The 2012 EBL Junior Final Fours took place this past weekend at the EIS, Sheffield, with the top four teams in the U14, U16 and U18 age groups fighting it out for the right to be called National Champions. See below for full results, leading scorers plus a few notes:

Under 18 EBL Junior Final Fours

Lewisham Thunder won the 2012 Under-18 National Championship in their first season in the South Premier, after getting past Westminster Warriors 64-55 in the final on Sunday.

England Under-18 Player of the Year Rowell Graham took home MVP honours, finishing with a 15 point, 17 rebound double double on 7/14 shooting whilst adding 3 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks.

Terrence Mustre led Steve Bucknall’s side in scoring with 16 points in what was a scrappy affair that saw the teams combine for 35% shooting. Dwayne Orija led Westminster with 17 points, Tyrell Isaacs added 12 and Matthew Don had 8 and 15 boards.

Box score.

2012 Under 18 Final Standings

1) Lewisham Thunder
2) Westminster Warriors
3) Manchester Magic
4) London Greenhouse Pioneers

3rd Place Play-off
Manchester, starting their bench and playing them the majority of the game, had little trouble dispatching of London Greenhouse to take third place, winning 86-68. Manchester saw a balanced scoring effort with every player on the roster scoring at least 4 points led by Jordan Green and Jordan Whelan who had 11 each, whilst Trevor Samuels added 10.  Eimantas Zvirbus led London Greenhouse with 15, Adam Raji had 12 and Bennett Grigull finished with 11.

Semi-Final 1
London Pioneers, one of the few Conference teams to ever make it to the Final Fours, got beaten 61-56 by Lewisham in a game that went down to the wire. It was an Omari Coates three with under a minute remaining that provided the cushion the Thunder needed to take the victory.  Lewisham were led by Omari Coates and Dwayne Simon who had 13 each, whilst Rowell Graham joined them in double figures with 11. Eimantas Zvirbus had 23 to lead the Conference side, whilst Nathan Hall added 10.

Semi Final 2
Westminster upset Manchester Magic 71-64 behind some clutch play from 1995 born Tyrell Isaacs. Isaacs finished with 23 points, taking over in the final period, scoring 12 points, including 8 of Westminster’s last 10. His partner in crime Dwayne Orija added 14, with Matthew Don also scoring 14. Tom Devitt led Manchester with 14, Jordan Whelan added 13, all in the first half, whilst Tamas Okros had 11.

Under 16 EBL Junior Final Fours

Manchester Magic successfully defended their Under-16 title with a 75-66 victory over NASSA in the 2012 final on Saturday.

Tamas Okros was named MVP, finishing with 18 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Northern side to victory and spoil NASSA’s perfect record on the season.

Patrick Whelan added 17 points for Manchester, Matthew Austin had 14 points and 9 rebounds whilst Joe Swindells added 11 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists. NASSA were led by Joe Mvuezolo’s 23 points, Myles Laurent-Smart added 20 including a number of crowd-pleasing plays, whilst Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye had 15.

Box score

2012 Under 16 Final Standings

1) Manchester Magic
2) NASSA
3) Westminster Warriors
4) Northampton Nets Phoenix

3rd Place Play-off
Westminster Warriors had little trouble dispatching of Northampton Nets Phoenix, with an 85-55 victory, led by Dwayne Orija’s 32 points. Gela Karumidze added 20 for Westminster, whilst Luke Lewis and Mohamed Janneh had 11 each for Northampton.

Semi-Final 1
Manchester Magic beat Westminster 75-61. Manchester were led by Pharroh Gordon’s 15 points, all of which came in the first half, Tamas Okros aded 15, whilst Patrick Whelan added 10. Dwayne Orija had 27 for Warriors, with Jonathan Joseph adding 11.

Semi Final 2
NASSA had a hard time putting away Northampton, but ultimately came away with a 57-52 victory. Joe Mvuezolo and Michael Ebose led NASSA with 15 each, whilst Luke Lewis had 11 for Northampton and Jamie Percival added 10.

Under 14 EBL Junior Final Fours

Manchester Magic successfully defended their Under-14 title with a 90-64 victory over Notts Nova in the 2012 final.

Hamad Ali, Manchester’s 6’5″ big was awarded the MVP trophy, as he finished with a 33 point, 16 rebound double double. Matthew Miller added 17 points for Magic, whilst Ricardo Eaton-Barnes had 10 points and 9 assists. Notts were led by Luke Mitchell who had 26 points before fouling out in as many minutes, with Keagan Allen having 16 points and 12 rebounds (9 offensive) and Hakim Williams adding 12 points and 7 blocks.

Box score

2012 Under 14 Final Standings

1) Manchester Magic
2) Notts Nova
3) Haringey Hawks
4) Worthing Thunder Juniors

3rd Place Play-off
Haringey Hawks got past Worthing Thunder 72-70 to take third place. Arbnor Haliti and Oli Chen had 12 each to lead Haringey. Denny Burling led Worthing with 19, whilst Keanu Kellet added 12.

Semi-Final 1
Manchester Magic beat Haringey 88-69. Hamad Ali had 30 points to lead Manchester, with Alex Cochrane chipping in 15. Courtney Grant-Allen had 28 to lead Haringey, whilst Tolu Babalola added 15 and Rayon Brown (99′ born!) 13.

Semi Final 2
Notts Nova dismantled Worthing Thunder Juniors 72-43, led by Luke Mitchell’s 26 points (and an unconfirmed 9 assists and 12 steals), whilst Keagan Allen added 12. Worthing were led by Keanu Kellet’s 12 point, whilst Gregory Umeh joined him as the only other player in double figures with 10.

Notes

• Myles Laurent-Smart (all 5’7” of him) got up for a big one handed dunk in the closing seconds of the final!
• Overall standard was disappointingly low
• Notts’ Luke Mitchell (1998 born!) is definitely one to watch for the future.
• Lewisham’s point guard Terrence Mustre has got very nice game – good vision, an ability to get into the lane and a nice pull up jumpshot.
• In the women’s – Haringey took the U18 title (their fourth straight), Sevenoaks took the U16 title, Southend won the U14 title.
• Tamas Okros added his second straight U16 Final Four MVP to his trophy cabinet.
• Rowell Graham owned the vast majority of the highlights from the weekend (see his three dunks from the final), whilst Laurent-Smart and NASSA had the rest!
• Both U16 semi-finals were a lot closer than anyone expected – it seemed to be a forgone conclusion it would be a NASSA – Manchester final, but both Northampton and Westminster proved tough tests, despite lacking the talent of NASSA or Manchester.
• In the U16 final, you have to wonder whether not having lost a game all season was actually detrimental to NASSA. As soon as Manchester took the lead, they got rattled and appeared to have lost hope way before the final buzzer sounded, despite being within striking distance throughout.
• In the U18 final, Lewisham came out with a focus on stopping Tyrell – doubling him every time he received the ball. He never got a chance to get going, ending up with 12 points on 4/14 shooting.

Did you get to the EIS? Thoughts on the weekend? Surprise results? Leave a comment!