Kentish Express Ashford & District
Lions clinch victory in thrilling style
Basketball
The North School Lions fought their way to a dramatic one-point victory over perennial powerhouse King Henry School, Erith.
The victory last Wednesday boosted their Lions’ ABL Southern Conference record to 5-1.
It was all King Henry in the opening stages as they raced out to a 13-4 lead behind the hot shooting of Sam Simpson and
Riley Tremain.
The Lions were able to respond through the inside-out combination of Luis Beaumont and Harvey Kemp-Green but it was the visitors who led 26-20 after the opening quarter.
The second quarter was a quickfire shootout, with both teams connecting on outside shots, however nine points from star guard Conal Parnell allowed the Lions to close the gap to two points (43-41) at the half-time break
The third quarter saw the home team raise their defensive intensity to stop the King Henry onslaught and a three-point basket from Parnell gave the Lions their first lead of the game at 51-49. The Lions held the visitors to just 13 third-quarter points and the inside scoring of Beaumont put the Lions ahead 60-56.
The fourth quarter was a seesaw battle which saw eight lead changes.
With 23 seconds to go, Simpson hit two big free throws that put King Henry ahead 74-73 and so it was left to Lions closer, Roshan
Thakali, to try to counter. With the ball at the top of the key and separation from his defender, Thakali seized his opportunity to hit the game winning shot that gave the Lions a 75-74 victory
Head coach Andrew Sunderland said: “Credit to King Henry, who are short-handed due to injuries at the moment. They did a tremendous job on the defensive end and their outside shooting put us under a lot of pressure.”
Lions forward Beaumont, finished with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds, while captain Kemp-Green led the team in scoring with 22 points. Parnell (17 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals) and Thakali (9 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals) were also instrumental with big contributions across the stat sheet. Beaumont said: “Coming off of last week’s disappointing loss, we were hungry to prove ourselves today. “Being down for the majority of the game gave us even more fuel and we were able to produce high energy defence when it mattered most to force stops.”