Kentish Express Ashford & District
Lions pull off their biggest victory of the year
Basketball
The North School Lions produced a sensational performance to pick up a 77-76 victory against Greenwichbased The John Roan School.
The first quarter saw the Lions race out of the blocks with captain Harvey Kemp-Green connecting on four three-point baskets to shoot the home team into a 23-16 lead.
The Lions continued their hot start in the second quarter as they extended their lead to 15 thanks to the play of dynamic back-court duo Conal Parnell and Roshan Thakali. John Roan cut the lead in half with a 7-0 run. However, the Lions responded through star forward Luis Beaumont, who posted 10 straight points that gave his team a 42-34 lead going into half time.
The third quarter saw both teams trading baskets at breakneck speed. The Lions were paced by 13 points from Parnell and Beaumont, while John Roan were led by 14 points from the inside-out combination of Samuel Olotu and Tobi Ojo.
Oakley Rigby and Kemp-Green hit three-point baskets to keep momentum with the Lions and they led 61-56 at the end of the round.
The fourth quarter saw John Roan embark on a 14-4 scoring surge that gave them their first lead of the game at 74-67. The Lions dug deep defensively to force critical late-game steals and Thakali and Kemp-Green combined for eight points that kept the Lions within one.
Fittingly, it was Beaumont who hit the go-ahead basket that gave the Lions a 77-76 lead and a vital offensive rebound from Diogo Araujo-Simoes gave them possession of the ball with 2.6 seconds to go. Parnell put the ball in the safe hands of Rigby to close out the game and as the final buzzer sounded. The bench stormed the court to celebrate a victory which puts the Lions joint second in the ABL Southern Conference.
Lions captain Harvey KempGreen said: “It was another great performance from the team to make it two out of two wins in five days.” Beaumont shot 80% from the field to lead all scorers with 24 points and the Lions also had huge performances from Kemp-Green (23 points) and Parnell (19 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists).
Thakali was an influential playmaker for the Lions with 10 assists and nine rebounds.
Lions head coach Andrew Sunderland said: “To me, this is our biggest victory of the year.
The mental resolve of this team is incredible-they were running on empty after a gruelling game on Wednesday and yet they found a way to will themselves to victory.”