Barking Abbey Basketball Academy successfully defended their Kestrel Guards Pre-Season Tournament title after cruising past Manchester 71-53 in the final on Sunday in Eastleigh.
Barking Abbey were led by David Akibo who finished with 13 points in the final, and dominated the entire tournament. Josh Steel (a 1997 born!), was named MVP, cementing his status as one to watch for the future.
The All Tournament team was comprised of Akibo, Ed Potter (Manchester Magic), Elliott Dadds (Solent Kestrels), Myles Laurent-Smart (Lewisham) and Joe Junior Mvuezolo (Hoop Dreams).
Home team Solent finished the tournament in third place, whilst defending Under-18 national champions Lewisham could only manage a joint fifth place finish with Bristol.
2012 Kestrel Guards Pre-Season Tournament Final Standings
1) Barking Abbey
2) Manchester
3) Solent Kestrels/Hoop Dreams
5) Lewisham Thunder/Bristol Academy Flyers
5) Reading Rockets
6) Solent Select*
*Solent Select went undefeated but were a men’s team.
Full Results & Leading Scorers
Preliminary Round – Pool B
Solent Select beat Reading 86-59
Reading: Matt Davis 7 George Emms 12
Solent Select beat Barking Abbey 53-50
Barking Abbey: D. Ogunseye 13, David Akibo 12
Lewisham beat Reading 64-22
Lewisham: M. Gray 12, Myles Laurent-Smart 8/Reading: Liam Carpenter 6, Matt Davis 4
Barking Abbey beat Lewisham 57-41
Barking Abbey: David Akibo 20, Josh Steel 12/Lewisham: Myles Laurent-Smart 8, I. Dickson 8
Barking Abbey beat Reading 51-30
Barking Abbey: Joe Lockwood 10, J. Jarrett 10/ Reading: Matt Davis 7, Liam Carpenter 4
Solent Select beat Lewisham 64-52
Lewisham: Myles Laurent-Smart 16, H. Abdul 6
Preliminary Round – Pool A
Manchester beat Solent 54-50
Manchester: Trevor Samuels 14, Joe Swindells 9/Solent: M. Paver 12, George Beard 6
Manchester beat Bristol 61-37
Manchester: Chris Bwana 11, Joe Swindells 10/Bristol: Kyle Squire 8, Jack Staynings 4
Solent beat Hoop Dreams 45-39
Solent: George Beard 11, Shane Massey 10/Hoop Dreams: A. Slasar 8, A. Dunwell 8
Manchester beat Hoop Dreams 54-45
Manchester: Trevor Samuels 15, Ed Potter 8/Hoop Dreams: Joe Junior Mvuezolo 24, A. Slasar 6
Solent beat Bristol 46-45
Solent: D. Kingswell 8/Bristol: Kyle Squire 16, C. Duncan 8
Hoop Dreams beat Bristol 55-52
Hoop Dreams: Joe Junior Mvuezolo 10, P. O’Conner 7/Bristol: Olive Hannam 10, K. Espergues 8
Quarter Finals
Barking Abbey beat Bristol 65-37
Barking Abbey: David Akibo 16, Joe Lockwood 14/Bristol: Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye 12, Jack Griffiths 9
Solent beat Reading 44-33
D. Kingswell 8, E. James 6/Davis 10 Devereaux 7
Hoop Dreams beat Lewisham 55-45
Hoop Dreams: Joe Junior Mvuezolo 17, M. Ebose 12/Lewisham: Myles Laurent-Smart 17, D. Gray 8
Solent Select beat Manchester 68-44
Manchester: J. Harvey 6, Kayin Darbey 6
Semi Finals
Barking Abbey beat Solent 39-35
Barking Abbey: David Akibo 16, Josh Steel 7/Solent: D. Kingswell 10, George Beard 10
Manchester beat Hoop Dreams 56-34
Manchester: Kayin Darbey 10, Joe Swindells 9/Hoop Dreams: P. O’connor 6, M. Ebose 6
Final
Barking Abbey beat Manchester 71-53
Barking Abbey: David Akibo 13, Joe Lockwood 11/Manchester: Andre Gayle 8, Trevor Samuels 6
Notes
- Worth noting Bristol were without Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye and Tamas Okros (both England players) on Saturday as they were with the men’s team, and Reading was without rising star Luke Nelson who was making noise at the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders in Moscow (made the all star team).
- The games were 12 minute running quarters.
- Hoop Dreams were a team put together by Creon Raftopoulos, made up of players from Birmingham, London, and Tees Valley.
- Solent Select were a men’s team entered at the last minute to replace Medway Park who pulled out. Needless to say, their results on the Sunday didn’t count.
- Overall, the standard of play at the tournament was poor, which was incredibly disappointing. It will be interesting to see what the Final Fours are like at the end of the season.
- Massive thanks to James Matthews and tournament sponsor Kestrel Guards for making my visit possible and putting me up in a hotel, Barking Abbey for the transport back to London and tournament organiser Matt Guymon for sorting me out with everything I need!
Did you make it to the tournament? Who are your favourites for the coming season? Drop a comment!
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
hoop dreams were made up of 3 players from london, 4 players from birmingham and 3 from tees valley
Thanks for the info, have edited it in :)
David Akibo was dominating that whole tournament why didnt he recieve the MVP award, i think it was proper rigged. this is a disgrace to british basketball
‘a disgrace to British Basketball’ ? Are you having a laugh? There are plenty of things which British Basketball should be ashamed of but giving the tournasment MVP to one Barking Abbey player instead of another is most definitely not one of them.
David made the all star 5 and was very dominant inside, throughout the tournament.
But Barking Abbey’s defense was why they won the tournament. If you watched Josh Steel play defense you would have seen how instrumental he was to the team and how much of a difference there was when he was on the bench.
I hate that people think the MVP can only be given to the leading scorer…
The two Bristol, England players you mention were absent only on the Saturday but both were there and played on the Sunday in the quarter final against Barking Abbey, which as you can see didn’t make a
marked difference!
I would like to thank all those at Kestrals involved in the organization of this tournament, it is a great pre -season event.
Steel also helped his team out in more ways aswell as scoring throughout the tournament (e.g. rebounds, assists, defense). Akibo was a key to barking abbeys inside presence and was dominate all tournament in that area so he made the all star 5
And both of them deserved MVP the way they played
When is the highlight video coming out?
Not sure, there are other videos that are a priority at the moment and to be honest I didn’t get a lot of good stuff at the tournament!
The tournament was okay, but too many people think that, for junior basketball, the glass is half full rather than, what is actually is, half empty.
The comments from Mr Cann re the U15 Regionals were most interesting, especially when one looks at the majority of results. (The final game was won by 23 points)
http://www.englandbasketball.co.uk/news/default.aspx?newsid=4408
The overall standard was very poor.
We have so far to go to reach the level of European teams. At least another decade.
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