Purbeck finish 4th in U14 PEDDSA Basketball Tournament
On Monday 23rd January, the Purbeck U14 Basketball team travelled to Corfe Hills School for the PEDDSA Basketball Tournament. The groups were drawn into pools of 5, with Purbeck being in a group with Corfe Hills, Poole Grammar, Magna Academy and a team that didn’t turn up, resulting in a bye.
Purbeck started their first game against Magna Academy strongly, with Finn Rayment and David Taylor getting on the score sheet after some excellent assist play from Jaq Myers and Noah Evans. Purbeck were playing some excellent fast break basketball, with Noah Evans winning the majority of rebounds then finding outlets to move the ball quickly up the court for quick scores. Finn and David added two more baskets to their name before, Noah Evans managed to grab a basket of his own. Purbeck convincingly won 10-0 and were off to the perfect start.
Secondly, Purbeck played Poole Grammar School, who were significantly tougher opponents due to how quickly they moved the ball around the top of the D in attack. Purbeck kept setting their defence early and with Jack Wilkins chasing the ball down at the top of the D, it put too much pressure on their ball carriers resulting in loss of possessions. Purbeck started slowly in attack but gradually built their way into the game. David Taylor managed to secure to quick lay ups, supported by another jump shot from the ever-present Noah Barnes. In the last play, Finn Rayment burst into the D to secure the 8-0 win.
Purbeck were then in a situation where a win against Corfe Hills would put them directly into the final against the winner of the other pool. However, Corfe Hills were unbeaten as well and had an extremely tall 6ft 4 player who was dominating defences. Purbeck gave it their all and actually out played Corfe Hills in huge parts, especially only limiting their star player to one-point int the whole game. Noah Evans scored a late jump shot to put the boys within three points, but unfortunately it was too little to late, narrowly missing out 5-2.
After ringing the changes in the 3rd/4th place play-off game, Purbeck put up a decent performance against a strong Poole High team from the other side of the draw. The game was very end to end and could have gone anyway. Purbeck just weren’t clinical enough in the final third, were working the ball well into the D, but just couldn’t get the ball to go in! Eventually the boys lost 4-0, but could take huge pride from their performance.
Overall it was an absolute pleasure to take the boys over to the tournament for some basketball and they did the school proud in the ‘red and black’ jersey. MVP was David Taylor, for his tenacious ‘never give up’ attitude and overall points scoring.
Team: Finn Rayment , Noah Evans, David Taylor, Hayden King, Jaq Myers, Steph Curry, Jack Wilkins, Harry Spurling, Nathan Brown