Team U12

Another win for Under 12's

19th December 2008

Solent W25-8 Guildford Heat

The Under 12 Solent Kestrels put in a strong team performance in the Bracknell CVL in their last game before Christmas. The team started the game with some excellent defensive work showing they have been listening in training to Jodi's words about good defensive positioning, this enabled several players to jump on weak passes with Ewen Ward leading the way with 3 first quarter steals. Unfortunately the team were unable to convert this good ball into points with some poor finishing in this quarter. In fact Kestrels only scored two points in the first quarter, a lovely right hand hook shot from Matt Barry so the team were level 2-2 at the end of the first.
Some strong words from Paul, standing in for Jodi for todays game, resulted in better finishing in the second with players not rushing their shots, Kestrels also started to dominate the boards with Elliott Pastides and Jamie Riley both getting good rebounds. Alex Hall demonstrated his excellent speed up and down the court making the Heat defensive have to work really hard . Defensively with Micah Stewart on court the Kestrels were brilliant, breaking up lots of Heat possession before they could get a shot off. Micah got the most steals in the whole game with an amazing 9 steals. This shows Micah's excellent anticipation skills to read a pass but also his willingness to work with maximum intensity whenever he is on court. This has impressed his under 13 coaches and Micah acts as a good role model for other young players in this team. As a result of this Kestrels were in the lead at half-time by 11-4.
Stewart Stromberg showed some excellent qualities today, although his finishing was not up to his own high expectations he didn't allow this to detract from his overall performance for the team, running hard at  both ends of the court and passing the ball well from his drive.
The first five then stepped up their intensity and kept the Heat to only 2 points in the third, better finishing saw Matt Barry get four points in this quarter as well as leading the team in rebounds, collecting 9 offensive rebounds during the game to go with 3 defensive to lead the team rebound stats with 12. Alex Williams showed he is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to rebounds, collecting 8 during the game.
Score at the end of the third was Kestrels 16 Heat 6. Dan Curry impressed today getting 4 steals 4 rebounds and 2 points and demonstrated how hard he is prepared to work for the team.

Final Score Solent Kestrels 25 Guildford Heat 8

Points after player, rebounds in brackets

Alex Hall 10 (2), Micah Stewart 6 (3), Matt Barry 5 (12), Stewart Stromberg 2 (6), Dan Curry 2 (4) Ewen Ward (3), Jamie Riley (3) Alex Hall (2) Elliott Pastides (4)