Barking Abbey came out victorious in Battle in the Capital Under-19 division that debuted this weekend at UEL SportsDock.
It wasn’t without its drama however, pulling out a 61-55 overtime thriller in the final to escape a spirited BTM Select team who were led by an incredible performance from tournament leading scorer Cameron Hildreth, as he poured in 26-points.
Flynn Boardman-Raffet picked up tournament MVP, dropping 17 points in the final, and averaging 12.6 across the tournament where he led BA to a perfect 5-0 record as their size and depth proved too much for the opposition.
“It was an honour for us to take part in such a well-organised tournament against some great European and home competition,” the MVP said.
“As a team, we stuck together and played with passion throughout the tournament. I feel truly blessed to win MVP but couldn’t have done it without my teammates and coaches. It was a great way to end 2019 for me and my team, and sets a standard for us going into 2020!”
Congratulations to MVP Flynn Boardman-Raffet, who came up clutch every time his @AbbeyBasketball team needed him #battleinthecapital pic.twitter.com/xzLtxBucQo
— BTM Basketball (@btmbasketball) December 23, 2019
“A big thank you to BTM for putting on a great event,” BA Head Coach James Vear commented. “It was nice to end the year winning the tournament especially as it was a team effort with both our D1 and D3 players contributing.”
Elsewhere, James Watt College claimed third place, defeating Oostende 48-38 in the playoff, giving all top three spots to English teams at the tournament.
1) Barking Abbey
2) BTM Select
3) James Watt College
4) BC Filou Oostende
5) Mayfield School
6) StrideYourPassion
7) TTT Haarlem
8) Northfleet
All games were played with 8 minute running clock quarters on Day 1, and 10 minute running clock quarters on Day 2.
The tournament is in its third year, but historically has focused on Under-16s with this year the first time it has added in the Under-19s. The Under-16 and Under-14s portion of the tournament will take place next weekend at UEL.
Find all of the U19 tournament results and scorers here.
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.
0 comments