dished out three assists to go with five steals.  Finally, a big thank you to everybody that came down to support the team today.

The team will look to continue their good start with another solid performance next weekend as they hit the road and travel to their closest opponents Salisbury Sparks.

Scorers: Short 28, *James 14, Rudenko 9, Mahinay 7, *Whisken 6, Gordula 4, *Heath 2, *Ofei-Kwatia 2, Wren 2, Cohen 2, *Edgar, Baker.

NBL Under 14s Vs Plymouth Marjons Vs Swindon Sonics – 17-10-2009

Dorset Storm              (4, 10, 16, 10)             40

Plymouth Marjons     (6, 10, 18, 15)             47

Dorset Storm              (7, 12, 14, 7)               40

Swindon Sonics         (7, 12, 9, 11)                39

Dorset Storms Under 14s kicked off their NBL season with matches against Plymouth Marjons and Swindon Sonics at Rossmore Leisure Centre on Saturday.  The team would be without influential ball handler Michael Hester as his licence has not arrived from England Basketball yet and Jordan James who was ill.

Plymouth brought with them a tall and physical team but as the first quarter went on the home side showed everybody that they could compete.  At the end of the first quarter the score was 6 – 4 to Plymouth.  In the second quarter nothing could still separate the teams, Dan Saguirre was warming up for Storm however as he scored the final four points of the quarter as Storm still trailed by two going into the second half. 

More aggressive defence from Storm saw them take the lead for the first time, as Saguirre added two more baskets.  Again nothing could separate the teams heading into the final stanza.  The same story continued for much of the fourth quarter and heading into the final minute Storm trailed 40 – 41.  In the final minute the home side reverted to their old methods of head down and dribble into four players and lose the ball – this along with three needless fouls at the defensive end of the court saw Plymouth win the opening match of the tournament.

In the middle match between Plymouth and Swindon, Plymouth ran out 62 – 20 winners.

Strom headed into their second match of the tournament knowing that they would need to improve if they wanted to pick up their first win of the season.  However, they had a poor start and found themselves trailing 7 – 0 by the mid way point of the opening quarter.  Nothing that the coaches had talked to the players about between the games seemed to have stayed in as poor passing and too much dribbling saw Storm continue to struggle at the defensive end of the court.  Four points from Saguirre helped Storm pull the score back to 7 – 7 at the end of the quarter.  Charles Rillera helped Storm take the lead early on in the second quarter, but that lead did not last long as Swindon came charging back.  At the end of the second quarter the teams were still tied, this time at 19.

Storm had to improve in the second half, and Dan Message appeared to be the one player who understood this.  He started to find himself in good scoring positions and put the ball in the hoop more regularly.  Storm still looked disorganised at the defensive end of the court and by the end of the quarter had three players – Saguirre, Message and Docherty - on four fouls.  Despite having a five point lead to start the crucial fourth quarter they still could not get a firm hold on the game.  It wasn’t until a strong lay-up on the break and a free throw by Oscar Gosling in the penultimate minute made Storm look like they would win the game.  There was still time for Swindon to score another foul shot as the clock ticked down but Storm held on for a narrow 40 – 39 win.

For the home side Dan Saguirre led all scorers in the first game with 16 personal points on his Storm debut.  In game number two Dan Message scored 13 to lead his team, including eight in the third quarter.  The team will have to head back to training and work hard as there are lots of things that need improving based on these two performances.  They don’t have long to make the necessary changes as in two weeks time they head off to Bristol to take on Bristol Academy and Stroud Sharks.

Scores Vs Plymouth: Saguirre 16, Docherty 9, Rillera 8, Message 3, Palmer-Malt 2, Lawson 2, Gosling, Old, Donohoe, James DNP.

Scorers Vs Swindon: Message 13, Saguirre 8, Docherty 7, Palmer-Malt 4, Gosling 3, Rillera 3, Lawson 2, James, Old, Donohoe.

NBL Under 18s Vs Solent Kestrels – 17-10-2009

Dorset Storm              (18, 1, 10, 19)             48

Solent Kestrels           (20, 23, 27, 19)            89

Dorset Storm Under 18s travelled to Solent.  They would be looking to build on last weeks improved performance against Woking. 

A good start for Storm saw team exchange baskets throughout the first quarter as Storm trailed by just one basket, 18 – 20.  A slow start to the second period for Storm gave Solent a commanding led heading into the half time break.  Solent built on this lead early in the second half, but the Dorset players never stopped working and in the final quarter they began to play much better basketball and looked to have grown in confidence.

For a team that has only one player playing in the right age group – all the rest of the squad still have another year at Under 18s – they can be pleased with the improvement and determination that they have seen in their opening three games.

NBL Under 16s Vs Salisbury Sparks – 24-10-2009

Dorset Storm              (31, 24, 20, 10)           85

Salisbury Sparks        (8, 7, 14, 11)              40

On Saturday Dorset Storms Under 16s made the short trip North to take on Salisbury in the National League South Western Conference.  Storm won their opening match of the season last weekend with a pleasing performance against Wiltshire Wolves.  Storm made one change to their team for this weekends match with Seb Darby coming in for his first appearance of the season.

Storm stuck with the same starting five as last week, and this week they got off to a quicker start.  Despite conceding the point following a foul inside, the visitors went on a 20 point tear in the next six minutes to blow the game wide open early on.  That run included six points apiece for Stephen Mahinay and Conor James.  Storm continued to play aggressive defence and force Salisbury into mistakes, whilst moving the basketball well and selecting good shots at the offensive end.  A couple of crazy moments gifted Salisbury four foul shots in the last minute, where they took full advantage.  Perhaps more crucially for Storm was the fact that both Dan Whisken and Gavin Short picked up their third and second personal fouls with the match still in the first quarter.

Storm started the second quarter strongly, with David Rudenko and Mylo Ofei-Kwatia swarming over the Salisbury players defensively.  Indeed it took the Salisbury team to the seventh minute of the quarter to register their opening basket.  With all twelve players being fully used Storm were able to keep the pressure up at the defensive end of the court.  Disappointingly, the visitors were sloppy in the final minute again, yet again conceding four points all from the charity stripe.  At the end of the first half, Storm led 55 – 15.

Despite having a commanding lead, Storm set themselves some targets for the second half, wanting to take something out of every minute they were on the court.  Early on, they moved the ball well and exploited gaps in the Salisbury defence to keep on top of their opponents.  Oliver Heath led the way scoring seven early points.  As the quarter went on, Storm became sloppy at times at the defensive end of the court.  In the final minute of the quarter, Storm yet again conceded four points to take the shine off a good quarters work. 

It was Salisbury that started the better of the two teams in the final quarter.  They showed patience at the offensive end of the court and a lapse in Storms concentration saw them start go on a 8 – 0 run.  Gavin Short and Heath responded for Storm, but as the quarter went on both teams traded baskets in a rather lacklustre final 10 minutes.  Despite the poor final quarter Storm still ran out winners, 40 – 85.

It was a second win in as many weeks for Dorset’s Under 16s, but lead coach Luke Kemish was far from happy with the performance of his team:

“We still had a lot of mental lapses, the result was good but it is the quality of the performance we have been emphasising to the players...  We need to work hard this week to sharpen up in several areas to be ready for Taunton next week.  We know they will be ready to play hard, we need to prove we can match them in all areas.”

For the visitors, both Mylo Ofei-Kwatia and Conor James had solid games with seven steals and 12 points respectively.  However, it was Oliver Heath who led all scorers and rebounds with 21 points and eight rebounds.  It was another display that showed Storms strength in depth, with four players scoring in double digits, and 11 different players scoring in total.

Next weekend Storm are back at their home court as they welcome Taunton Tigers to Rossmore Leisure Centre.  The match tips-off at 1.30pm, all supporters are welcome to come and cheer on the Storm.

Scorers: *Heath 21, Mahinay 15, Short 14, *James 12, *Edgar 4, *Whisken 4, *Ofei-Kwatia 4, Cohen 4, Baker 2, Rudenko 2, Gordula 2, Darby.

NBL Under 18s Vs Oxford Brookes – 24-10-2009

Dorset Storm             (12, 12, 17, 11)          52

Oxford Brookes        (32, 31, 27, 27)           117

Dorset Storm Under 18s travelled to Oxford Brookes rather short handed on Saturday.  The tough start to the season for the team continued, but coach Mike Stoddard found himself without a huge number of options on his bench!

Despite the limited number of players, Storm put in a fighting effort but will be looking for a better result next weekend when they host Guildford.

NBL Under 16s Vs Taunton Tigers – 31-10-2009

Dorset Storm               (25, 29, 19, 14)         87

Taunton Tigers           (21, 15, 28, 17)          81

Dorset Storms Under 16s welcomed Taunton Tigers to Rossmore Leisure Centre on Saturday afternoon.  The visiting Tigers would provide the toughest test of the season so far to Storms Under 16s, a team who have had a great start to their season recording wins against Wiltshire and Salisbury.  Coming into the game Storm wanted to build on what had been a good week at training despite the usual absentees for half term and a couple of injured players.

Storm wanted to start strongly and kept the same back court of Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James, whilst the two forwards were the two Dan’s as Whisken was joined by Cohen who replaced the injured Oliver Heath.  It was Taunton who started the more composed of the two teams though, and some good ball movement saw them take advantage scoring the opening two baskets.  Storm looked nervous and took a long time to settle, and find the pattern at the offensive end of the court.  Six early turnovers from the home side allowed Taunton to take an 10 – 18 lead with three minutes to play.  Following a Seb Darby steal, which resulted in a basket for Gavin Short, Storm clicked into gear for the first time in the game.    A 7 – 0 run in the space a 90 seconds saw Storm take the lead for the first time.  Taunton responded, but it was Ofei-Kwatia who scored the final basket of the quarter to give Storm a 25 – 21 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Storm came out for the second quarter disappointingly slowly considering the hard work they had put in during the opening quarter.  Several rushed shots saw Storm lose their rhythm at the offensive end again, and by the third minute Taunton had retaken the lead.  Whisken re-entered the game in the fourth minute and immediately got to the foul line which sparked a mini six point run including four points from Edgar. Taunton replied and the game stayed at 31 – 32 for several possessions until Stephen Mahinay ignited a 11 point run which allowed Storm to open up the largest lead of the match at 43 – 31.  Storm continued to put pressure on the visitors and five points in the final minute from Short propelled Storm into the half time break with a 54 – 36 lead.

Storm knew that Taunton would not stop fighting and expected a run to come from the visitors at some stage.  Gabriel Gordula started the second half with a strong move inside followed a couple of possessions later by a three from the wing to help Storm settle down early.  As he picked up his fourth foul in the third minute of the half he headed to the bench and at the same time Storm lost their way.  Some forced shots at the offensive end of the court and lost focus at the defensive end of the court.  In a little over three minutes Taunton piled on 10 points before a Gavin Short lay-up ended their run.  Storm kept the game quiet for the next few minutes before another seven point run from the visitors reduced the lead to single figures with about three minutes left in the quarter.  Rudenko then took over offensively as he scored six points in a row for Storm and helped Storm close out the quarter with a 73 – 64 lead. 

The final quarter saw both team exchange baskets early on, with nothing coming easily as the defences tightened.  Three baskets back to back in the third and fourth minutes allowed Taunton to close the gap to just six points.  Whisken stepped up for Storm, first with a jumper shot form the wing then by finding his way inside to the basket and Storm once again had an eight point lead.  Storm made Taunton work hard to get good looks at the basket, and it was the visitors good foul shooting that kept them in the match.  In the final few minutes Storm once again found their rhythm at the offensive end, and Edgar took advantage as he found his way to the hoop for two final baskets that saw off the challenge for the resistant visitors.

It was a great game, contested hard throughout by both teams.  Storm found themselves under just as much pressure in the second half from the situation they were in (in the lead) as opposed to the opposition.  Leading throughout much of the match is a whole new position for this group of players and so far they have learnt quickly and played together to get through it.

The home side can thank a complete team effort for the result today with six different players scoring in double figures.  A season high 16 assists also shows that the team are starting to understand how important it is to move the ball and play together.  It was captain David Rudenko who had perhaps his best ever performance as he scored 16 points, many of which came at crucial times, and pulled down 11 defensive rebounds to record his first double-double.

Storm will want to have another good week at training to keep working on the areas that are not yet perfect before they are back on the road next week.  The team will travel to Bath to take on the Titans.

Scorers: Rudenko 16, Mahinay 16, Short 16, *Whisken 11, *James 10, *Edgar 10, Gordula 5, *Ofei-Kwatia 2, Wren 1, *Cohen, Baker, Darby.

NBL Under 18s Vs Guildford Heat – 31-10-2009

Dorset Storm             (13, 7, 9, 21)             50

Guildford Heat           (33, 28, 36, 41)          138

Dorset Storms Under 18s suffered another heavy defeat, this time at the hands of Guildford Heat.  Still missing several key players and without their ill coach Michael Stoddard the home side found themselves under a barrage of pressure and the visitors quickly took an 13 – 0 lead.  Greg Message converted an –‘and-1’ to give Storm their first points of the contest.  As the quarter ended the Under 16s who had volunteered to make up the numbers for the depleted Under 18s got their first taste of the action and scored 10 quick points against six from their opponents to help close the gap to 33 – 13 at the end of the first quarter.  Storm played better in the second quarter, but they still had problems dealing with the Guildford pressure on a consistent basis. 

Half time allowed Storm to set some targets for the second half.  As the home side tired, a few mistakes crept in at the offensive end of the court once they had beaten the Guildford pressure.   The final quarter saw Storm continue to improve and come the end of the game, despite loosing heavily they had met their targets. 

It will be important that the team has a good week at training to ensure they are ready for their away match against Reading Rockets next weekend.

Scorers: *Message 18, Whisken 6, *Eads 5, Mahinay 5, Grey 5, *Redhead 4, Rudenko 2, *Smith 2, Short 2, Nelson.

NBL Under 14s Vs Stroud Sharks Vs Bristol Academy – 01-11-2009

Dorset Storm              (20, 7, 20, 12)               59

Stroud Sharks             (7, 8, 24, 19)                 68

Dorset Storm              (15, 24, 20, 10)             69

Bristol Academy        (9, 2, 9, 16)                  36

Sharks Bite Storm
On a wet and stormy Sunday Dorset Storm travelled up to Bristol to play Severn Sharks and Bristol Academy.

The First game saw Storm start slowly losing 9-4 early on, but a scoring spree with Docherty , Palmer-Malt, Saguirre saw Storm take the lead 14-9 and Storm closed out the quarter 20-15.

But the 2nd quarter saw Storm go to sleep with the Sharks outscoring Storm 23-7 for the quarter with poor defence and shoddy passing being the biggest problem.

Whatever happened to Storm in the 2nd quarter, they put it behind them and put on a strong show in the 3rd with Docherty, Gosling scoring all the points as Storm pulled ahead briefing before ending the quarter only 2 points down.

Storm were feeling confident and at the start of the 4th and 4 quick points saw Storm again in the lead, but then we went to sleep, allowing Sharks to put up 10 unanswered points. The teams traded baskets from then on, leaving storm to lose by 9, 68-59.

Storm need to focus on their help defence and boxing out inside.

Scorers: Docherty 25, Saguirre 10, Gosling 9, Message 8, Palmer-Malt 4, Rillera 3, Lawson, Hester.

 

Storm Ground Flyers

The second game of the day was a relatively easy game versus Bristol with all Storm players getting on the board and sharing the points well. Storm put the game away in the 2nd quarter outscoring Bristol 24-2 effectively putting the game away.

Scoers: Saguirre 17, Docherty 12, Message 17, Gosling 6, Lawson 6, Rillera 4, Hester 4, Palmer-Malt 2.

 

Two poor second half's will be a big concern for Coach McKenzie as his team look to make amends for their earlier defeat against Plymouth when the two teams meet in two weeks time at Rossmore Leisure Centre.

NBL Under 16s Vs Bath Titans – 07-11-2009

Dorset Storm           (21, 25, 18, 26)        90

Bath Titans               (10, 4, 6, 11)           31

Dorset Storms Under 16s took to the road for their fourth match of the season, this time they made the journey to take on Bath Titans.  The team were eager to continue their good start to the season and would be looking to put in another improved performance in what would be their first real challenge away from home.  The coaches selected Rory Catton for the first time this season so he would be keen to put in a good performance on debut, Oliver Heath also came back into the team having missed last weeks match through injury.

Storm opened up with their normal starting five consisting of Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James in the back court, with Daniel Whisken and Heath in the front court.  Storm knew the importance of making a good start, especially away from home and they did just this at the defensive end of the court.  Offensively they also took good care of the basketball and created good scoring opportunities but time and time again in the opening six minutes of the game Storm missed lay-ups and wide open jump shots meaning that they only held a slender 6 – 4 lead.  A lay-up off his own good defensive work from Gavin Short, and five points in a row from Stephen Mahinay forced Bath to call a timeout.  Bath came back out more composed but neither team could really take control in the last few minutes of the quarter as baskets were exchanged with the score reading 10 – 21 in favour of Storm at the end of the first period.

Ofei-Kwatia opened the second quarter well for Storm, scoring the opening two baskets before Storey responded with four points of his own for Bath.  A score a few minutes later by Heath driving to the basket then ignited Storm.  Improved intensity on defence and some move variation on offence saw Storm score three consecutive baskets before Bath called their second timeout of the half.  The timeout seemed to have little effect for the home side, as Storm kept forcing them into contested shots and then taking full advantage at the offensive end of the court.  In the last seven minutes of the half Storm went on a 21 – 0 and run as they took control of the game to lead 14 – 46 at the half.

In the second half Storm set themselves some targets, wanting to keep focused for the entire match and not let their performance slip.  The visitors started the second half strongly as Whisken, Ofei-Kwatia and Edgar all played good defence and created some easy scoring opportunities early on.  Bath responded though with a mini 4 – 0 tear including an uncontested three from Bryant.  Dan Cohen began to make his presence felt in the middle and helped Storm take control in the second half of the quarter along with Gabriel Gordula who combined for seven points towards the end of the quarter.

To start the fourth quarter Whisken and Short took control early on, scoring the opening six points for Storm.  Bath went on another mini run this time 6 – 2 before Rory Catton took over for Storm.  Catton tore the Bath defence apart in the final five minutes of the match, scoring eight points as he slashed his way to the hoop on his debut performance.  Storm continued to play tough defence, with their post defence being particularly strong in the final quarter to force Bath to attack from the outside and limit their scoring opportunities.  As the final buzzer sounded Storm could celebrate a convincing 31 – 90 victory on the road.

The coaches were generally pleased with the teams performance and highlighted the fact that it was the first time that the team had won all four quarters in a match this season.  A season low of just nine turnovers will give the guards confidence that they can get the right people, the right shots, at the right time.  An area to work on though was defensive rebounding as the team gave up numerous second shot opportunities to the home side from which they were lucky to escape on several occasions.  For Storm there were some good individual displays: 20 points from Gavin Short; some great defence from Henry Baker; 10 points on debut for Rory Catton; five assists and a really assured ball handling performance from Mylo Ofei-Kwatia; and Dan Cohen bounced back with his best match of the season.  You would have to point the total team effort out again though as all 12 players scored a basket and every player grabbed a rebound or a steal to really share the workload effectively.

The team will need to keep focused at training this week ahead of the visit of Stroud Sharks, a team that will prove a stern test for Storm.  The match next weekend tips-off at 1.30pm at Rossmore Leisure Centre, all supporters are encouraged to come down and make some noise for the Under 16s.

Scorers: Short 20, *Whisken 12, Mahinay 11, *Ofei-Kwatia 10, Catton 10, *James 6, *Edgar 6, Gordula 5, Cohen 4, *Heath 2, Baker 2, Rudenko 2. 

NBL Under 16s Vs Stroud Sharks – 14-11-2009

Dorset Storm           (14, 15, 19, 24)        72

Stroud Sharks          (12, 12, 16, 10)        50

Dorset Storms Under 16s welcomed Stroud Sharks to Rossmore Leisure Centre for their fifth match of the 2009 season.  The team headed into the game following an unsettled week at training with lots of players missing for the various sixth form open evenings.  The coaching staff for the first time this season chose not to make any changes to their team as they were pleased with last weekend’s performance against Bath.

Storm opened up with their normal starting five, Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James in the back court and Ollie Heath and Daniel Whisken in the front court.  Having won the jump ball Storm quickly got the ball to Heath who converted inside to get the first score of the match.  Despite the quick start Storm did not settle down early on, especially defensively where they racked up three fouls in the opening two minutes. Stroud came back quickly and hard, by the sixth minute Stroud trailed by just two points 10 – 12.  Storm were struggling to find any rhythm at the offensive end, giving the ball away far too easily on far too many occasions.  Despite a rough first quarter Storm managed to squeeze a two point lead out of the first quarter, leading 12 – 14.

A poor start to the second quarter from the home side allowed Stroud to score six quick points without reply, and take the lead for the first time 18 – 14.  A Storm timeout allowed the home side to regain their composure, back on the court captain David Rudenko second inside and got to the foul line to stem the onslaught from Stroud.  A Stephen Mahinay three ball caped a 9 – 0 run for the home side.  A pair of free-throws from Stroud in the seventh minute temporarily slowed Storm before another six point run – including four personal from Heath - helped Storm take a 24 – 29 point into the changing room at the half time break.

Storm wanted to start quickly following a poor first half.  After the opening score from Stroud it was Rudenko and Ofei-Kwatia who quickly stepped up to help Storm on a 7 – 2 run.  A further 6 – 0 run later in the quarter, along with a change of tempo defensively saw Storm slowly increase their lead as the quarter went on.  Storm were now taking better care of the ball offensively, thus getting better quality shots. Unfortunately, the shots were still not dropping as regularly as they would have liked.  At the close of the third quarter Storm had increased their lead again, albeit slightly, to 48 – 40.

A lack of focus at the defensive end of the court saw Storm concede two quick baskets and thus see their lead cut to just four points.  This slack start forced a quick timeout from the home side, after which Whisken and Gavin Short combined for 10 points as Storm went on a 12 – 1 tear and took a 60 – 45 lead.  From that point on the game looked to be Storms. Whisken continued to find ways to score and several big rebounds from Rudenko at the defensive end limited the chances for Stroud to make any progress.  As the time ticked away, Storm spread the floor well and continued to take advantage as Stroud chased the ball.  In the end Storm run the game out to a final score of 72 – 50.

Despite faltering at times throughout the game Storm managed to keep their composure and fight through it, something that shows the strength and togetherness of the team.  It is also the second consecutive week that the team has won all four quarters in the match showing their increasing levels of concentration.  This week the team also managed to control the boards much more successfully, pulling down a season high at the defensive end.  Storm once again had a host of players appear on the scoresheet, and five of those made double figures.  Perhaps the pick of the players was Mylo Ofei-Kwatia who carried the team at times during the first half and once again took good care of the ball when completing the ball handling duties.  Good effort and hustle from all 12 players was again key and something that will have to happen next week when the unbeaten Plymouth Marjons come to Rossmore Leisure Centre.  Next weeks game tip-offs at 1.30pm, so get on down to Rossmore to support the Under 16s in their biggest challenge to date.

Scorers: *Whisken 14, *Heath 12, Short 12, Mahinay 11, *Ofei-Kwatia 10, Rudenko 7, *Edgar 4, Gordula 2, *James, Baker, Catton, Cohen.

NBL Under 14s Vs Plymouth Marjons Vs Exeter Eagles – 15-11-2009

Dorset Storm              (6, 9, 20, 9)               46

Exeter Eagles             (8, 4, 8, 17)               37

Dorset Storm               (9, 10, 14, 10)            40

Plymouth Marjons      (14, 15, 12, 20)           61

Eagles stopped by Storm
Dorset Storm hosted Exeter Eagles and Plymouth Marjons at Rossmore on Sunday 15th November.

First up were Exeter and Storm were poor in the first quarter going down 8-6 in a low scoring 8 minutes. The second quarter was not much better with poor passing and shot selection leaving Storm with only a 3 point lead 15-12 at the end of a very low scoring half.

Storm got into gear in the 3rd quarter finally, with Gosling, Docherty and Rillera all scoring to put 20 points on the board and Storm in command with a 35-20 lead. Storm were able to play all their players in the 4th quarter even with Exeter coming back. Storm won 46-37

Scorers: Dochery 16, Message 15, Gosling 8, Rillera 4, Rillera 4, Palmer-Malt 3, Old, James, Saguirre, Hester, Donohoe, Lawson
 

Marjons beat Storm
Following an easy win against Exeter, Storm needed to up their game to beat Marjons. The game started okay, with Storm staying close on 7 points from Message as Marjon took the first quarter 14-9.  The second quarter saw more of the same with Marjons number 6 driving to the hoop lots and making some easy scores with poor help defence from Storm. Marjons took the half 29-19.

Storm played better in the 3rd keeping pace with Marjons and Getting more points on the board, only being 8 points down at the end of the 3rd.  But the 4th saw Storm continue with poor passing and weak defence as Marjons outscored us by 10, winning 61-43.

Scorers: Message 18, Docherty 16, Palmer-Malt 4, Rillera 3, Saguirre 2, Gosling, James, Donohoe, Lawson, Old, Hester.

NBL Under 16s Vs Plymouth Marjons – 21-11-2009

Dorset Storm                       (8, 13, 14, 16)         51

Plymouth Marjons              (19, 15, 19, 14)        67

Injury update... good news following the Under 16s match on Saturday, Gavin is back home from hospital with "several butterfly's but nothing too serious"

Dorset Storms Under 16s team faced the unbeaten Plymouth Marjons at Rossmore Leisure Centre on Saturday afternoon.  The team were in confident mood and were keen to put in a good performance against a team that made the last 16 of the play-offs and were National Cup finalists (losing to Manchester) the previous season.  If you compare Plymouth success last season to a Storm side who, let’s be honest, make New Jersey’s current losing streak look like a blip then on paper this should be a one side contest.  Additionally, Storm were dealt an eleventh hour blow with the news that Mylo Ofei-Kwatia would not play.

Storm opted to go as like for like as possible with the inclusion of Henry Baker into the starting line up for the first time this season, alongside Conor James and Luke Edgar in the back court and Daniel Whisken and Oliver Heath in the front court. After scoring the opening point of the match as Heath split a pair of foul shots the home side looked intimidated and tentative at the offensive end of the court.  It took Storm a long while to adjust to the pressure of the Plymouth defence, and by the time Whisken scored their opening basket from the home sides 14th attempt of the game the score line read 15 – 3 to Plymouth.  Storm though had played some dogged defence and that had stopped the visitors from racing away with the match before a further score from Whisken and Gavin Short saw Storm trail at the end of the first quarter 19 – 8.

Storm wanted a better start to the second quarter and they got it, a 6 – 0 run, that came about from better ball and player movement, forcing a Plymouth timeout.  Plymouth responded with a run of their own to take their lead back up to 28 – 17.  Storm kept fighting and as David Rudenko took a charge and Dan Cohen played some good defence around the hoop Storm tried hard to keep themselves in the game.  A Stephen Mahinay three and a basket from Short resulted in the home side trailing by 13 at the half, 21 – 34.

Perhaps the most promising signs of how far this team has come this season were shown at the start of the second half.  Not believing that they were out of the game, Storm started the second half in a much more assertive manner.  Gabriel Gordula scored four quick points and Short added another to see Storm go on a quick 6 - 0 run.  A few plays later, with the deficit reduced to just five points, a travel call on Plymouth and a stray elbow was followed by a trip to hospital ending Short’s involvement in the game.  Following a lengthy delay whilst the court was cleaned Storm came out flat.  Plymouth on the other hand seized their opportunity and went a 10 – 0 tear, paused only temporarily half way through by a Storm timeout.  Towards the end of the quarter a 7 – 0 run from Plymouth saw them open up a commanding 20 point lead.  At the end of the third, the home team trailed 35 – 53.

Storm entered the fourth quarter in a position that they had not found themselves in so far this season.  Storm again started the final quarter well, but could not put the ball in the hoop despite creating some easy opportunities.  Edgar eventually got the opening score of the quarter with a jump shot from the wing and on the next possession followed it up with a strong drive along the baseline.  Further scores from Edgar, and Heath saw Storm bring the deficit down further as the quarter went on.  Storm kept playing hard to the final buzzer but in the end could not recover from the 13 point deficit that amassed during the opening quarter, going down for the first time this season 51 – 67.

Despite the defeat the home side can take lots of positives from playing hard for 40 minutes against a top quality side.  Apart from the first seven minutes the teams were pretty even and despite the big deficit faced early on, the players showed that they can be resilient and play some good basketball at times.  The lead coach Luke Kemish was pleased with the performance:

“If somebody had predicted this result at the start of the season there would have been a few sniggers and comments being banded about.  We can take real pride from our performances so far this season and hopefully the players can take something from this game.  We now know what we have to aim for in training over the next couple of weeks.”

Oliver Heath lead all scorers with 11 points, David Rudenko pulled down 11 rebounds and Dan Whisken finished with eight points and nine rebounds in a calm and composed performance.  Henry Baker also deserves some credit for a really solid defensive performance and taking extra responsibility with additional ball handling duties… although he can still work on his placement of drinks around the court and his backside on the middle of the chair he is aiming to sit on!

Storm now have a welcome weekend off to recharge their batteries ahead of what promises to be a tough road trip to Bristol.  Hopefully two good weeks at training will see the team ready to come out firing again at the City Academy. 

Scorers: *Heath 11, Short 9, Mahinay 9, *Whisken 8, *Edgar 6, Gordula 4, *James 2, Wren 2, *Baker, Rudenko, Cohen.

NBL Under 16s Vs City Academy Bristol – 06-12-2009

Dorset Storm                   (6, 17, 8, 11)           42

City Academy Bristol     (14, 14, 7, 17)          52

Dorset Storm Under 16s travelled to Bristol to take on City Academy Bristol on Sunday.  The team have had two weeks at training to prepare for this weeks match having had last weekend off.  Bristol are always a tough team at home and Storm had prepared well in the period leading up to the game.  The team already knew they were missing starting forward Conor James, and Henry Baker was a late drop out which saw Storm having to make two changes to their starting five from the previous week.

Coach Kemish chose to open with Mylo Ofei-Kwatia in the back court, back after missing the last match through injury, along with Luke Edgar and Gavin Short.  Up front for the visitors were Oliver Heath and Daniel Whisken.  Both teams started slowly, and some good defensive play by both teams dominated early on in the first period.  Bristol were the first team to get into their stride offensively though, as a 6 – 0 run put them up 10 – 4 in the eighth minute of the contest.  Storm were struggling to deal with the pressure from Bristol’s defence and with the turnover count hitting double figures in the first quarter found themselves trailing 6 – 14 as the buzzer sounded. 

Storm needed a better start to the second quarter and Rory Catton found Stephen Mahinay for the opening basket.  Bristol came straight back, and with Dorset switching defences it was the home team that struggled to find the basket towards the end of the quarter.  Baskets from Short, Whisken, Edgar and Heath narrowed the deficit as Storm trailed by five at the end of a low scoring first half, 23 – 28.

Storm wanted a quick start to the second half and they got exactly that as Short and Ofei-Kwatia found a way to the hoop.  Storm though never flowed offensively and consistently opted to take rushed shots as opposed to making the defence work by moving the ball and showing some patience.  A shocking shooting display scoring 4/22 from the field should have been enough for Bristol to have taken control of the game.  Some strong defence from Ofei-Kwatia and David Rudenko, including drawing two charging fouls kept the visitors in the game.   At the end of the third quarter Storm had cut the lead by one point, trailing 35 – 31.

A poor start to the final quarter saw Storm concede five points without reply.  The reply came from two lay-ups from Ofei-Kwatia and a three ball from Stephen Mahinay.  Bristol responded with three threes of their own, as Storm appeared to have given up on the result a little prematurely.  Bristol controlled the tempo for much of the final five minutes holding Storm at a comfortable distance and close out the match winner 52 – 42.

Coach Kemish, was disappointed with the performances of his team for the first time this season as they trailed from start to finish. Just nine assists concerned the coaches the most, along with the lack of attention to details shown at times during the game as coach Kemish commented afterwards:

“I’m not sure we cared enough about every possession today… giving 100% on every other possession is not good enough to win you games.

We must show more character and find our team ego again.  We aren’t good enough to win as individuals but we can beat anybody when we play as a team.”

Storm did control the rebounding department, but a season high 30 turnovers meant Storm never flowed offensively.  For the visitors, David Rudenko played some outstanding defence and picked up three charges.  Daniel Whisken finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds, although he will feel he should have done better at finishing around the basket.  Storms best player on the day was Mylo Ofei-Kwatia who finished with 10 points and four assists to go with some good defence slowing down Bristol’s premier player. 

Hopefully the players will do some honest thinking and evaluate where it went wrong this weekend.  There will be a lot of players who have to come to training this week and put in a good performance if they are to be selected for next weeks match.  They will also need to ensure that they get back to playing together as a team to ensure they are up for next weekend’s challenge which sees them take on Torbay at Rossmore Leisure Centre, starting at 1.30pm on Saturday.

Scorers: *Ofei-Kwatia 10, *Whisken 10, *Short 8, Mahinay 7, *Heath 5, *Edgar 2, Catton, Rudenko, Gordula, Cohen.

NBL Under 16s Vs Torbay Tigers – 12-12-2009

Dorset Storm           (23, 11, 20, 18)        72

Torbay Tigers           (14, 11, 12, 23)        60

Dorset Storms Under 16s played Torbay Tigers on Saturday in their last match of 2009.  There was a nervous tension about the squad as they prepared for this match, knowing the importance of bouncing back after last weeks disappointing performance against Bristol.  A good week at training had seen the fundamentals being the only focus, and the players beginning to respond to the challenges set by the coaches.

Storm were happy to have Conor James back this week after the forward missed last weeks match in Bristol.  He was joined in the starting five by the back court duo of Mylo Ofei-Kwatia and Luke Edgar, whilst Daniel Whiksen and Oliver Heath joined James in the front court.  Storm started well in the opening minute, as a couple of quick steals and some good ball movement offensively allowed them to get some open shots and take a 4 – 1 lead.  A Torbay timeout worked in Storms favour as the home side came out more aggressively as Ofei-Kwatia and James both made strong moves to get to the foul line and Whiksen scored twice from the perimeter.  Torbay replied but, as Mahinay drilled a three with his first touch of the ball Storm took a 14 – 9 lead.  The teams exchanged baskets for the remainder of the quarter until a second three of the quarter from Mahinay gave Storm their biggest lead at 14 – 23.

Torbay started the second quarter the stronger of the two teams as they cut the deficit by scoring the opening six points of the quarter.  Ollie Heath cashed in by scoring an open three point shot, sending Storm on an 11 – 1 run with further scores coming from Heath, Mahinay and Whisken.  Torbay though, closed out the quarter the stronger of the two teams as they managed to reduce the deficit back to the nine points that it was at the start of the quarter.  At the half then, Storm led 34 – 25.

Storm knew the importance of keeping their focus at the start of the second half and an 8 – 0 burst gave them a fifteen point led, 43 – 27 in the fourth minute of the third quarter.  A Torbay timeout saw the visitors play with increased resilience but some good defensive rebounding saw Storm limit the onslaught from their opponents.  As the quarter wore on Storm found themselves in a little bit of foul trouble as David Rudenko and then Whisken picked up their fourth personal fouls.  Six points to close the quarter from Gavin Short helped keep the visitors at bay as Storm won the third quarter by eight, and now held a healthy 54 – 37 lead.

The final stanza then would be a tough one as Storm would have to rest several key players who were in foul trouble.  Heath kept Storm going as he managed to get himself to the foul line on two occasions early on, splitting the foul shots on both occasions. Torbay though, sensed their chance and in a two minute spell went on a 7 – 2 tear to reduced the deficit to 10.  A timeout from Storm saw them alter the tempo of the game well, as Whisken, Rudenko and Heath took control of the game at the offensive end combining to scoring the final 13 points of the game for the home side.  The final minutes of the game seemed to take an eternity as both teams were hampered by foul trouble with a mammoth 28 foul shots being taken in the final quarter alone!  In the end though, Storm kept control of the ball and through (mostly) sensible passing and movement kept Torbay at bay to take the victory in their last match of 2009 by a score of 72 – 60.

The team were happy to put in a good performance that caps a remarkable turnaround for this cohort of players something that they can take a huge amount of pride from.  The coaches though are not completely satisfied yet, as Jill Kemish explains:

“It has been a remarkable effort from the players this season to turn around the predicament that they found themselves in.  They must keep their hunger to keep improving, the team still has plenty of capacity to grow further and really make a name for themselves.”

“Today was an important game for several players, there were some big performances from key players who bounced back well after last week.”

For the home side then, Daniel Whisken led the scoring with 19 points, also joined in double figures by Oliver Heath, Stephen Mahinay and Gavin Short.  David Rudenko pulled down ten rebounds and was helped out at the defensive end by guards Mylo Ofei-Kwatia and Henry Baker who put Torbay’s guards under constant pressure and took good care of the ball handling duties.  All in all a really good team effort – as shown by the number of assists which were back up totalling 19 for the match as the players started to play together again and help each other become better. 

A big thank you must go to all the players for their continued hard work and all the parents and supporters involved with this team.  The challenge now is to make 2010 even better than what 2009 has finished.

Scorers: *Whisken 19, *Heath 15, Mahinay 14, Short 10, Rudenko 5, *James 4, *Ofei-Kwatia 3, *Edgar 2, Baker, Darby, Gordula, Cohen.

NBL Under 18s Vs Solent Kestrels – 12-12-2009

Dorset Storm           (12, 12, 26, 20)        70

Solent Kestrels        (16, 27, 21, 19)        83

An excellent second half display proved that Dorset Storms Under 18s have what it takes to compete in the National League, as they outgunned Solent 46 – 40, but came up just short in their penultimate home match of 2009.

Solent enjoyed the better of the first quarter action as two 6-0 runs put them 15-8 on top. Storm fought back with Doug Nelson and Greg Message sharing the points in a 6-1 end to the period.

A 9-2 burst early in the second quarter soon had Solent ahead for good. The visiting side’s lead peaked at 43-22 on the back of a 14 – 0 run late in the quarter.  There was also some good work by Kaine Smith cutting the deficit slightly at half time.

Storm, though showed better composure at the offensive end in the second half, cutting the gap to 10 on several occasions in the third quarter, but it was as close as the visitors would get in this quarter as Storm won the quarter 26 – 21. Heading into the final stanza Solent led 50-64, crucially for Storm though Jamie Old had fouled out in the final minute of the quarter.

The home side continued to force the issue in the fourth quarter with some good defence creating scoring opportunities at the offensive end of the court. Storm managed to cut the lead to five points at 65 – 70 with a little over two minutes to play.  Storm though, ran out of ideas as Solent controlled the final stages with eight points in the final minutes keeping Storm at bay.

Scorers: *Message 28, *Nelson 9, Mahinay 9, *Smith 6, Wren 5, Whisken 4, *Old 3, Short 3, *Redhead 2, Havelock.

NBL Under 18s Vs Oxford Brookes Eagles – 19-12-2009

Dorset Storm           (16, 11, 11, 20)        58

Oxford Brookes       (28, 36, 30, 36)        130

NBL Under 14s Vs Swindon Sonics – 23-01-2010

Dorset Storm           (20, 17, 17, 16)        59

Swindon Sonics       (8, 13, 9, 17)           57

Scorers: Mahinay 17, Short 16, Whisken 7, *Heath 6, *Edgar 4, Darby, *Rudneko, Gordula, *Ofei-Kwatia, and *James.

NBL Under 16s Vs Salisbury Sparks – 23-01-2010

Dorset Storm           (8, 18, 19, 27)         72

Salisbury Sparks     (6, 4, 14, 15)           39

Dorset Storms Under 16s took to the court against their closest opponents Salisbury Sparks on Saturday afternoon at Rossmore Leisure Centre.  Storm were hoping to build on last weeks match, where they improved throughout the match, and in doing so pick up another win.  Storm would still be without several key and experienced players through illness.  The team did welcome back Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, after he missed last weekends match, and also added was George Williams.

Storm opened with Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Conor James and Luke Edgar in the back court and Ollie Heath and Daniel Whisken in the two forward spots.  Storm started aggressively, with the importance of a quick start being at the front of the player’s minds.  Ofei-Kwatia opened the scoring with a strong finish inside.  With the early rotation of players, David Rudenko was particularly influential defensively as Storm took a 6 – 2 lead by the half way point in the quarter.  Some sloppy play by both sides saw neither team take control of the game, though at the end of a pretty average first quarter Storm led 8 – 6.

Storm wanted to up the tempo of the game in the second quarter, something they managed to do successfully in the opening stages.  Gavin Short added a foul shot and a jump shot from the top of the key for Storm, split by a score inside from Salisbury.  Following a timeout by Salisbury, Storm opened up the game further with scores from Rudenko, Stephen Mahinay and Heath seeing the home side make a 9 – 0 tear in less than two minutes as Salisbury were forced to call a second quick timeout.  Although Salisbury found the basket a couple of possessions later, further scores from Short and Heath made sure that Storm scored the last six points of the quarter to take a 26 – 10 lead as the half time buzzer sounded.

Storm wanted to keep up the momentum early in the second half, and through some outstanding defence early on they managed to do just that.  Edgar and Ofei-Kwatia in particular led the way, putting Salisbury’s ball handler under constant pressure early on.  This sent Storm on an early six point run, which by the fourth minute of the quarter had become a 10 – 1 run.  Storm kept up their scoring offensively, though a procession of needless fouls gifted six points from the line in the closing minutes, taking some of the shine off a second good quarter from the home side who now led 45 – 24. 

Storm wanted to continue to improve in the final quarter and as Heath and then Whisken both hit three pointers following good ball movement and penetration Storm set the tone early.  Whisken was fouled shooting a slightly less well selected three point shot on the next possession, and Storm really had their tails up now.  The intensity at the defensive end remained high, as all the players worked really hard on the court before getting a well deserved rest on the bench.  Following a Storm timeout after Salisbury scored a couple of baskets Gabriella Gordula, Heath and Whisken combined for 11 points without reply for the home side during the middle period of the quarter.  Storm finished the match off strongly and as the final stanza ended Storm won 72 – 39.

Storm played well throughout this match, with some outstanding work at the defensive end really pleasing the coaching staff as Jill Kemish commented:

“Since Christmas we have been working on our awareness and quickness at the defensive end, the players are beginning to understand what we are asking them to do and executing it much more consistently now.”

Storm will be particularly pleased with the way they controlled the temp of the game, something that proved to be a problem in the first quarter last week.  Storm also dominated the rebounding department, despite being considerably shorter than their opponents, which limited Salisbury to only one shot attempt each time down the court.

Top performances for the home side included, seven second quarter points from Gavin Short, outstanding defence from Luke Edgar and 17 for Daniel Whisken and 16 for Ollie Heath.  The two best performance this week though came from David Rudenko who finished with eight points, seven rebounds and seven steals and Mylo Ofei-Kwatia who finished with six points, eight rebounds and three assists.

Next weekend Storm hit the road again as they travel to Taunton.  When the teams met earlier in the season Storm won a thrilling game 81 – 87.  They will need to be fully prepared and be at their best as Taunton have had several good results of late and will be a very tough team to play on their home court.

Scorers: *Whisken 17, *Heath 16, Short 11, Rudenko 8, *Ofei-Kwatia 6, Mahinay 6, Gordula 4, *James 2, *Edgar 2, Baker and Williams

NBL Under 16s Vs Taunton Tigers – 30-01-2010

Dorset Storm           (16, 14, 16, 12)        58

Taunton Tigers        (13, 14, 21, 21)        69

Dorset Storms Under 16s took to the road to visit Taunton for their third match of 2010.  Last time the two teams met Storm managed to fight their way to an 87 - 81 victory at Rossmore. Storm came into this game missing influential guard Luke Edgar, meaning that somebody would have to be prepared to pick up the slack, especially at the defensive end of the court.

The coaching staff made some rare changes to their starting five, Mylo Ofei-Kwatia and Conor James retained their places in the back court, but with Luke Edgar missing Stephen Mahinay was given his opportunity to state a claim for a permanent starting role.  In the front court leading scorer in 2010 Oliver Heath kept his place and was joined by captain David Rudenko for the first time this season. Storm wanted to avoid the slow starts that had featured in their previous two matches and they got their wish as both teams exchanged baskets early on with some good basketball.   Storm reaped the rewards from some better spacing and patience at the offensive end as they worked the ball inside for easy scores towards the end of the quarter.  Gavin Short scored five points in the final three minutes to guide Storm to a 13 – 16 first quarter lead.

The second quarter started in similar vain to the first as Heath and James netted for the visitors who maintained their lead.  Storm were working hard at the defensive end of the court, to make Taunton take tough shots, and as Rudenko scored three baskets in a row Taunton called a timeout. Taunton clawed their way back following the timeout but further scores from Heath and Short ensured that Storm held a three point lead, 27 – 30, at the half.

Storm opened up the second half wanting to concentrate on their focus and to ensure that their concentration, intensity and effort bettered that of their opponents.  With Heath opening the half with back-to-back triples Storm extended their lead.  Taunton would not go away though and a 6 – 0 run in the middle of the quarter brought them back to within two points, forcing Storm to call a timeout to bring a halt to proceedings.  Ofei-Kwatia scored the first basket following the timeout, but the intensity simply wasn’t their for a Storm team who decided to try and beat their opponents one versus five on far too many occasions, and far too often settle for the poor perimeter shot after just one or two passes.    Taunton proceeded to go on a 10 - 0 run, paused only briefly halfway through by Storms second timeout of the quarter.  By this time the coaching staff had had enough, and clearly demanded more effort and heart from their players.  In the last minute they got this as Whisken and Heath scored baskets following two good defensive possessions to close the gap on their opponents to just two points at 48 – 46.

Storm opened the fourth in a similar vain to the third, with back-to-back threes – on this occasion it was Short – as they retook the lead in the second minute.   Storm continued to hold the lead up to the fifth minute of the quarter when Taunton came back strong.  Storm stopped playing defence and without Rudenko on the court Taunton found their way to the basket inside far too easily and too often.  Poor defensive decisions by several Storm players were the cause, and a 6 – 0 run in the sixth minute soon became a 15 – 1 run as Storm went back to forcing shots, one-on-one or one-on-three on occasions, at the offensive end and failing to put in enough effort at the defensive end of the court to challenge Taunton to make tough shots.  As time ran out, Taunton continued to play hard and extended their lead to double figures, some that may be crucial come the end of the season.

Storm failed to execute offensively, showing little patience and reverting to the selfish one-on-one play that plagued them, last season.  Interestingly, Storms leading scorer in the first three quarters was Ollver Heath, in the final quarter he and his team mates only managed to get him one attempt at the basket – surely that makes little sense. Defensively some players need to look at themselves too, and ask whether on not they really put their best effort into the game as scores in the second half came far too easily for the Taunton side.  It was this that really disappointed lead coach Luke Kemish the most: 

“I’m not so much disappointed with the result; I’m more disappointed with the fact that we didn’t perform to our potential today… some of our players won’t be able to say to themselves ‘I gave it everything today’, that’s what’s disappointing, that should never happen.”

For Storm, Gavin Short led all scorers with 17 points in his best performance of 2010, Oliver Heath was the only other player in double figures as he added 12. Mylo Ofei-Kwatia also had a good game despite struggling with illness in the second half, and finished with six points and six rebounds as well taking the responsibility of slowing down Taunton’s main threat for much of the game.   It was captain David Rudenko who was the outstanding performer for Storm though, as he battled through a large number of minutes to pull down 13 rebounds, along with six points, six steals and four assists.  Storm will have to regroup quickly and once again do some searching for their team ego, rather than bloated individual egos as they hit the road again next Sunday to travel to Bristol to play the league leaders in the second match of a four game road stretch.

Scorers: Short 17, *Heath 12, Whisken 7, *Rudenko 6, *Ofei-Kwatia 6, *James 4, *Mahinay 4, Baker 2, Darby, Gordula.

NBL Under 18s Vs Woking Blackhawks – 06-02-2009

Dorset Storm                       (15, 25, 23, 15)        78

Woking Blackhawks            (16, 21, 28, 14)        79

Dorset Storms Under 18s played host to Woking Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon.  Woking had dominated Storm in the opening two encounters, including a huge 106 – 63 victory in December.  Storm were not helped by the absence of Kaine Smith and Greg Message on top of the scheduled absence of Doug Nelson and injury and illness to Gabriel Gordula and Henry Baker and of course coach Michael Stoddard was not available following his accident.  In fact, Storm could only field four Under 18s players – Jack Abrahams, Tom Eads, Karl Readhead and captain Jamie Old.  That meant Under 16s players Craig Wren and Seb Darby were drafted in to make up the numbers along with last minutes call ups for David Rudenko and Stephen Mahinay.

Storm started well, and by the fifth minute the teams could not really be split with the scoreboard reading five points apiece.  Following a Woking timeout, the visitors went on a 9 – 0 run to take a commanding lead.  Storm though kept playing as a team and as a result had got themselves right back into the game at 15 – 16 by the end of the first quarter.  The game remained an open one in the second quarter, with both teams playing  some good basketball, Storm moved the ball exceptionally well – possibly as well as they have done all season – and as Readhead scored the final four points of the half Storm went into the half time interval with a surprise 40 – 37 lead.

Disappointingly for Storm, Woking started the second half the stronger of the two teams and a 10 – 0 run over the opening three minutes gave them a 40 – 47 lead.  Old responded for Storm, but two further baskets from Woking saw them hold an eight point advantage by the mid way point in the quarter.  Eads and Redhead led a charge for the home side and a brace of baskets by Old handed Storm back the lead 55 – 54.  Both teams traded baskets for the final minutes of the quarter as Woking held a slender 63 – 65 lead heading into the final stanza.  Both team started the final quarter tentatively, until back-to-back three by Barber for Woking propelled them into a 66 - 75 lead with five minute to go.  Storm kept on going though, the Woking defence could find no answer for Eads and Readhead as the pair brought Storm back into the game.  A Readhead basket with 66 seconds to go brought Storm within one at 78 – 79.  Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, that is how the score stayed as the final seconds ticked away.

Despite the defeat the performance was outstanding for a team that was down to the bare bones.  It just shows what can be achieved with a group of players that work tirelessly for each other and have a good time whilst doing it. 

For the home side captain Jamie Old displayed great leadership, having to take on the responsibility of handling the ball, as well as pulling down numerous big boards and blocking several shots with good help defence from the weak side.  Tom Eads relentlessly attacked the basket for his 23 points and played tough defence.  Everybody would be in agreement though that Karl Readhead was the outstanding performer as he completely dominated Woking’s big men scoring 30 points in the process and pulling down millions of rebounds.  Storm now need to harness this new found team spirit and use to their advantage as they face Solent, Reading and Oxford over the next three weeks.

Scorers: *Readhead 30, *Eads 23, *Old 12, Darby 5, Rudenko 4, Mahinay 3, *Wren 1, *Abrahams.

NBL Under 16s Vs Bristol Academy Flyers – 07-02-2010

Dorset Storm           (8, 15, 14, 15)         52

Bristol Academy     (19, 9, 13, 8)           49

Dorset Storm’s Under 16 travelled to the currently unbeaten league leaders Bristol Academy Flyers.  The team had worked hard in training, wanting to make up for last weekend’s disappointing result in Taunton.  Storm welcomed back Luke Edgar into the line up and were looking like fielding a well balanced team following training on Thursday.  Unfortunately, as Friday and Saturday passed two players – Henry Baker and Gabriel Gordula – were forced to pull out with illness and injury leaving the team short on defensive aggressiveness and some height on the boards.  Things didn’t improve on Sunday morning as Stephen Mahinay let his team mates down as he failed to meet up at the agreed time.

Storm opened with the familiar line up of Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Conor James and Luke Edgar in the back court alongside Ollie Heath and Dan Whisken in the front court.  Worryingly though, they only had three players on the bench – David Rudenko, Gavin Short and Seb Darby.  Storm started well as some good ball movement resulted in back-to-back lapses in Bristol’s defence and Whisken followed by Edgar saw Storm head off into a 4 – 0 lead.  Bristol came back through some tough defence, and Storm somewhat lost their way, as they quickly started to force long range jump shots following little ball movement.  Storm struggled over the next four minutes as Bristol continued to play well offensively getting themselves to the basket and converting inside.  By the seventh minute Bristol had extended their lead to 12 – 4 and Storms coaches had little option but to use up a timeout to try and refocus their players.  Initially, the timeout seemed to have little effect, but Storm began to move the ball and back to back baskets by Seb Darby allowed them to cling onto some hope of saving the game as the score line read 19 – 8 at the end of the quarter. 

Storm continued to move the ball at the start of the second quarter and with several long and patient possessions found gaps in the Bristol defence to score the opening five points of the stanza through a Darby triple and James lay-up.  Bristol responded, but Storm remained composed and Gavin Short scored two baskets in the next two minutes followed by a Rudenko lay-up. Bristol were the team calling a timeout to halt a run.  Storm were now continuing to play good defence and rebound the ball well as well as move the basketball and play unselfishly at the offensive end.  Following the timeout, further scores from Short and Edgar allowed Storm to close the gap still further to finish the half trailing by just five points, 28 – 23.

Storm were now felling more confident, and this showed as they started the second half with an 8 – 2 run in which four different players scored.  Exactly what the coaches had been calling for, some team basketball that means the team can compete with anybody team in the league.  Storm continued to dominate and a three pointer by James gave Storm their first lead of the match, 32 – 34.  Further free throws by Short and James helped Storm hold a 34 – 37 lead with two minutes remaining in the quarter.  Storm though lost concentration as they got tired towards the end of the quarter, and as they missed a couple of easy chances round the basket Bristol took full advantage closing out the quarter with seven unanswered points.  This meant the home side had retaken the lead 41 – 37 and in doing so deflated the confidence of Storm at the same time. 

Storm used the two minute break to good effect, as they came out determined to preserve and fight their way back into the game again.  Whisken and Darby provided the perfect start as Storm opened the scoring for the visitors to close the deficit to 41 – 43 in the first three minutes.  Storm then hit a purple patch at exactly the right time.  Good spacing, ball movement and hard and intelligent cuts saw Rudenko, Short and Whisken combine for nine consecutive points, firing them into a 43 – 50 lead.  Bristol had a timeout and came back hard at Storm over the next couple of minutes, closing the gap to 49 – 50 with less than a minute remaining.  Storm though, kept their cool and control of the ball (well for the most part!) and closed the game out from the free throw line to win 49 – 52 and hand Bristol their first defeat of the season.

The coaches were just as pleased with the performance as with the result as Jill Kemish pointed out following the game:

“We played as a team this week, all eight players scored and we cut down on our unnecessary outside shots.  Our work ethic was excellent tonight and all the players were prepared to give the side bursts of energy and intensity all the way through the 40 minutes.”

Storm will need to continue to work hard and improve though as they head into the final month of the season.  Gavin Short was the only player on double figures for Storm, but that should be seen as a good thing as the 52 points were well spread amongst the eight players.  Seb Darby and Conor James played well and David Rudneko was once again a force at the defensive end of the court.  Today’s performance was less about the individuals and more about the team effort though as some excellent defence and assists on over half the teams baskets show.  Storm need to keep their foot on the gas pedal as they face their third consecutive road trip as they head North to taken on Stroud Sharks next Sunday.

Scorers: Short 11, *James 9, Darby 9, *Whisken 8, *Edgar 5, *Heath 4, Rudenko 4, *Ofei-Kwatia 2, Mahinay DNP.

NBL Under 16s Vs Stroud Sharks – 13-02-2010

Dorset Storm           (10, 16, 24, 24)        84

Stroud Sharks          (21, 11, 21, 41)        58

Dorset Storm Under 16s took to the road for the third consecutive weekend as they headed North to face Stroud Sharks at the Thomas Keble School.  Storm would be looking to build on last Sunday’s thrilling game at Bristol in which they beat the league leaders by just three points having come back from 13 down in the first quarter.  The eight Storm players that made the trip last weekend retained their places with Gabriel Gordula and Henry Baker added, having missed the Bristol encounter through injury and illness. 

Storm opened with a familiar starting five of Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James in the back court and Oliver Heath and Dan Whisken in the front court.  Storm wanted to get off to a good start and they certainly looked the better of the two teams early on – though in all honesty neither team could claim they hit top form from the tip-off.  Storm did hold a 6 – 2 advantage following scores from Edgar, Whisken and Heath.  Stroud quickly responded with back-to-back baskets in less than 30 seconds before taking the lead two possessions later 10 – 7.  The Storm coaches had seen enough and quickly called a timeout to refocus their players.  Storm were getting outworked in the rebounding department and eight turnovers showed their lack of concentration and also slowed their progress.  David Rudenko responded as he went coast-to-coast to bring Storm closer and Heath split a pair of foul shots, but as the end of the quarter came Storm still found themselves tailing 12 – 10.

Having used the two minutes between the quarter to reflect on the opening 10 minutes Storm were much quicker to get going in the second quarter.  Luke Edgar started brightly pulling down two big defensive rebounds and picking up two steals.  Storm finished well on the break and began to move the ball better offensively.  This good team work together with more assertive movement off the ball by individuals allowed Storm to get much better looks at the basket with six different players appearing on the score sheet in the quarter.  A 9 – 0 run to open the quarter, kicked the quarter off well for Storm who then built on this start for the rest of the quarter as they piled the pressure on the home side.  As the half time break arrived, Storm lead 23 – 36 having scored 26 points in the quarter. 

Storm wanted to maintain their momentum in the second half, and they started the third quarter well.  Their defensive intensity was the key as good foot work and improving help side defence allowed Storm to hold Stroud scoreless in the opening three minute of the half whilst rattling in four hoops of their own.  Ofei-Kwatia took good care of the ball handling duties and Rudenko drew yet another charging foul as Storm opened the half with runs of 9 – 0 and then 6 – 2 to hold a 21 point lead by the fifth minute of the quarter.  Storm though couldn’t keep their intensity level higher than Stroud’s as two turnovers in two possessions allowed Stroud to convert their break away lay-ups and this was backed up by two open threes from their leading scorer McDonagh and Stroud had themselves a 10 – 2 run.  Storm called a timeout with their lead reduced to just 10 points, and Gavin Short and Heath responded with two baskets for Storm followed a minute later by baskets from Whisken and Heath as Storm finished the quarter 44 – 60 to the good.  The only concern for Storm was that influential guard Ofei-Kwatia had fouled out of the game

Heading into the final stanza Storm wanted to maintain the momentum that they had built up over the last few minutes in the third quarter.  Storm got off to a flyer with Rudenko scoring inside, followed by six in a row from James.  Stroud scored from the perimeter interrupted the Storm run which was finished off by eight consecutive points from Heath as Storm exploded on a 16 – 4 run.  Good defensive pressure continued from Storm, and Luke Edgar stepped up to help control the tempo for Storm who coped well without Ofei-Kwatia and a large number of substitutions in the final quarter as everybody got a substantial run out. 

Storm were pleased with the result, but perhaps more pleasing was the performance that led to the victory as coach Kemish explains:

“We are playing good team basketball right now.  We are getting to where we want to be, gradually understanding the roles and responsibilities that we have, we not there yet, but we’re getting closer.”

Storm have played some of their best basketball of the season over the past two games, but the team must realise that now is not the time to get carried away and there is plenty of hard work to do before the season finishes.  The good team basketball is reflected with eight different players scoring, four of which reached double figures and two totalled eight points, pleasing coach Kemish:

“When we play together as we did today it is hard for defences to shut us down, they can’t focus on one player they have to guard all five players on the court otherwise we will exploit the weak link or a lack of concentration.”

Storm were led by 30 points from Oliver Heath and a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds from David Rudenko.  The performance was less about the individual displays though as the teamwork and togetherness was the key to this display.

Storm will need to keep up their impressive teamwork at training this week and carry it into next Saturday’s match at Plymouth who will be keen to regain their top spot in the league.

Scorers: *Heath 30, Short 11, Rudenko 10, *James 10, *Edgar 8, *Whisken 8, *Ofei-Kwatia 4, Darby 3, Baker and Gordula.

NBL Under 18s Vs Solent Kestrels – 13-02-2010

Dorset Storm           (11, 10, 9, 15)         45

Solent Kestrels        (23, 19, 19, 16)        77

Dorset Storms Under 18s could not repeat the performance of last weekend as they crashed to defeat at the hands of Solent Kestrels.

Without their lead coach Mike Stoddard and inform big man Karl Readhead Storm never looked like they wanted to compete with the keen Solent team.

Tight defence in the first quarter helped Solent build a 12-6 lead by the fifth minute. An 11-3 run to end the period gave Solent a comfortable 23-11 advantage.

Storm had more success offensively in the second quarter but Solent still extended their lead to 42-21 by half time. Any remaining hopes of an a Storm fight back were extinguished as Solent stretched out to 61-30 heading into the final quarter.

Some resistance came from a five comprising of three Under 16s at the start of the final quarter as a 9 – 2 run forced Solent to call a timeout.  It was too little too late for Storm as Solent ran out 77 – 45 victors.

For Storm only Jamie Old and Tom Eads made significant contributions with 12 points along with four steals each and seven rebounds respectively.

Scorers: *Eads 12, *Old 12, Nelson 6, *Message 6, Short 2, Abrahams 2, *Smith, *Wren, Ofei-Kwatia and Rudenko.

NBL Under 16s Vs Plymouth Marjons – 20-02-2010

Dorset Storm            (5, 20, 12, 8)           45

Plymouth Marjons   (18, 12, 12, 17)        59

Dorset Storms Under 16s travelled to Plymouth to take on the only team remaining in the league with just two defeats to their name.  Storm had a full quota of players to select from following a good week at training.  The only change the coaches decided to make was the inclusion of Stephen Mahinay as they hit the road for the fourth consecutive weekend.

Storm opened with a familiar pairing of Ollie Heath and Dan Whisken in the front court and Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James in the back court.  Storm wanted a good start, to set them up for the rest of the match against a well drilled and physical Plymouth side.  Storm started well defensively as Whisken and Ofei-Kwatia grabbed rebounds early and Plymouth struggled in the half court.  Storm were not flowing freely at the offensive end, it wasn’t until the third minute that Luke Edgar got Storm on the scoreboard with a lashing move to the basket.  Storm were guilty of trying to force the issue too much, and several turnovers resulted which led to easy baskets for Plymouth.  As the quarter continued, it remained a struggle for the visitors.  It wasn’t until the final two minutes that a score from Heath followed by a free throw from Gordula that Storm looked comfortable at the offensive end of the court.  Despite a flurry of action in the closing stages Storm still found themselves trailing 18 – 5.

The second quarter started well for Storm who came out with more of a spring in their step.  A three from Gavin Short and a two from Heath saw Storm open with a 5  -0 run which soon become 9 – 2 and resulted in a Plymouth timeout.  Storm kept their intensity high, forcing Plymouth to take tough looks at the basket, whilst Storm were becoming more patient and now getting open looks at the basket more consistently.  Four points in a row from Rudenko brought Storm back to within four at 26 – 22.  The teams exchanged baskets in the final two minutes and Storm found themselves trailing by just five points, 30 – 25.

It took both teams a long time to get going in the second half with no scores in the first three minutes.  A 6 – 0 burst in the middle of the quarter temporarily brought Storm closer, and some hard work on the defensive glass again proved useful as Storm were relentless in their approach.  Whisken and James added further scores as Storm kept up the pressure on their opponents.  A couple of lapses at the defensive end in the closing minutes of the quarter allowed Plymouth to match Storms scoring in the quarter meaning that the deficit stayed at five, 42 – 37.

Storm started the final quarter well, some good defensive pressure slowed Plymouth’s offence down , whilst good ball movement and strong finishing inside saw them get to the free throw line regularly.  By the half way stage, Storm were still trailing by five points.  No matter what Storm tried, they could not manage to close the gap.  With Storm chasing the game in the final few minutes Plymouth maintained their composure and took advantage of some gaps in the Storm defence to slowly extend their lead to eventually win 59 – 45.

Coach Kemish was however pleased with the performance, which was an improvement on when the teams last met:

“I guess we were a little disappointed in ourselves today.  For me that’s a great sign – we’re disappointed at losing to the team that’s top of the league and is part of a huge and well respected club. That shows us how far we have come, the players want to win every game.”

Storm have just three games left now, and the message from the coaches is clear:

“If we keep playing together and everybody keeps giving it 100% intensity at training and our remaining games we will complete a great season.  I am sure we will have a great season!” added Kemish.

For Storm, Gavin Short led all scorers with 10 points, and David Rudenko pulled down nine rebounds.  Nine different players scored again, showing contributions from all over which is a good sign heading into the final part of the season. 

Having been on the road for the past four weekends Storm’s Under 16s return to Rossmore this Saturday to face City Academy Bristol.  Last time the two teams met Bristol got the win in a game in which Storm felt they could have played better.  Tip-off for this weekends match is at 1.30pm at Rossmore Leisure Centre, Poole.  The players would love any supporters to come down and make some noise for them.

Scorers: Short 10, Mahinay 8, *Heath 7, Rudenko 6, *Edgar 4, *Whisken 4, Gordula 3, *James 2, *Ofei-Kwatia 1, Darby.

NBL Under 16s Vs City Academy Bristol – 27-02-2010

Dorset Storm                       (16, 14, 12, 30)        72

City Academy Bristol          (11, 14, 22, 17)        64

Dorset Storm Under 16s returned to Rossmore Leisure Centre for the first time since January as they took on City Academy Bristol.  The last time the two teams met Bristol came out on top by 10 points in a game that Storm felt they could have done better in.  Storm had not been lucky enough to have an uninterrupted week at training with several players missing, and the coaching staff opting to stick with the same team that played at Plymouth last week plus Rory Catton.

Storm opened the game with Oliver Heath and David Rudenko in the front court, whilst Luke Edgar, Conor James and Mylo Ofei-Kwatia were the back court trio.  Storm opened the match well, with some good defence being on display early forcing Bristol into some tough shots.  Offensively the players were playing together as Heath, Ofei-Kwatia and Stephen Mahinay all scored early to give Storm an 8 – 2 lead.  Some good work inside from Seb Darby and good decision making from Gavin Short allowed Storm to maintain control of the match throughout the first quarter and in the process play some of their best basketball of the season.  At the end of the first Storm were leading 16 – 11, and Bristol could thank two banked threes for the fact the scoreboard was not more in favour of the home side.

Storm wanted to keep up their momentum at the start of the second quarter, but three cheap turnovers and a couple of ill advised quick shots allowed Bristol to take advantage and square the game at 16 – 16.  As a result the first timeout of the game was called by Storm.  Following the timeout Storm upped their composure and intensity as Short, Mahinay and Rudenko all scored as Storm regained the six point advantage 22 – 16 within 90 second of the timeout.  Despite the sudden burst form Storm, Bristol would not give up and for the second time in the quarter a barrage of forced outside shots and one-on-one play allowed Bristol to keep themselves in the game.  Four in a row from Mahinay helped Storm close out the quarter with their five point lead intact, 30 – 25.

At the start of the second half Storm were keen to build on the five point lead, but knew that their intensity level and concentration would be key if they were to achieve this.  Things started well as Edgar drained two jump shots which were created with some good ball movement and dribble penetration and Ofei-Kwatia added a score inside.  Storm were then guilty of dropping both their intensity level and their concentration as they allowed Bristol to come flying back at them.  Bristol quickly constructed a 10 – 0 run, to take the lead 36 – 37, which was temporarily halted by a Storm timeout and a Rudenko score that followed.  The home sides play didn’t really improve much as they only managed another lay-up from Rudenko and two foul shots from Whisken in the final couple of minutes.  In the third quarter Bristol had outscored Storm 12 – 22, to take a five point lead 42 – 47 heading into the final quarter.

Storm had to regroup over the quarter break and start playing like they had in the first quarter again.  They started well as Short and Rudenko added points early, followed by Mahinay and Whisken.  Storm continued to play well defensively and Bristol were once again having to take contested jump shots or fight through a barrage of help side defence when they attacked the hoop.  Two baskets from Ofei-Kwatia and another from Mahinay, all off the back of good defensive possessions and team play at the offensive end.  A Bristol timeout with the score at 52 – 56 saw the visitors come back more focused and they found a way to score inside to go back up by six.  Back to back baskets for Short followed for Storm but Bristol managed to reply with a jump shot from the corner.  A Mahinay three ignited a mini run from Storm, and as some more good defensive possession followed Storm were able to retake the lead.  Three free throws from Mahinay, a jumper from the wing by Short and a lay-up inside from Rudenko in the final two minutes gave Storm a 72 – 62 lead with 10 seconds remaining.  Bristol charged back though, and a foul 40 foot away from the hoop with 0.7 seconds remaining gave Bristol the opportunity to lower Storms margin of victory to less than the required 10 points to ensure a win on the count back, with the final score reading 72 – 64 to Storm.

It was a game of highs and lows, as Storm had much the better of the first and fourth quarters, but Bristol dominated the second and in particular the third quarter as lead coach Luke Kemish explained:

“We had a little bit of everything in this game.  We started well and finished well, but in that middle period we were really flat and again reverted to one-on-one play with little ball movement or team play.

What was really frustrating was the fact that when we play together we play some outstanding basketball, but we have to challenge ourselves to produce that sort of level of basketball for the whole 40 minutes.”

Seven Storm assists in the final quarter, which Storm won 30 – 17, would seem to back up the words of coach Kemish who has emphasised the importance of ball movement and unselfish play all season.  For the home side they will be pleased to have won another game ahead of next week’s tough trip to Torbay.  The home side were led by 16 points from Stephen Mahinay and Gavin Short the later also collected eight rebounds.  Excellent defence was also on display from Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and David Rudenko who did a great job of forcing Bristol to take tough shots. Storm won the game though not because of individual performances, but because of good team play in the first and fourth quarters and an outstanding defensive effort throughout. 

The players will need to make sure that training this week is good ahead of a tough trip to Devon next weekend.  The coaches will be hopeful that the players can rise to the challenge of all the squad playing team basketball for the entire 40 minutes of the game.

Scorers: Mahinay 16, Short 16, *Rudenko 12, *Ofei-Kwatia 8, *Heath 6, Whisken 6, *Edgar 4, Darby 4, *James, Gordula, Catton.

NBL Under 18s Vs Guildford Heat – 27-02-2010

Dorset Storm           (20, 20, 21, 14)        75

Guildford Heat         (32, 25, 31, 25)        113

The Guildford Heat scored a crucial 113-75 victory over Dorset Storm at Rossmore Leisure Centre on Saturday afternoon. The win keeps them just behind the top two of Oxford and Barnet.

Stephen Mahinay led Storms scoring with 18 points, while Karl Readhead had 16. Doug Nelson and Jamie Old also netted double figures for the home side. It was another good performance from Storm who made Guildford fight for the entire 40 minutes to ensure that the win was theirs and also represents a big improvement on the previous meeting between the two teams. 

Guildford did much of the damage early on and led 20-32 after the opening ten minutes. With baskets from Nelson and Readhead allowed Storm to score the first four points, and when Readhead added two more a minute later the score became 6-4. Guildford came fighting back and it was the visitors who held the initiative by the end of the opening quarter.

Storm made some headway in the second stanza as Mahinay and Old made baskets within thirty seconds of each other to narrow the deficit to 27-35 just two minutes out from the start of the quarter. But Guildford still led 40-57 at the break.

Guildford virtually settled the game after the half as a 10 – 0 burst midway through the third quarter stretched the lead to 55-84 with two and a half minutes left. The lead was pushed through the thirty point barrier in the fourth quarter but Storm kept going and regularly scored baskets despite having three players foul out!

Scorers: Mahinay 18, Readhead 16, Nelson 11, Old 10, Eads 9, Short 9, Wren 2, Abrahams.

NBL Under 16s Vs Torbay Tigers – 06-03-2010

Dorset Storm           (22, 23, 26, 14)          85

Torbay Tigers           (12, 16, 15, 9)         52

Dorset Storms Under 16s took to the road once again this weekend as they travelled to English Riveria to face the Torbay Tigers.  Storm were coming into the match against the Devon based team having put in a reasonable, albeit hot and cold, performance against City Academy Bristol last weekend.  A slightly interrupted week at training meant Storm were a little less prepared than they would have liked, but the players were feeling confident heading into the game.  Torbay though, are a tough nut to crack, especially on their home court where they have an impressive record this season.

Storm opened up with Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James in the back court, whilst Oliver Heath and David Rudenko made up the back court pairing.  Storm knew the importance of starting well, and some good defence early on saw them keep Torbay scoreless over the opening two minutes.  Storm though, looked shaky offensively and coughed up the ball four times in those opening two minutes too, mainly through forcing the issue as opposed to having a little more patience.  After an early Storm timeout, they showed a little more patience as scores from Daniel Whisken, Gabriel Gordula and Stephen Mahinay gave Storm a 12 – 8 lead and lead to a Torbay timeout just two minutes after Storms.  The timeout had the desired effect for Torbay as they scored on the next two possessions to bring the scores to 12 points each.  A Mahinay steal which resulted in a lay-up for Gavin Short ignited a 10 – 0 Storm run to close the quarter, meaning Storm lead 12 – 22 after the first 10 minutes.

Storm were keen to keep the good work going in the second quarter, which was something that they failed to do last weekend against Bristol.  Two baskets from Torbay were matched by a three from Short, in what was a slow opening four minutes of the period.  Storm though, were showing patience at the offensive end, and soon that patience was rewarded as open shots were available and Storm started knocking them down with consistency.  Rudenko, Short, Mahinay, James and Gordula all scored in a three minute spell that saw Storm extend their lead to 20 – 37.  Storm closed the quarter well as they now began to attack the basket and make good decisions as they got to the foul line eight times in the final 90 seconds meaning they took a commanding 28 – 45 point lead in at half time.

Storm wanted to keep the pressure on at the start of the second half.  It was Rudenko who set the tone as he scored the half’s opening basket and took a charge in the next play too.  Two minutes later Heath chipped in two foul shots to help extend Storms lead to 20 for the first time.  Storm dealt with Torbay’s pressure well, using good ball movement and team play to ensure they continued to get good quality shots.  Whisken scored back to back baskets off back door cuts, before Mahinay netted from deep.  Torbay continued to resist though as they worked hard to get the ball inside and keep in touch with Storm.  As he quarter moved on, Storm continued to apply pressure well at the defensive end, and work well for each other at the offensive end as the lead continued to steadily increase.  A triple by Mahinay, wrapped up a good quarter for Storm as they finished the third 43 - 71 to the good.

Storm now wanted to maintain their momentum and finish the game off well, ensuring that they had put in a good performance for all four quarters.  Luke Edgar started the quarter well, with Whiksen, Mahinay, Rudenko and James all adding baskets too as Storms lead peaked at 37 in the sixth minute.  Storm continued to rebound the ball well and some good help defence in particular from Ofei-Kwatia and Seb Darby helped to ensure that life was hard for Torbay.  Storm kept working hard and playing together for the whole 40 minutes, and they wrapped up an impressive 52 – 85 victory by the time the final buzzer sounded. 

The players can be particularly pleased with this performance, as they appeared to have learnt from last weekends match against Bristol showing good intensity, concentration and enthusiasm for the whole 40 minutes this week.  They did it too, having to dodge some foul trouble for key players early in the first half and also later on in the second half.  Coach Kemish was obviously pleased with the performance:

“That’s the performance we have been after.  The players worked really hard for each other, and played together for the whole 40 minutes. We had a good start and continued to build on that.  The players deserve the credit for a really good team performance.”

Storm were led by 21 points from Stephen Mahinay, with Gavin Short and Daniel Whisken also adding double figure scores.  It was definitely less about the individuals this week though as all 10 players made big contributions and played well, something that pleased coach Kemish too:

“We have lots of players playing well; they are helping each other to become better players too, which is what we need to keep doing as the season comes to a close.”

Next week Storm return to Rossmore Leisure Centre as they welcome Bristol Academy Flyers.  The team would really appreciate any extra support as the look to put in another good performance.

Scorers: Mahinay 21, Short 16, Whisken 11, *Rudenko 9, *Heath 9, *James 7, *Edgar 7, Gordula 4, Darby 1, *Ofei-Kwatia.

NBL Under 14s Vs Cornwall Cougars Vs Taunton Tigers – 07-03-2010

Dorset Storm travelled West on Sunday 7th March 2010 to face the Big Cats, Cornwall Cougars and Taunton Tigers, in two must win games if they wanted to make the 2010 playoffs.

Dorset Storm           (15, 22, 15, 17)        69

Cornwall Cougars    (6, 6, 2, 4)              18

First up were a young Cornwall team and Charles Rillera got Storm off to a good start followed by Message with another quick two.  But following that Dorset went to sleep a little matching Cornwall over the next six baskets and after five minutes Storm were up 9-8.  The defence was a little too relaxed with the Cornwall players able to move around the court freely.   Palmer-Malt and James came on towards the end and calmed things down scoring the final six points of the quarter as Storm finished ahead 15-8.

Coach McKenzie stressed the need for strong individual and team Defence during the quarter break and Storm responded in the second quarter holding Cornwall to four points.  But unfortunately though the defence was better the passing was a bit sloppy and we missed quite a few shots only scoring 12 in the quarter, though five different players scored – going into the half 27-12 up.

Storm sorted themselves out in the 3rd scoring at will and stopping the Cornwall offence, outscoring Cornwall 25-2 over seven minutes.

The final quarter was the Pete Lawson show as he scored all his points, including a three on his way to 11 for the game.  Cornwall again struggled, only scoring four points as Dorset looked to use the game as good preparation for the Taunton Tigers game next. 

There was good balance to the Dorset scoring as all players got on the scoresheet.
Final Score 69-18. Cornwall played well and are a very young team, with the average age about 10.  It will be interesting to see them in 3-4 years time if they stay together as a team.

Scorers: Palmer-Malt 13, Saguirre 12, Lawson 11, James 10, Message 6, Gosling 4, Rillera 4, Docherty 4, Hetser 2, Donohoe 2.

Dorset Storm           (14, 12, 9, 11, 14)    60

Taunton Tigers         (11, 14, 13, 8, 9)      55

Next up were Taunton Tigers, currently second in the league behind Plymouth.  Following some poor performances against Stroud and Exeter earlier in the year, Dorset needed to win to give themselves a chance of a playoff place.

Storm started slowly going down 5 – 0 early including a Taunton three pointer.   But instead of getting downhearted, Storm dug in and opened the scoring with a Rillera two,  on a sweet Windows side line play and then went on a 10-2 run to open up a 12-7 lead.  Storm were taking the ball to the hoop and got two quick fouls on Taunton’s Hinchliffe, there top scorer in the previous meetings between the teams.  Dorset were not without their own foul trouble with both Rillera and Saguirre picking up two fouls early forcing Coach McKenzie to make some substitutions.  A 6-2 run by Taunton at the end of the first saw Storm lead 14-11 at the break, with Rillera leading all scorers with 8 points. 

The second quarter was a back and forth event with some good team defence from Storm as the teams traded baskets.  Storm, as usual, struggled from the free throw line in the quarter going 0 for 4.  Storm played unselfish Basketball with six separate players scoring, but Taunton edged the quarter 14-12 and Storm went into the break one point ahead in a tight match.

The third quarter started well for Storm with Saguirre opening with a quick basket, but then defensively went to sleep as Taunton Hayes scoring two baskets.  Storm and Taunton traded the next six baskets before Taunton scored a quick pair at the end, going up 38-35 at the end of three. This was crunch time for Storm, they needed to keep their cool and play good basketball to ensure that Taunton would not run away with the game, and this is what we got with Message and Docherty both scoring to settle the nerves.  Storm lost Saguirre to 5 fouls early in the quarter, losing the team some composure as Taunton went on a 5-0 run.  The big three for Storm (Rillera, Message and Docherty) then all scored baskets to put storm up by three.  Storm were ahead by three with less than a minute but nerves got the better of them as they turned the ball over twice.  Both Storm and Taunton hit a free throw and with 10 seconds left Storm were ahead by 3.  Taunon Hinchliffe came down and calmly shot a 3 from the left side which banked in with 4 seconds left and we were heading to overtime.

Storm were tired, but the adrenalin kicked as Storm came out fighting in the OT period with Docherty opening with a three point play followed by a Message free throw and a Rillera one on one play to go up 52-48.  Both sides struggled in the OT period with free throws, Storm going 3 of 11 and Taunton 1 of 8 as nerves seemed to take over.  Every ball was contested as both teams dug in for the win.  Two Taunton baskets either side of a message put back saw Taunton pull within one point at 56-55.  Storm were also in foul trouble with Rillera, Message and Docherty on four fouls and Gosling on three.

Message had another put back off of Docherty missed free throw and the game was effectively over, Taunton Hinchliffe unusually missed a pair of free throws  and Gosling scored at the end as Taunton chased the ball.  Final Score 60 - 55 OT.

Coach McKenzie said, “It was good to see us play as a team and not lose heart when the game got tough.  This game shows how far we have come in the season, but also how we also let ourselves down sometimes against weaker teams by not concentrating and executing well.”

In other results Exeter lost to Stroud which helps put us in a good position for the playoffs, but we are still dependant on other teams results, which is not a good place to be.

Scorers: Message 17, Rillera 15, Docherty 13, Palmer-Malt 7, Saguirre 4, Gosling 2, James 2, Lawson 2, Donohoe and Hester.

Note: The other schedule match between Cornwall and Dorset was been award to Dorset 20 - 0 prior to the weekend and was not played.

NBL Under 16s Vs Bristol Academy – 13-03-2010

Dorset Storm             (14, 12, 7, 16)  49

Bristol Academy       (17, 10, 9, 21)  57

Dorset Storms Under 16s were back on familiar territory as they finished their season at home to Bristol Academy Flyers.  Storm knew that they would be facing one of the best teams around but could take confidence from the earlier victory over Bristol.  Storm could field a full strength team and were coming off a good week at training, with their position in the post season already confirmed Storm could give themselves an outside shot of gaining home court advantage if they could sneak the win against their play-off bound opponents.

Storm opened up with the familiar starting five of Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James in the back court whilst Oliver Heath and David Rudenko filled the two front court spots.  The game started in understandably tense fashion, with Storm doing an excellent job of forcing Bristol into tough outside shots and rebounding the ball well.  Bristol’s defence was equally hard working though, as both teams managed to cancel each other out for over four minutes.  It was Bristol who broke the deadlock first with two baskets before Stephen Mahinay and Gavin Short replied for Storm.   The rest of the quarter remained nip and tuck, but despite Short and Heath registering further baskets for the home side some outstanding play from Bristol’s Packwood ensured that it was the visitors who lead 14 – 17 at the end of the first quarter. 

Packwood started the second quarter in the same way he had finished the first, scoring the opening five points with a couple of tough shots.  Mahinay stepped up again and following some good ball movement and dribble penetration knocked down back-to-back shots.  Bristol responded though and the visitors continued to hold a five or six point lead for much of the quarter.  Storm though were playing some great defence, Ofei-Kwatia and Edgar were doing an outstanding job of slowing down Packwood, with Seb Darby and Gabriel Gordula doing a good job on the defensive boards.  Offensively, Storm were getting good shots despite Bristol’s pressure defence, and looked calm and composed despite the demands being placed on them.  The patience and hard work was rewarded as a the home side closed out the last three minutes with a 6 – 0 run, with Edgar scoring four of these points as Storm closed the deficit to just 26 – 27 at the half time interval.

Just as there had been in the opening half there was nothing to separate the teams in the third period.  Baskets were hard to come by as both teams worked hard defensively.  Nobody worked harder than Rudenko for Storm who drew two charges in the period.  Storm were continuing to get good shots at the offensive end of the court, some of which dropped and some of which didn’t, but the important thing was that they continued to show patience to get good looks at the basket.  Perhaps the most important thing from the quarter wasn’t the basketball on the court, which was outstanding from both teams but what happened off the court in the eight minute of the quarter.  Bristol called a timeout, and whilst Kemish and Christopher took the first 10 seconds to speak to a couple of players individually the rest of the team had huddled round and were running the timeout themselves!  After briefly ear wigging, Kemish and Christopher sat down and left the players to it as the senior players were saying the exact things that the coaches had written down on their board.  That 60 second timeout sums up just how far the team has come in the past 10 months.  At the end of the quarter the match was still finely poised with Storm trailing by just three points 33 – 36.

The match continued in intense fashion at the start of the final quarter as Bristol opened the scoring, before Mahinay and Short combined to add five for Storm.  By the eighth minute of the quarter, there was still only four points in it with Bristol still leading.  A strong finish inside from Heath drew a foul and he converted both foul shots, and backed this up with another basket on the next possession as Storm drew to within two points at 44 – 46.Fouls shots would be key down the stretch, and Storm seemed to have found some form, as Mahinay converted two of two as Storm closed the gap to just a single point with 90 seconds to go.  A tense finish to the game was always on the cards, Storm chased every loose ball, but in the closing stages Bristol used all their experience to make Storm work hard.  Credit must also go to Bristol for holding their nerve from the foul line as Storm stopped the clock in the last 30 seconds.  In the end though, Bristol came out with the win at the end of a great game of basketball. 

Although the players were obviously disappointed in the result, over the next couple of days they will be able to reflect on what an outstanding game they were involved in.  There was certainly no shame in being beaten having given their all for the whole 40 minutes and having played without a doubt the best basketball that cohort of players have ever produced.  The game had it all, some excellent defence – David Rudenko, Mylo Ofei-Kwatai and Luke Edgar some great shooting Mahinay and Short and the intensity level for the whole 40 minutes from all the players was unbelievably high as lead coach Luke Kemish reflected:

“Our players put in an outstanding effort today.  The players can be so proud of what they have achieved both as individuals and as a team.  They only need to look back to their final weekend of last season… that should be enough for them to hold their heads high and feel full of pride.”

Storm though are not finished yet, they will have a play-off match in two weeks time against either Plymouth Marjons or a rematch against Bristol.  Coach Kemish is looking forward to that challenge: 

“We have two weeks to train hard, we are playing the best basketball we have all year right now so things are good.  Last week against Torbay and again this week against Bristol there has been very little we have done wrong – how often can a coach say that?  We will make a couple of adjustments and head into the play-offs with a smile on our face with nothing to lose.”

The players and coaches would like to thank everybody that has supported the team this season.  It was great to play in front of a huge number of people in the final game of the season, hopefully everybody enjoyed the game and the season!

NBL Under 16s Play-offs Vs Plymouth Marjon – 27-03-2010

Dorset Storm         (18, 11, 15, 15)        59

Plymouth Marjon    (14, 15, 13, 20)        62

Dorset Storm Under 16s made the journey to Plymouth Marjons as they faced the Devon based side in the National League Play-offs.  Storm were in a confident mood heading into the game having closed the season with three impressive performances that have shown how the team have continued to improve, even in the final weeks of the season.  Storm headed into the game following a good week at training and were looking to cause an upset against one of the best development programmes around.

Storm opened with the usual combinations of Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Conor James in the back court alongside the back court duo of Oliver Heath and David Rudenko.  Both teams started aggressively with Plymouth opening the scoring before some excellent defence from Storm allowed them to open their account on the fast break.  Storms intensity at the defensive end of the court continued to be good, and by the third minute they had opened up a 1 – 6 lead.  Plymouth responded though, as the home side went on a 9 – 0 run of their own to retake the lead.  Following a timeout Storm fought back as Heath and Gavin Short helped them tie the game at 12.  With some excellent defensive rebounding from Storm – led by Rudenko – Storm limited their opponents to just one shot on every possession which was a key factor in the opening quarter.  With Rudenko and Gabriel Gordula scoring the final two baskets of the quarter Storm finished the opening period up 14 – 18. 

Short opened the scoring for Storm in the second quarter following some good ball movement against Plymouth’s zone.  Storm struggled over the next few minutes at the offensive end of the court as they missed eight consecutive attempts.  With Storm now trailing 24 – 22 it was Gavin Short who again provided the scoring touch for Storm, quickly followed by Stephen Mahinay and Luke Edgar allowing Storm to retake the lead.  With Storm tightening up defensively, Plymouth again had to work hard for their points.  Ofei-Kwatia and Edgar played particularly well defensively as Storm used good defence to keep themselves in the game.  With a last second shot from Storm falling just short, at the end of the first half the teams could not be separated as the scores were tied at 29. 

The third quarter picked up where the first half left off with neither team being able to shake off the other.  Rudenko and Mahinay scored early on for Storm, Plymouth responded on both occasions with scores of their own.  By the fifth minute of the quarter both teams were still tied, now at 37 - 37.  Storm were keeping themselves in the game through good defence, with Gordula now leading the way there.  Good help side defence was also in evidence as Ofei-Kwatia and Rudenko drew three charges in the quarter between them.  With Short nailing two foul shots in the final minute of the quarter Storm closed the quarter with a slender lead, 42 – 44.

Gordula opened the scoring in the final quarter before Plymouth scored five in a row to pull the deficit back to 47 – 48.  Storm were playing well defensively again, continuing to make Plymouth fight for every point that they scored.  Mahinay and Short replied in kind to a three and a lay-up from Plymouth as by the sixth minute of the quarter Plymouth led 54 – 53.  Both teams were now into their stride, matching each other blow for blow at both ends of the court.  Heading into the final minute a Short three tied the match at 58, before Plymouth again responded, this time for the foul line to take a 60 – 58 lead.  At the other end Short spilt a pair of foul shots, before two more fouls shots from Plymouth gave them a 62 - 59 lead that they would not surrender.  Despite Storm having two attempts in the dying seconds they could not find the bottom of the net and Plymouth held on for the smallest of victories.

Despite the defeat Storm could travel back feeling really pleased with what they have achieved.  It was a great game, with Storm making sure that they had a chance to win all the way through.  In the end, it wasn’t to be but the result shows that the team have continued to improve throughout the season – having lost by 16 and 14 points in the two previous encounters this season. 

For Storm Gavin Short led all scorers with 18 points and Stephen Mahinay added 12.  Terrific defence was in evidence from all the Storm players but in particularly from Mylo Ofei-Kwatia, Luke Edgar and Garbiel Gordula who all did a great job slowing down Plymouths main threats.  Seb Darby saved his best game of the season for the big occasion, as he pulled down nine rebounds.  The top performance from a Storm player came from David Rudenko who scored 13 points, to go with 15 rebounds, four assists and four steals. 

The success of the team this season has been less about individuals and more about a total team effort.  Every player made a contribution, and through good team work the team has managed to turn around their fortunes in less than 12 months.  As assistant coach Jill Kemish reflected:

“The players were disappointed in the result today, but a little later on they will be able to appreciate what a magnificent season they have had.”

“They have worked so hard for each other all year; it’s been a pleasure to work with them this season.”

An enormous well done to all the players for their hard work not only in this last match, but, through out the entire year – you deserve all the success you have had.  A huge thank you too, must go to the 30 plus travelling supporters who came down to cheer on the team - we know it was really appreciated.

Scorers: Short 18, *Rudenko 13, Mahinay 12, *Heath 6, *Edgar 4, Gordula 4, Darby 2, *Ofei-Kwatia, *James, Wren.