Merton Hawks U12 Update 13.03.11

Well this was it. We were finally going to play against Cobham...The American School...but first we had to face Mole Valley Phoenix U12. They were good but all our guys played game and we came away with a win. Everyone plyed their part and the final score was 27-41 to Merton Hawks.

We had a half hour break while Cobham was waiting for their full team to arrive. Let's just say this was a sign of things to come.....The tip off started the game ....and Cobham scored...We came back and missed, Cobham scored again. The parents cheered Merton on but Cobham came back. It was time for a time out. Now I can not tell you what was said during that time out (no neither I or coach Jeff was swearing) but needless to say when our team got back on the court, boy! did they play. We started to pull back that lead and make our own plays work.

To the parents who were there and held my hand when I couldn't look (some coach I am!!) they know what we went through. At the final whistle the score was 29-29. Was it to be a draw game , or would we have to play overtime. Considering the Saturday night game of the Nets v Raptors went to TRIPLE overtime we just wanted to finish and go.

2 minutes of game play would decide the winners.As I said to the parents and players there, and I now say to the parents and players reading this...I make no apologies for keeping the same five on. This was a game that we HAD to win, and though they were dead on their feet we needed 2 minutes of play from our players.

The players on the bench were cheering, the parents on the side were cheering.  The otherside were calling time outs!!!!   I have to say the boys and girl! done good. With 30 seconds to go we scored..the bench went wild but that wasn't the end of it. With 20 seconds to go the otherside called a time out...This was it. We needed to get the ball and score again, or keep them from scoring. Win, win, win was coming from the bench, and our players got the ball and that clock ran down and....what a noise...Merton Hawks had won 31-29. One of the most intensive games I have ever watched and helped coach.

Ofcourse the team saw it all differently to us lot on the side lines. This was Wissam take on the day:....

BASKETBALL GAMES!

When we played against MV Phoenix I knew that we were going to win firstly because we beat them before and secondly because there was a big skill difference between us and them.  In the first quarter we took an easy lead however we started to loose our concentration from then on. We won the game with quite a big score difference between us.

The next game we played was against Cobham who were a good team. At first they were winning by about nine points but then we skilfully caught up by the time we reached the second and third quarter. In the fourth quarter it was beginning to seem like anyone’s game the final score was 29-29 which then left to overtime. We had two more minutes to win, and in that time we scored one more basket and also beat Cobham.

Thanks Wissam. This, like the team, was so understated, but so right....

Now Merton Hawks have 2 more games to play. I sorry to say that these games are on April 3rd. Why am I sorry... This day is Mothering Sunday and being a mum I know its the one day I could count on a Sunday morning sleep in....but as the team will be playing Cobham first then Spelthorne, and it starts at 9.15am...Well I hope I'm not the only mum who will be supporting the team.

If you click on the link below it will take you to the Surrey Basketball website, in particular the Under 12 division.

http://surreybasketball.leaguerepublic.com/Index.do?selectedSeason=4855848&selectedDivision=2695154

Thanks for taking the time to keep up with the team!