It’s been an exciting week on the court this week, with two competitive matches, both netball and basketball, well done Westbourne on some excellent match play…and to Mrs Allen for her excellent coaching and support!
Last week, the senior school basketball team made the short trip to Stanwell school for another friendly fixture.
This time we were fortunate to have 2 additional players from year 10 on board, Morgan and Ronnie. The game was very close and physical from the first whistle, Westbourne scoring the first basket but Stanwell replying only seconds later.
As the game was 4 x 10 minute periods, fitness was also going to be an issue!
At the end of the first period, only 2 points separated the teams with some great baskets scored by Matthew, Vincent, Eloy and Isaac.
In the second and third periods, some great defensive work slowed down the rate of scoring from the Stanwell team and two magnificent 3 point shots, one from Eloy and one from Isaac gave us a 3 point cushion going into the last quarter.
It was a tense final 10 minutes but a superb defensive turnover from Morgan on his preferred left side gave him a comfortable layup to give us a clear advantage.
The defence was particularly strong in the last 2 minutes with both Ronnie and Matthew securing valuable turnovers.
The final score was 22-18 to Westbourne in a game that could have gone either way.
Congratulations to all the Westbourne players who showed true grit and determination to grind out the win.
Many thanks to Stanwell PE staff and the senior basketball team for the very competitive game.
With spirits high amongst the boys after their basketball victory, the girls also had their opportunity to play competitive netball the following week.
The game was organised against Cardiff and Vale College, a sixth form college whose home venue is the House of Sport in Leckwith.
As our team were made up of Year 9 and 10’s and Jess from Year 11 we were at a slight disadvantage playing against the older girls, most of which were in Year 12. However, we did play their development team so we would be more evenly matched.
And what a great game it turned out to be, as we had 13 players we swapped positions every quarter and played 6 shorter periods instead of the usual 4 x 15 for a netball match.
At the start it looked like CAVC might run away with the game but some good centre passes to the goal from Mia, to Abi to Issy and onto Oomisha kept us within close range of our opponents and we were only one goal down at the end of the first quarter.
This pattern followed throughout the entire game, every time we got on the front foot CAVC would up their game to get back on top.
There were at least 3-4 times in the game where we were only trailing by one but despite our best efforts, we could not get the scores level.
There were some excellent defending skills from Jess and Taeonga which kept us in contention and gave us a fighting chance but the final score was a very respectable 17-19 in favour of our opponents. CAVC awarded Issy McG with the player of the match award, which she thoroughly deserved.