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Congratulations to Shawn Bondi of Leeds City Ballers Academy, who collected 100% of the MVP votes from last week's game!

So far Barker Wickens, William Handl and Shawn Bondi have one MVP each. This week we had a big victory over Costa Rica, vote here:

(https://strawpoll.com/polls/B2ZB3l7MLyJ)

Eric Singleton of Scunthorpe Devils was voted MVP last week vs Costa Rica!

Vote here for the best performer in today's game against Algeria: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/BDyNjGNpkyR)

England 113-51 Costa Rica

Another big win for the U21s against 76th ranked Costa Rica to improve to 5-0 on the season. England dominated all over the court and showed their dominance in the game. Eric Singleton top scored with 27 points on 10-15FG (5-6 3FG). Handl added 16 from the bench as the two season top scorers battle out for the team leader. England shot 53% FG and 58% 3FG and had 28 assists in an efficient offensive performance (we ignore the free throw shooting haha)

The defensive end was just as dominant for England, holding Costa Rica to only 23% FG. and holding their top scorer Eliz to shooting 8-33FG. We were also +33 on the glass.

England 110-57 Algeria

England next faced 88th ranked Algeria away and came away with a huge 53 point win and a 6-0 record. While not having as much of an efficient offensive performance, we still had 28 assists as once again we showed a balanced team offence with every player scoring a basket. Backup C Christopher Mitchell surprisingly top scored with 20 points off the bench. He also added 14 rebounds in a massive double-double in only 21 minutes. His club teammate Puffit also had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

The defensive strength was on display again, holding Algeria to 23% shooting and were a +38 on the boards. Key defensive effort on the Algeria top scorer Moussaoui who was held to only 3 baskets.

This win confirms qualification to the knockout rounds with 2 games spare. We are aiming for the top seed and will need 2 more wins to achieve that. We next face Jamaica in what should be another huge win and get us to 7-0.

Congratulations to Christopher Mitchell of Wind City Ballers, who was MVP last game.

MVP Awards this season:

Allan Lyons (first game, awarded via coach)
Barker Wickens
William Handl
Shawn Bondi
Eric Singleton
Christopher Mitchell

The players really filled up the box score in this week's game at home to Jamaica. Pick your top guy here! (https://strawpoll.com/polls/XOgOJxjJ0n3)



Last edited by testudo at 06/13/2022 15:59:14

I also have Lyons having a MVP, who I believe must have got MVP in the first game. So that’s 6 different players all contributing MVP performances, love to see the depth in this squad, and given the games from Fairclough and Fawaz we probably see a 7th different player receiving game MVPs!

Stephen Fawaz is the latest MVP, and another new recipient!

MVP Awards this season:

Allan Lyons (first game, awarded via coach)
Barker Wickens
William Handl
Shawn Bondi
Eric Singleton
Christopher Mitchell
Stephen Fawaz


This week we unfortunately suffered our first defeat of the campaign vs Malaysia. I don't think anyone had a particularly good game, but vote for the best here - (https://strawpoll.com/polls/6QnM7NROkZe)

With Fairclough winning MVP for last week, we now have eight different winners this season.

Allan Lyons (first game, awarded via coach)
Barker Wickens
William Handl
Shawn Bondi
Eric Singleton
Christopher Mitchell
Stephen Fawaz
Wes Fairclough

Big win this week in the round of 32 vs Russia, well done arrows! Vote for the best performance here: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/7rnzGzqRYgO)

It was a tie last week between Wickens and Atkinson, so I'll give them 0.5 of an MVP each.

Allan Lyons
Barker Wickens (1.5)
William Handl
Shawn Bondi
Eric Singleton
Christopher Mitchell
Stephen Fawaz
Wes Fairclough
Bruce Atkinson (0.5)


This week we took care of business with a comfortable victory over Thailand, who had used all their effort to beat Bosnia in the last round. Congratulations to them on a nice run in the competition. Vote for our MVP here! (https://strawpoll.com/polls/xVg7d880OZr)

England 108-76 Thailand

England U21s battled past Thailand in the round of 16 with a 108-76 victory to reach the quarterfinals of the consolation tournament for the second consecutive time.

Wes Fairclough led the way with 26 points in 27 minutes, showing his improvement this season. But the win was much more of a team effort with all 12 players grabbing at least 2 boards (team total 62) and 11 of those players also registering at least one assist (team total 25). 20 year old PG Shawn Bondi had a great all round game with 7 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists. Eric Singleton also added solid scoring off the bench as he finished with 14 points. Be sure to vote for your player of the game in the straw poll in the previous post by testudo. The MVP voting for the season is very close so every vote matters.

We now face Estonia away in the quarter finals which will be difficult and exciting game. Estonia crept past Finland 96-93 in their round of 16 game. We are looking to make the semifinals for the first time ever!

Looking at the minute management so far this most are looking pretty good! If your player has less than 48mins this week please play them in your scrimmage, if they have already played more than 48mins please don’t play them at all.

Congrats to Fairclough, who added his 2nd MVP in three weeks vs Thailand.

Allan Lyons
Barker Wickens (1.5)
William Handl
Shawn Bondi
Eric Singleton
Christopher Mitchell
Stephen Fawaz
Wes Fairclough (2)
Bruce Atkinson (0.5)

Not sure we need a poll to find our choice this week, but here it is: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/PKglz43j1yp).

England 78 - 79 Estonia

We fall short in the quarter-finals by 1 point to Estonia. Wes Fairclough carried the team with 44 points but as no-one else managed double figures it was going to be tough to win. An away tie at this stage of the season is always going to put you as the underdog, but we almost battled through.

Go and vote in the poll on testudo's post for the game MVP (not that its a hard choice).

We move on to next season. I would like to thank the managers of this season's squad, one of the most successful seasons the England U21s have had. It was a great team and an unlucky game shape update has cost us going further than ever before. I would also like to thank tesudo who has done a fantastic job as assistant this season with great opponent scouting, tactical analysis and off-site work to help the U21 setup.

I will begin scouting for next seasons team. If you have a player aged 20 or younger that you don't see called up to the squad at some point in the next week or so, get in touch so I can add them to the database.