Cheshire Jets Secure U16 National Cup Title

The Cheshire Jets had their way with the Sheffield Junior Sharks on Sunday, winning the 2011 U16 National Cup title with a 79-65 victory.

Cheshire’s Greg Krippa dictated the tempo early, having 14 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals going into the halftime break before he was called for his fourth foul and had to sit. It was teammate Cameron Mackay who shouldered the rest of the load, being named MVP with a 21 point, 5 rebound, 2 assist, 1 steal effort.

Krippa finished with 16, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals, Jack Griffiths added 14 points, whilst Matthew Dickinson had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals for Cheshire. Dennis Kaka led Sheffield with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals, though shot an ugly 8/23 from the field and 2/10 at the line. Hendryk Krajniewski added 16 points on 7/8 shooting, whilst Lemar Darien-Campbell had 9 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists.

The margin of victory could have been a lot larger if it wasn’t for a number of key Cheshire players getting into foul trouble, with Jack Griffiths, Jamal Tahraoui and Greg Krippa all having to sit for extended periods of time, thought Sheffield did themselves no favours with abominable free throw shooting, going just 8/30 at the line. Full stats from the final can be found here.

Notes

• Krippa was definitely the standout in the first half, and if it wasn’t for foul trouble would have been looking at a healthy triple double. Turned the ball over a little too much (6), but was impressive at times.
• In the end Cheshire just had far too many pieces for Sheffield to compete with. As mentioned, if it wasn’t for the Jets’ foul trouble, I think the margin of victory would have been a lot larger.
• Hendryk Krajniewski showed some nice post moves for a young big man. He’s a big body, needs to work on finishing a little stronger but has the potential to be good.
• Cheshire Jets’ player Jack Griffiths has been wearing pink sneakers all season long in an effort to raise money for breast cancer-to help him out on his fund-raising quest and donate to this very worth cause check out Jack’s fundraising page.
• Shout out to both Cheshire’s and Sheffield’s fans. The atmosphere in there was rockin’ at times-would like to see more of that up and down the UK!

Were you at the game? What did you think? Drop a comment and let us know!