Jul 06: H & F boys take part in the London Youth Games

On Sunday 2nd July, the H & F boys basketball team travelled to Crystal Palace for the annual London Youth Games. With the team unable to train together due to school examinations, Coach Lamptey selected a young team with mainly 14 and 15 year olds in this under 17 category but was still confident of a good performance as the team were drawn against neighbouring boroughs Westminister and Ealing, as well as Newham and Bromley.

The first game was against one of the pre-tournament favourites, Newham, and after a slow start, the team fought back with some perimeter shooting to finish the first quarter up 8 - 7. However, Newham began to realise they had a size and physical advantage and began to go inside against the smaller H & F team and it began to pay dividends as they raced into a 12 point lead at the half. At the restart, Coach Lamptey deployed a zone to pack the lane and protect the basket but back to back threes from Newham sent them back in man defense. H & F rallied in the fourth to reduce the deficit but it was too little to late as they lost by 14 points.

The second game was against neighbours Westminister and after a few stern words from Coach Lamptey, the team started with an intensity both on offence and defence that totally besieged their opposition in establishing a 12 point lead at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was more of the same as all team began to contribute points led by guard Sean Grosset as the team kept Westminister to 4 first half points. Eager to maintain the intensity, H & F continued to pile in the pressure as they continued to keep their opponents from scoring, particularly Nathaniel Ishmael who was beginning to dominate inside with blocked shots and defensive rebounds which provided the spurt for the transition game. The fourth gave Coach Lamptey an opportunity to give some of the younger players some experience at this level of competition as the game ended 40 - 8.

Ealing was the opposition for the third game and because of scheduling problems, the game had to be played straight after the previous match. H & F continued their momentum and raced into a lead but fatigue was beginning to play a factor as they started to miss easy shots and free throws. Midway through the third quarter, Ealing began to chip away at the H & F lead as the momentum was shifting and tied the scores going into the final 10 minutes. Ealing were now playing with reckless abandon as they continued to score, especially from the three point line. A timeout by Coach Lamptey saw a change of offensive tactics as H & F went to the Fist offense in an attempt to get some scoring and get to the foul line. It began to pay dividends as the guards began to draw fouls but once again, the shooting touch from the foul line deserted the team as Ealing finished the game on top.

In the final game against Bromley, there was still an outside chance of qualification but the H & F team, started the game flat and they were obviously disappointed from their loss to Ealing and Bromley took advantage of this to lead by 8 at the end of the first. In the second, both teams struggled for any type of consistency but it was Bromley who managed to increase the lead to 10. At halftime, Coach Lamptey implored his team to increase the defensive intensity but the team still struggled at both ends of the floor as the lead grew to 14 before the team rallied to reduce the decifit to 10 by the end of the third. At the start of the fourth, Bromley scored the first points of the quarter and the game looked like it was slipping away as Coach Lamptey called timeout to change his zone press alignment. This kickstarted the H & F team as they reeled off 8 straight points to get back into the game as Bromley started to get tight. Seeing the opportunity to attack. H & F continued to take advantage of their new found intensity and took the lead with one minute remaining for the first time in the game. Bromley scored again to lead by 1 but H & F were not going to be denied as they scored a basket plus a foul shot to win the game by 2.

Coach Lamptey commented "It was a great last 7 minutes as we played terrible for the first 33 but thats basketball. The teams disappointed that we didn't make it through to the knockout stages as results in the other groups didn't go our way but they've really done a great job representing our borough, especially the younger kids, so I'm proud of their effort and their teamplay".

Hammersmith and Fulham Youth Games Team 2006

Sean Grosset (Year 10) - Elliot School

Bijan Mahmood (Year 12) - Lycee Francais

Kash Arabi (Year 11) - Lycee Francais

Nathaniel Ishmael (Year 12) - Latymer Upper

Maradana Walker (Year 11) - Phoenix High

Louis Scott (Year 10) - Burlington Danes

Matthew Bridgeman (Year 10) - Cardinal Vaughn

Shahin Terazi (Year 8) - Elliot School

Bilal B (Year 10) - Phoenix High

Coach Frank Lamptey

Assistant Coach Ashley Baker

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