In the third of a series of friendlies in preparation for their summer campaign, the GB U20’s squad destroyed the UK Elite U18’s 92-45 last night at Southend Leisure Centre, Essex.
It became apparent the UK Elite squad were in for a long night when on one of the first possessions of the game Jamell Anderson spun baseline and dunked on Warren Francis to set the tone. The rest of the night saw the GB team outmuscle and overpower the UK Elite squad on their way to a number of dunks and an easy win.
The victory was far from convincing though, against a team that nobody gave a chance of winning. Sloppy turnovers, and an inability to inbound the ball against a press and finish easy scores plagued the GB team and showed Head Coach Tim Lewis he still has a lot of work to do.
Random Thoughts/Notes
GB U20 starters; Andrew Lawrence, Nigel Van Oostrum, Ovie Soko, Myles Hesson, and Jamell Anderson.
Andrew Lawrence hit a 3/4 court shot buzzer beater at the end of the third-longest buzzer beater I’ve ever got on camera!
Raheem May-Thompson led all scorers with 16 points, Andrew Lawrence had 12, and Ryan Martin had 8. Jerelle Okoro led the UK Elite squad with 13, backed up by Teddy Okereafor’s 11.
Was great to see the togetherness of the GB U20’s during the game-all standing up and clapping/giving high fives whenever someone was subbed out and having each other’s backs throughout.
Big shout out to referee Aaron, who is pretty much the only ref in England who manages to find a way to not stand in front of my camera and still referee!
Teddy Okereafor was the only player on the UK Elite squad who could penetrate into the lane and create for himself. I’d like to see him be more assertive though.
When looking at both teams, the difference physically was meteoric. It literally looked like it was men against boys, yes there was an age difference (U20’s vs U18’s) but it’s no surprise a lot of the GB team have been playing abroad this past season-when are the majority of British coaches going to realise kids NEED to be lifting weights.
Huge thanks to Kenny, Jordan and Tamar for the ride home, saving me a long ass train journey.
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