Sussex Storm Prevail Over Baltic Stars for Under-16 National Cup Title

Image Credit: Basketball England

Sussex Storm prevailed over Baltic Stars 85-76 to claim the 2019 Under-16 Boys National Cup title on Saturday afternoon at Essex Sport Arena.

Great Britain Under-16 Cameron Hildreth picked up MVP honours on his way to a 27-point, 12-rebound, 4-assist, 2-steal outing, as Sussex held off a late rally from Baltic, who had trailed by as many as 23.

“It’s awesome,” Hildreth said on winning the title. “We’ve had such a tough run through this year, but we’ve worked so hard week in, week out, put our whole heart on the court. We’ve been going at each other every week, ready for this game. They made us work for it.”

Max Gausden supported Hildreth with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals, Abdou Gaye had 13 and Finlay Mitchell joined them in double figures with 10.

Storm Head Coach Mark Richards commented:

“It’s fantastic. They’ve worked so hard this, come through some adversity in the early rounds but I’m really, really pleased for the boys. It was a nice start for us, we pushed it well at the beginning, we had some defensive lapses later, but fought through and got the win.”

Alonas Peciulis had 29 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out for Baltic, whilst Nobunaga Okunola stuffed the stat-sheet with 21 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals.

It was Sussex who pulled away in the first half, taking a 20 point lead in the second quarter and were in cruise control. Down 21 heading into the final five minutes, things were looking bleak for Baltic, but a furious rally from Baltic saw them get the lead back to single digits before Storm were able to steady the ship and secure the win.

Box score.

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix