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England 115-83 Belarus

Pretty dominant performance, especially in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. We started really badly, bad shooting and bad defence, but that was turned around pretty quickly. Would have preferred a better PD but with garbage time we lost a lot of the lead as our bench isn’t as strong as our starters. But overall a pretty solid win and good start to the season.

Matthew Hall was voted player of the game as he finished with 17 points and 3 assists on an efficient 7-11 shooting.

Next we face a tougher test with Mexico away (anyone fancy staying up until 2am to watch the game for me? Haha). Mexico picked up a good win away against Croatia with less effort so it’s not a game to take lightly. I’d still like to think we’re the favourites, and going 2-0 would be the perfect start ready for the rest of the draw.



Last edited by arrowspg5 at 11/17/2022 18:35:22

A spirited performance from the NT led to a narrow defeat to a strong Turkey side.

Unfortunately the U21's suffered a surprising OT loss to Mexico, despite some fantastic team ratings. Hopefully there are better times ahead in the next five games.

NT poll:

(https://strawpoll.com/polls/kjn1j56EJgQ)

U21 poll:

(https://strawpoll.com/polls/PKglzq52Ryp)

England 84-95 Mexico

One of the most shocking losses I've had in my time on BB! The team ratings show how dominant we were over Mexico in terms of talent, but somehow we struggled the whole game, managed to scrape through to OT then couldn't get the job done. A very poor loss, and not much more I can really say. The BB Gods were against us.

Matthew Hall once again has been voted player of the game. He finished with 18 points and 5 assists.

The remaining 6 games have been drawn for the consolation tournament. We face Croatia, Germany, Ghana, Macau, Panama and Romania. Not the easiest of draws given we play Germany and Romania away, but We still have a chance to qualify. 3 losses means we rely on points difference to qualify, so we can really only afford 1 more loss to guarantee qualification for the knockouts.

We next play Croatia at home. They have used normal effort in both the games so far this season giving us a good enthusiasm advantage as well as home court advantage and the superior team. It might not be a walkover, but a game I expect to win.

England 85-99 Turkey
After starting the game really well and leading the first quarter, we were unable to contain the Turkish SF who dominated us throughout the match. All five starters performed well and managed to battle it out with some really talented opponents but unfortunately due to a lack of game shape and availability of players, our bench could not match the standards set. A spirited defeat which shows us we can cause teams problems with our attack but highlights how far we are behind top nations in terms of depth. I opted with the 1-3-1 zone to try and counteract the strength of the Turkish guards and for the most part, it worked really well and I was happy with how we limited Ergul but as mentioned earlier, we couldn't contain the SF.

Next up we have Luxembourg which should be an easier game for us.

Player of the match was Magdaleno Banuelos who had a great all round game grabbing 8 boards, dishing out 9 assists and bucketing 21 points.

Last edited by js8 at 11/24/2022 17:02:39

Two solid wins for the NT's today.

The leading scorer for the NT came from the bench, and for the U21 we saw a rare (in BB) 10 assists for a single player. Vote here!

NT poll: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/7MZ0zWEKRno)
U21 poll: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/7rnzG0eP6gO)

Luxembourg 90-136 England
Another dominant display against one of the weaker teams in the group, with most of the squad contributing to a resounding win. Seven members of the team got into double figures with three eclipsing the 20 point mark. Sanders and Banuelos were up to their usual tricks scoring at a really good rate whilst Sean Hargreaves and in particular, Bart Leavy-McCarthy provided some excellent offence off the bench. RnG seemed the obvious option with most of the squad at 9GS and to try and boost our points differential as much as we could.

Next up we have Switzerland who have a decent squad, but we should still be favourites, especially if the game shapes are similar to this week. Big thanks to all the managers for their efforts this week, let's try and keep the game shape to these levels for the rest of the season.

Player of the match was Bart Leavy-McCarthy who scored at will when coming off the bench. BLM scored 26 points in 23 minutes, including four from downtown and a huge +/- of +41!

England 107-79 Croatia

Don't let the final points difference fool you, this game was a lot closer than a 28 point game, we were only ahead by 9 with 5mins to go! It was just really a crazy game between RNG and PTB which meant we got a lot of shots and a lot of runs for both teams. But in the end we showed how good we really are. 10s in both defensive ratings shows that our defence is getting to a good level which is key for success.

Matthew Hall once again earned player of the game after another impressive scoring display with 28 points along with 4 steals and 4 assists.

Next we play probably to toughest game on our schedule so far, away against Germany. It's a big game for both teams as we both look to get as high a seed as possible, and Germany already have 2 losses and a 3rd would make qualification very difficult for them. This is going to be the 3rd game against Germany in my u21 tenure, so both me and the Germany manager know each other pretty well. I'll quietly say I'm 2-0 against them, but making it 3-0 will be very difficult.

A nice result for the NT, with several excellent performances. Vote here: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/GPgV3zKvBZa)

On the other hand a tough day for the U21's, with few performances of note. Vote here: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/Q0Zp4BlwDZM)

England 116-99 Switzerland
A dominant inside performance saw us move to 3-1 for the season, shooting an impressive 55% from the field. After establishing a comfortable lead in the first half, we were never really troubled and kept Switzerland at arms length for the majority of the game. Smith continued his great start to the season with another impressive display, limiting the Swiss' star man Foltz to 15 points whilst grabbing 23 points of his own. Cassell got his season up and running with an excellent display, shooting 75% from the field as well as recording 2 blocks and 5 offensive rebounds.

Next up we have Macedonia, who again have a decent squad but I fancy us to get the job done. The game shape of all players the last two weeks has been excellent, so thanks to all the managers for that.

Player of the match was Ad Cassell who battered and bruised the Swiss big men to grab 27 points.

Last edited by js8 at 12/08/2022 17:26:13

England 56-88 Germany

Definitely our toughest game of the draw, and that showed in with how the game went. I had picked out Rober as their main threat given how well he had scored in their previous games, so I went with a plan to try and slow his production. He did have a quieter game than normal, but his teammates showed they are also good players and stepped up. I did consider going all in for the game in an attempt to try and win, but when I saw that Germany had almost perfect game shape it felt like the smart option was to give the game up and focus on the rest of the draw. But the fact that Germany felt they wasn't able to use TIE even with perfect GS and HCA I think shows we are a pretty strong team.

We had joint player of the games this week, with Oliver Boddie and Dale MacLachlan both receiving 2 votes each. Boddie finished the game with a statline of 8points, 16rebounds and 2 blocks while MacLachlan had 10points, 13rebounds and 2blocks.

Now with 2 losses, qualification is now at risk and any more losses will probably be the end of our season. Thankfully, we do have a nicer run to go, and with good game shape I feel confident we will still qualify. We next play Ghana at home, who pose some threats but we should get through pretty comfortably. Our defence has been pretty strong in the games so far, but our offence has been very much underwhelming. Hopefully it improves from now.

A good win in a tricky game for the NT, away from home playing TIE vs CT.

Bañuelos filled the statsheet, Kemp was efficient and Dolan put up a double double before fouling out. Vote here: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/Q0Zp4mQdjZM)

For the U21's, a comfortable home victory after last week's tough game. Vote here: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/ajnENJLWjgW)