the participation levels of the sport continuing to rise. A huge thank you must go to Coach Roz Mason and to Tre- vor Okoroafor for developing the Dulwich College players and coaching through the year. U14 Historically we have picked up a few wins in national competitions but always found it difficult to progress from the group stages and would usually only enter at U16 and Senior level. This year, however, we entered the Nation- al Cup at U14 level, given the talent and keen cohort of basketball players. The competition started with a difficult away loss to STAC (St Thomas the Apostle School) but this was followed by three wins from the remaining four matches. This meant the team finished second in the group and progressed to the knockout stages. In the round of 16 fixture we faced St Luke’s, who had travelled all the way up from Exeter. Dulwich started the match in a strong manner and built a healthy lead by the end of the first quarter. Though St Luke’s were talented, Dulwich controlled the match from start to finish and ended up coming away with a 72–49 win. This result led Dulwich to a National Cup quarter-final against St Columba’s Col- lege, St Albans, who were national champions in the year prior so we knew it was going to be a tough fixture. The match was played at a high level throughout, but unfor- tunately we had a slower start so were always chasing the game. At half-time we were 21 points down but in the second half we mounted a comeback and chipped away at the lead until with 3 minutes to go we were only 6 points down. Unfortunately, St Columba’s then had a run of scores which ultimately sealed the match 97–81. The students put their all into the performance, with specta- tors from both teams noting what a superb spectacle the match had been and how the students had conducted themselves in an incredibly sporting manner. Though the team was disappointed by the National Cup quarter-final defeat, their attention then had to turn to the LISBA competition. The LISBA playoffs are the culmi- nation of the London independent schools’ basketball season and, due to a few early season losses, the U14 team needed to travel away to Sevenoaks in the final league match and get a result. The match was tight, but with less than a minute left Noah Vestergaard-Poulsen hit a game-winning three-pointer to earn the win and secure the playoff spot for the U14 team. With this win, Dulwich
College moved on to the playoffs with Whitgift School, Sevenoaks School and KCS Wimbledon. Dulwich faced Sevenoaks in the semi-final and, having beaten them by just two points the week before, they were ready for another difficult match. The team started strongly and had built a good lead by half-time. The offensive capabilities of Max Moutrie and Niko Sagiryan continued to show in the second half and Dulwich extended their lead, eventu- ally winning 53–30. We moved on to the final, where we met KCS, a team that we had lost to by two points at the start of the season. This KCS team presented a different challenge from Sevenoaks as they were more athletic and well drilled. In a tense match the lead oscillated between the two teams, with neither team leading by more than four points before the other team would come back. This continued until the third quarter when Dulwich were able to extend a lead with some strong defence from Hector Saloustros and Freddie McKinlay, superb play-making from Sean Dyer and clinical scoring from Niko Sagiryan and Max Moutrie. The team kept up the intensity on both ends of the court and held on to the lead in the fourth quarter, taking the win 62–49 to be crowned U14 LISBA champions. It was a brilliant team display in both match- es; the most valuable player award went to Max Moutrie, who scored 32 points in the final.
133
SPORTS
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker