PRE SEASON CLOSES WITH A BIG WIN FOR THE KESTRELS

Image Courtesy of Luke Simcock

Kestrels closed out the pre season in impressive fashion on Saturday evening as they took a 96-53 victory over Oxford Hoops, at the Solent Sports Complex. The win means Solent finish the pre season with 2 wins from 4 games but perhaps more importantly, a number of positive performances to take into the start of the regular season next weekend.

Solent Kestrels young duo of Ethan Round (18) and Jakub Ofman (20) combined for 38 points on the night to power the hosts whilst Dawid Cimochowski added 11.

The home side raced out to an early 10-0 advantage with both Andre Arissol and Ethan Round connecting on three point attempts. Oxford responded through Patrick Wrencher who caused the Kestrels problems from the mid post area as he made some difficult shots for his team. Jakub Ofman scored 10 straight to close the first quarter out, backed up by a Tom Blower triple for the bench, to give Kestrels a 30-16 lead.

An 8-0 run to start the second period for Solent extended the deficit to 22 as they held Oxford scoreless for the first 4 minutes of the quarter. The youth from the Kestrels bench packed a scoring punch as Elijah Lotriet and Richy Radu continued to pile on the pressure, giving the hosts a 57-26 advantage at the half time interval.

It was a much slower paced start to the second half as the scoring slowed for the Kestrels and Oxford set about attempting to trim the gap. That was short lived though as Kestrels forwards Wayne Kitenge and Dawid Cimochowski found easy scores in the paint, before Round closed the quarter with another three pointer, 75-40 Solent.

Jakub Ofman and Dawid Cimochowski went for back to back dunks in the opening spells of the fourth quarter and that shot the Kestrels lead out to 40 plus. Coach Guymon was able to rotate through his squad, taking a look at a number of combinations, in what was the final run out before the season gets going next weekend. The Itchen juniors continued to make the scoreboard tick for the hosts as they would run out 96-53 winners.

Solent Kestrels Head Coach Matt Guymon added, “In our final pre-season game against Oxford Hoops, we really set the tone on the defensive end, and that energy fuelled our offence production. We had excellent contributions across the board, especially from our Itchen academy players, with standout performances from Jakub Ofman and Ethan Round. After a positive pre season spell we are now looking forward to starting league play this weekend at Greenwich Titans.”

Kestrels get the NBL Division 1 regular season underway this coming by Saturday with a trip to Greenwich Titans, 3pm tip off.