points in just a few minutes. The Dulwich U15s crowned themselves as the U15 Cup Champions after a 72-69 victory, which ended the season on a positive note. Finishing as the runners-up in the LISBA League playoffs last year, the U16s looked to challenge the championship at the beginning of this season. The regular season was tough for the Year 11 boys, as the team this year had limited practice time due to increased academic pressure and other sport commitments. However, there were exciting wins during the regular season, including Michael Yu’s game-winning buzzer beater in a 39-38 victory against Whitgift. In the LISBA League semi-final, the U16s played against the strong arch-rival, Alleyn’s, who proved to be too powerful. The U16s fell short again in the battle for third place against Whitgift, but the bitter losses should push the boys to strive for better results next year. After coming fourth in the National Cup group stage and being thus unable to qualify for further stages, the U18s finished the regular season exceptionally well, losing only one away game at Alleyn’s. They also looked to defend their LISBA title with home court advantage. The semi- final against Whitgift was a one-sided game in favour of the Dulwich U18s and they finished the first quarter up 25-4 and the whole game 58-15, 6’6’’ centre Sebastian Pauwels electrifying the crowd with a one-handed slam dunk on a Dulwich fast break. Alleyn’s came out on top, having fought a hard battle against City of London in the other semi-final to play Dulwich College in the final. The fatigue level affected the performance of Alleyn’s, and Dulwich played solid defence throughout, stopping any possible chance of a comeback. Yichun Tu was sensational on that night, shooting consistent mid-range and three-point jump shots as well as penetrating through the opponents’ defence. He notched a big double-double with a game-high 26 points and 10 assists to secure the Dulwich back-to-back championship. Dulwich U18s won by a large margin at the end and the final score was 78-52. After the U15s’ victory against Alleyn’s, the U18s
BASKETBALL
ANDY WANG (YEAR 13) AND MICHAEL YU (YEAR 10)
T he London Independent Schools’ Basketball Association (also known as LISBA), is the major basketball competition that Dulwich College boys take part in, with teams in all four age groups – U14s, U15s, U16s and U18s. The LISBA League competition consists of a regular season, from which the top four teams in the regular season standings will qualify for playoff semi-finals, which take place at DC. The LISBA Cup is only available for the U15s and U18s, and involves the same teams in the LISBA League, but with straight knock- out games. The LISBA League and Cup finals are normally held in mid-March, just before the Easter holidays begin. The U14 season is generally an important time for the development of basic fundamentals but not, perhaps, the achievement of victories. However, the talented young stars Oludara Odunlami, and Aaron Befkadu, coached by Mr James Faiers, impressed everyone with their brilliant performances, finishing with a 5-1 record before the LISBA League playoffs in March. Unfortunately, they suffered greatly from foul trouble in the semi-final, forcing two of five starters on the bench in the second overtime. This resulted in a close defeat by City of London School and, after beating Whitgift, the U14s’ season ended with a reasonable third in the league. With more experience and skills, they will surely come back and better stronger next year. The U15 started off their season with a three-game winning streak, twice beating KCS, whom they had lost to in the semi- final in the previous season. The key to this was the personal development over the summer of team members, particularly Max Cloud, who scored 20 points in their first match against King’s College School, relieving huge amount of pressure from the original duo of Michael Yu and Phillip Cloud. With high expectations in the LISBA League playoffs, their games against KCS and City of London slipped away due to the injuries of various key team members and they ended up losing both. With the pain and heartbreak of coming fourth in the playoffs, the team was determined and prepared to play the league winners, Alleyn’s, in the U15 LISBA Cup final six days later. Leaving a 0-2 away record against Alleyn’s in the past two years behind, the boys fought hard both defensively and offensively, with Michael Yu and Phillip Cloud scoring 42 points together. The contribution from the bench also added to the advantage of Dulwich, and particularly Jonas Funk, who had a scoring outburst in the second quarter, notching 10
played against City of London School for the LISBA Cup championship. Dragged down by the heavy fatigue of certain team members, the U18s had a bad start and were trailing for the whole game. Dulwich was unable to reverse the trend in the second half and fell to City of London by 6 points, although it was a tight and exciting game. Special thanks must be given to Coach Clive and Mr Burdekin for incredible coaching and brilliant organisation. Without them we would not have had such outstanding success over the season. We would like to thank all the boys in all four age groups for the hard work they have put in throughout the year for Dulwich Basketball and we hope that they will see even more success next year. To the four other Year 13 leavers this year – Yichun Tu, George Xu, Ibrahim Ibrahim Jr, Farah Mohammed – thank you for the consistent contribution to Dulwich Basketball throughout your time in the squad and we wish you a bright future playing basketball in university.
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