St David’s Basketball Academy move on to the AOC Sports National Final, with a 81-73 win over Charnwood.
The boys basketball team picked up a huge win this week beating Charnwood 2nds in the semi finals of the AoC Cup. Having knocked out CAVC in the quarter finals the boys had momentum on their side but, with Charnwood being one of the biggest basketball academies in the UK, they knew the next round was going to be tough.
The team made the long trip up to Charnwood in Leicester to face a well organised team in an intense environment. Even during the warm up the crowd were already loud and making good use of their drums!
Early on the two teams traded baskets and the score was very close. Charnwood scored easily on the fast break with some strong finishes at the basket. Alonzo Rosario and Ravin Edirimuni scored the first few baskets for St Davids, immediately highlighting to Charnwood their speed was going to be a problem.
In the second quarter Charnwood’s ball movement and ability to shoot the 3 meant the St Davids boys went down as many as 14. Ravi’s leadership helped reorganise the boys and he was able to control the game enough for St Davids to recover slightly, going into halftime down 7.
In the 3rd quarter the boys turned up the effort on defence. Antonio Morales continued to battle and, despite being in foul trouble from early on, he was able to contest shots rebound well against the bigger Charnwood players. David Wells showed his athleticism rebounding fantastically at both ends of the floor, as well as putting in some crucial put backs and scoring free throws. Antoine Ruesch got some key stops and showed his passing ability with some great full court passes to Alonzo for the easy lay up.
Charnwood called a timeout but it wasn’t enough to stop an Alonzo scoring frenzy. He had now scored on the fast break, in traffic around the hoop, from long range by hitting 3s and the opposition were starting to realise they had no answer for him.
Going into the 4th the boys were down 2. Ravi lead the game plan in the timeout talking to the team about how they had to keep pushing the fast break. A pull up 3 from Ravi and huge scores from Alonzo forced Charnwood into another timeout and with 5 minutes left St David’s had managed to get up 5. Charnwood responded with some tough scores inside and looked like they might go back in front. Alonzo had other ideas, as he hit a high arching 3 and tough reserve lay up. The energy from the bench was non stop and carried the guys on court through the most tiring phases of play.
Now with 3 minutes to go Ravi kept composure and organised the team to protect their lead. Charnwood heaped on the defensive pressure to chase the game but some smart passing from Josh Patten, Ravi and David meant St David’s were able to keep possession and stay in front.
Charnwood battled to the end but the final buzzer sounded with St David’s up 9 and on their way to the final.
Alonzo had a standout performance with 44 points and some key steals.
