KESTRELS CLAIM 5TH LEAGUE TITLE IN 10 SEASONS

Image Courtesy of Dan Crowther

The Solent Kestrels have been crowned champions of NBL D1 Pool B after an extremely dominant 87-49 victory against CoLA. Thomas Blower led all scoring, netting 15 points in 22 minutes to equal his highest scoring game for the Kestrels and show out in front of a packed-out Solent Sports Complex in the final home game of the regular season.

Elijah Lotriet was the player who opened the scoring, banking in a three from the left wing right in front of the Kestrels bench. Neither team responded for another minute until Daniel Banjoko hits a three of his own in front of his own bench, to make it a low scoring affair to start off. CoLA travelled down to Southampton with just one player in his twenties, most of the squad ranging from 16 to 18 but this young away side was comfortable trading buckets with the Kestrels. Lotriet was making that task as difficult as possible however, draining another three and battling for every offensive rebound until he was substituted with 4:29 left on the clock in the first quarter, he ended his first stint on the floor with an impressive 8 points. Jakub Ofman then joined the fun with two wing threes in the matter of a minute to elevate the Kestrels to 20-10 lead, that was quickly shortened to a seven-point lead as Louis Thompson fired a shot from behind the arc. None of that mattered once Wayne Kitenge got going, the Kestrels big setting off on the fast break and getting two chances at the free-throw line after being fouled by Bilal Olowoshile. Olowoshile didn’t let that hinder his performance though, firing back with four baskets to close out the opening quarter and bridging the Kestrels lead to just five.

Ethan Round added himself to the scoring column with the opening Kestrels possession in the second quarter, with five seconds left on the shot clock he pumped his defender into the air, split the defence and finished through contact with his weaker left side. The target man for CoLA coming into the game was Alei Wol, and off the back of an 18 point and 19 rebound double-double performance in his last game, he was in good form. However, the Kestrels did an impeccable job to limit his interior offence and force him into uncomfortable jump shots and a large reason for the lead throughout the first half. Olowoshile was trying to make that lead less comfortable though, nailing another jump shot, this time over the outstretched arm of Dawid Cimochowski.

The defensive effort from the guards of the Kestrels caused a number of issues on the perimeter, Blower poking the ball away from Dante Patel, Andre Arissol pushed the pace in transition and kicked to Round to lace the three and then followed it with another from the same spot. All of this accumulated into a strong 42-28 lead, forcing CoLA into timeout with three minutes left in the half. The buckets began falling for the Kestrels before the break, Arissol hitting a three after good Kestrels ball movement and the added pace in transition caught the away side off guard once again was Javen Osei-Owusu continued to show why he has been given the increase in minutes. At the half, the Solent Sports Complex had been given a show definitely worth the price of admission in the first half alone, the Kestrels with a 50-33 lead.

Two and a half minutes into the second half and just one bucket had been made, a beautiful Ash Briggs reverse lay-up, that was until scored from close range over Arissol. In what was a low scoring third quarter, the Kestrels stepped back onto the accelerator at the halfway mark, Arissol driving into the chest of Olowoshile and finishing off the window. Blower gave the Kestrels a 20-point margin with an open corner three, then 23 after Arissol fed the Itchen College player in the same spot… then a 26-point gap with another three in front of the Kestrels Family. Blower continued his flamethrower third quarter with a contested shot from a few feet outside the 3-point line with a defender in his face, to the amazement of the entire Complex.

With a 30-point lead and eight minutes left of the game, the comeback was looking exceedingly unlikely, but CoLA continued to fight, but so did the Kestrels, Elijah Lotriet adding another three to his box score. Round added another to follow his Itchen teammate and as the game slowly came to an end, Blower hit his 5^th of the evening for good measure.

Box score - FIBA LiveStats

Watch the game - Solent Kestrels Senior Men v CoLA Southwark Pride Senior Men - 07.03.26

After that result, it leaves the Kestrels on a 15-2 record, with one game left to pay and with the Barnet Bulldogs on a 15-3 record having played out all of their regular season games, the Kestrels are the NBL Division One Pool B Champions for the first time in four years. A very successful regular season, on top of the National Cup win, mark two out of a possible two competitions won for the Kestrels, with the playoffs still to play to potentially make it three from three.

However, the Kestrels still have one more regular season game against the London Stars on Sunday the 15^th of March in the country’s capital.

Thank you for your support throughout the regular season in the Solent Sports Complex, we’d love to hear you again ready for playoff action. Let’s go Kestrels Family.