The 2 Teams: The Lightning U18s & Scunthorpe’s JLC Wolves U18s
The Lightning U18s played a friendly against Scunthorpe’s JLC Wolves U18 National League Conference North U18 team.
An opportunity to play against a team that are established and play their basketball throughout the North East of England. Four of our regulars also play for Wolves so the teams shared those players – that meant we had only 7 players on our team and gave some of our players that don’t have as much experience, a lot of court-time and the opportunity to learn more about themselves and their teammates. After the initial shock of losing 8 points to an opposition sharp-shooter in the opening minutes, the team didn’t panic and kept their heads with FinnM and MattB contributing well to end the quarter 16-9.
They continued to keep the opposition tamed, defending well and restricting them to an 11-8 win in the 2nd with MattB and Owen continuing to the scores and Oliver providing some great assists. After a half time break and a player refresh, the opposition came out fast and hit us hard, moving the ball quickly.
Some great defense, especially by Mo and Matt helped but our team was clearly tiring. In the 4th, we re-established our presence, Oliver fast breaking and dropping a few baskets, FinnM continuing to add control to both sides of the court, while Owen gained confidence and showed strength under the hoop. 67-37 was the final score but the game seemed much closer and the biggest difference between the teams was really their experience.
At the end of the game, the teams scrimmaged another quarter – just to really tire them out! Not mentioned above are FinnW, James, Pat and Lewis – the joint players who continued to contribute greatly – to both teams.
Oliver long pass with Owen reacting to a loose ball to score
MattB give and go with Oliver to score to a lay-up