Peckham Pride Win Under-18 National Cup

By Sam Neter on February 20, 2016

Peckham Pride raced into an early lead and never looked back on their way to a 104-70 victory against Leeds Allerton High School Force to pick up the Under-18 Men’s National Cup title.

Dotun Dosunmu earned MVP honours after going 8-of-11 from the field in a 19-point haul, whilst also adding four rebounds and three assists. Four other players hit double figures for Peckham, including Gedi Juozapaitis and Kemar Hawes, who had 17 and 15 points respectively.

“It’s humbling and I’m really happy for the boys,” said Peckham Pride Head Coach Sterling Muschett. “I’m really happy for the club as a whole. We’ve turned the corner in such a big way, just being more professional than we were before.

“They’re (the players) lucky that they’ve played with each other for years, so it’s about time everything fell into place. It hasn’t been done without a lot of headache, a lot of to-ing and fro-ing.”

The win meant a double for Peckham, also having won the Under-18 Women’s National Cup in the previous game.

“It’s massive (to win both),” Muschett added. “This programme’s just getting bigger and bigger, thanks to coaches that are coming in and making a huge huge change to what we’ve got and we’re so lucky that we have coaches in here of such quality.”

Peckham started with a 12-5 run, and quickly established a double-digit advantage inside the opening period. After a 28-point first quarter, Pride continued their free-flowing offence in the second and went into the half-time break with a sizeable 55-34 cushion.

There was no let up in the third as Peckham racked up 31 points to all but secure victory, leading by 35 heading into the fourth. And, they would see out the win in style, surpassing the century mark in the final couple of minutes.

Jake Pandza netted 28 points for Leeds, and Josh Gill added 13 to be the only other player in double figures, as their valiant cup run fell at the final hurdle.

Box score.

Notes

Peckham just had way too much depth for Leeds, who never really got into the contest.
Dotun Dosunmu, who was part of Greenhouse Pioneers’ U18 championship winning squad last year, was deserved MVP, bringing a lot of energy off the bench.
Gedi Juozapaitis put on a dunk show for the crowd in warm ups.
Peckham have to be one of the best supported junior clubs in the country, always impressed by the community feel they produce around the club.

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