TU Lions Juniors travelled to Acklam to play
an older, bigger and more physical side in
Nunthorpe Velocity's development team. Lions
oldest players was 14 with an average age of
13 against an average age of 16 for
Nunthorpe. Nunthorpe coach; Lewis Tovey has
been working with his players for some time
now and they have progressed from playing
for fun, to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh
award to now playing competitive. The team
are improving all the time and are going to
enter two teams into the next Game Time CVL.
Lions are a very talented group of players,
who train a lot more that the Nunthorpe
players and have the edge in that sense, but
the real test was how they would cope
against a bigger and stronger side. Daniel
Wright was given his first start for the
Lions team and he didn't disappoint; playing
good defence and passing the ball well.
The game began well for Nunthorpe as Ben
Hancock won the tip and continued to receive
the ball and score. Hancock then followed
with another two baskets to give the home
side a 6-0 lead. In the fourth minute' Phil
Findlay made a shot for Lions to halt the
Nunthorpe run. Patrick O'Connor and Chris
Chapman then entered the game for Lions with
O'Connor jumping straight in the deep end as
he bounced off a few Velocity players to
make a shot. Dan Brown and Nathan Duff added
further points for Lions which brought the
visitors back into the game and at the end
of the first quarter, Nunthorpe were
deserving leaders 10-8.
The second period was Lions best quarter as
they went on to score 16 points to
Nunthorpe's 6. O'Connor was the catalyst for
Lions as his tenacious defence led to fast
breaks. When the fast break wasn't on, the
Lions passed the ball well with O'Connor
hitting 12 points in this quarter including
two 3 pointers. Dan Brown added the other 4
points to award Lions a healthy score line
of 16-24 going into the break.
On the restart Matthew Jones finished a nice
move for Nunthorpe, while Alan Slasor
replied for Lions with a cool taken jump
shot just outside the key. Sangay Lama was
proving his worth, as the big man collected
rebound after rebound and followed this up
by adding the points on offence. The
partnership between Lama and Hancock was
keeping Nunthorpe in the game until Lions'
Nathan Duff lost his marker three times in a
row for 6 unanswered points which made it
difficult for Nunthorpe to come back.
Cameron Stewart and Jason Loveridge played
some excellent defence for Lions in the
final quarter. Alan Slasor had an off game
by his high standards and Findlay missed too
many shots but with Dan Brown and Patrick
O'Connor playing so well, they could afford
one or two mistakes and still finish the
game as the victors; 34-41.
The Game MVP was awarded to Patrick O'Connor
for an awesome display. Patrick's jump shot
was a lesson to the players around him and
with some great passes mixed in to his game,
he was head and shoulders above the rest.
Ben Hancock enjoyed a good game for
Velocity.
Alan Slasor, is pictured below with his team
mates, holding the All Star Camp Junior MVP
trophy. Slasor was also voted the November
MVP for Game Time.
