England U16’s Advance in European Championships

The England U16’s progressed to the next round of the European Championships yesterday after closing out the preliminary phase with a 66-40 blow out victory over the home nation Macedonia.

In their first game, England had to dig themselves out of a hole, coming back from a 13 point half-time deficit to beat Romania, 68-57. This come back was mainly due to a big third quarter performance from Janice Monakana, on route to 17 points in the game. The team carried the momentum into the fourth to close out the game well, winning by 11.

England were not, however, able to carry their fourth quarter performance into their second game against the Slovak Republic, going down early once again. This time England could not stop the Slovak Republic’s scoring and the deficit continued to increase throughout the first three quarters. The game finished 77-54, but the play of Shequila Joseph showed more promise as she totaled 14 points and 8 boards.

After a much better start to their final game against Macedonia, England pushed up a good lead and never looked back. Coach Karen Burton’s team cruised to a 66-40 win behind the strong play of Joseph once more, this time racking up 19 points and four rebounds.

All stats from England’s games so far can be found here.

Coach Burton is positive about her team’s performance going forward,

“Shequila Joseph is now starting to shoot well and the other kids are doing a great job of getting the ball to her. The work of Claire Harper inside and Cheredine Green is starting to be dominant.”

The win over Macedonia placed England second in Group C. They will now advance, with a 1-1 record, to play Israel tomorrow, followed by Germany then Ireland.