Falcons U18s bring down league leaders

WITHOUT a senior game for either the Men or the Women’s teams this weekend, The Falcons U18s team were left to take centre stage.

Playing Saturday afternoon at the Sports for All Centre at Reddish, they hosted Manchester Giants U18s, their Conference table leader, and previously unbeaten.

But as the afternoon unfolded it was apparent that their position, in top spot, was more due to the quality of the opposition they had faced, rather than a suggestion that they were unbeatable.

Stockport scored first, and when Giants leveled moments later, it was as close as they were ever going to be again all afternoon.

Quickly the Falcons showed the direction the game was going to go in as they shot in to a ten point gap half way through the first quarter. In denying the Giants any further field goals in the first period, the Falcons picked up three fouls, from which the Giants Captain converted all his free throws into points.

The switch to a full court press by both teams at the start of the second quarter, favoured Stockport rather more than Manchester, as they scored the first nine points without reply. Stockport were by now starting to show their dominance, all be it through some powerful hard driving at basket, rather than well constructed team play.

Quick hands and quick thinking from Van Deursen, Graham and Quinton who, at times, literally took the ball out of Manchester’s hands, helped mount the score.

From a half time score of 41-24, both teams kept up their relentless pace, and as many shots were being missed as were being scored. Evenly matched for height, there was considerable activity under each basket, which drew many fouls, and

●●Van Deursen numerous visits to the free throw line, but here again the Giants let themselves down. scoring only one point out of eight. Starting the final period 26 points in the lead, Stockport took a rather more relaxed approached to the game, and while they squandered a lot of possession they hit five three point shots and finished with 80 points. Manchester didn’t give up and, although Stockport were out of sight, they took advantage in the closing minutes of Stockport’s wasteful shooting, scoring the last eight points, to bring their final tally to 47. Van Deursen finished with 13 points, Hemmerdinger had 16 and seven rebounds, while Proctor, who is the power house in the Stockport team, finished with 29 points, and ten rebounds. On Friday night the Lapwings Local Area team, won their fourth game in a row to lead the Women’s League, in a quest to take the League Title again for the 5th year on the run. On Saturday afternoon at the Sports for all Centre at Reddish the Lapwings face a mammoth task when they host Worcester Wolves at 2 pm. Worcester knocked us out of the Cup three weeks ago by a big margin. Their centre has ben scoring heavily in all the games she has played in, and if we are to win we need to contain her. It promises to be an exciting game. The Falcons have a return game with Barrow, who they have already beaten earlier this season. Their game is due to tip at 4pm.