KESTRELS RUN STORM TO THE WIRE IN PRE SEASON CLASH

Image Courtesy Dan Crowther

Kestrels took British Championship Basketball side Hemel Storm to the wire in pre season action on Sunday evening, losing narrowly 79-86 on the road. After a slow start from the visitors, they quickly went blow for blow with Hemel tying the game up late, before coming up short down the stretch.

Andre Arissol led the charge with 20 points whilst Luke Busumbru was back to his high octane best with 18 points. Ethan Round and Greg Durand also added 13 points a piece in a balanced scoring output.

It was the hosts who raced out to a fast start as they built an 11-2 advantage over the first 3 and a half minutes, behind 7 point from their new American guard Matt Norman. However Kestrels rallied after a timeout to settle things down from coach Guymon and would cut the lead in half through the mid point of the quarter through Luke Busumbru and Ethan Round. Kestrels were unable to slow the Storm offence down, as they found back to back transition scores, whilst Busumbru kept the scoreboard ticking for his side, 16-26 Hemel after one.

The Hertfordshire outfit edged the lead out to 14, forcing Kestrels into their second timeout of the half, however the visitors would respond with a run of their own to force a Storm timeout. Wayne Kitenge came off the bench to put pressure on the Hemel bigs, as he found scores inside the paint, but once again the pace of the Hemel offence saw them take a 35-44 lead into the half.

Kestrels had the better of the early exchanges in the second half as they slowed down the Storm offence, whilst finding a number of transition scores, capped off by an Ethan Round triple to force a home timeout, 47-50 Hemel. The hosts responded post timeout with a short run of their own to put them up 48-55, Kestrels replying with a timeout of their own. The remainder of the quarter was back and forth with Solent trailing by 5 with just ten minutes to play, 56-61.

The visitors did trim the gap to just a point early in the fourth quarter at 65-66 after Round found his way to the basket for a reverse lay up, before eventually tying things up with a three at 68 a piece. Storm edged back in front at 68-72 but when Greg Durand stroked his second three of the game, Kestrels would tie the game back up at 72 each, forcing Hemel into a timeout with 4 minutes to play. The home side restored a 5 point advantage out of the timeout and despite Kestrels best efforts to trim the arrears, they would go down 79-86.

“I was really impressed with our performance this evening, I feel like we have progressed with each game throughout the pre season so far. We are getting incredible leadership from our senior core whilst our Itchen academy group are growing in confidence at this level, each week. As we continue to prepare for the start of the season it is important for us to face some early challenges with a big step up in competition, despite the result we were able to take exactly what we needed from the game.”

Kestrels welcome Oxford Hoops next Saturday (20th) evening to the Solent Sports Complex in the final match up of the pre season schedule, you can secure your tickets for that game now; https://www.solentkestrels.co.uk/tickets