Saturday 30th April Semi Final Manchester Magic 49 v 70 Reading Rockets<\/p>\n
Against the universally accepted best junior programme in England(Manchester Magic), Rockets junior Men stormed to victory after a great
\nsecond quarter of 21-10 and an outstanding second half of 30-22 to claim a place in the National U18 Junior Men Final on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Rockets opened the scoring through Ali Sbai by hitting the first six points before Magic troubled the scorers. Fidel Gomez took down a pair of rebounds\u00a0and went to the penalty stripe twice to ease Rockets further ahead. A great strip by Bikram Rana led to an assist to Jay Carter who went to the line and\u00a0scored one from two. Rockets kept a four point lead as Rana made a brilliant spin and finish before driving to score causing Magic to call a time-out at\u00a015-9. Then the diminutive 5’7 point guard took a charge as Magic drove to score.<\/p>\n
Fidel Gomez showed the experience of playing many Senior Men’s games as he spun and scored. The 16 year old Spanish player Ibu Jassey Demba took down a defensive rebound and strode purposely to score and see Rockets with\u00a0a 19-13 lead into the last minute of the period. Magic fought back as any top side does to reduce Rockets advantage to 19-17 as the buzzer sounded.<\/p>\n
Rana showed his competitiveness for a small man as took a defensive rebound from a 6’5″ opponent before driving and scoring at the opening of the second\u00a0quarter. Rockets were playing confidently and Head Coach Pedro Garcia Rosada swapped his players keeping the pressure on Magic as Rockets were in the\u00a0ascendancy. However a brace of Magic scores including a treble which gave them the lead at 22-21 turned out to be the last time Magic had any lead in\u00a0the game as Rockets locked down their defence with Gomez prominent on the boards at either end and following a Rockets time-out, Sbai stroked a pair\u00a0of trebles including one way down town from a Gomez assist. Jay Carter hit a wide treble and Sbai went coast to coast and in so doing opened up a double\u00a0digit lead for Rockets who powered through Magic with a 19-5 finish before the interval came as respite for the shell shocked Magic who found\u00a0themselves 27\/40 down. One of the special highlights was a strip from Rana, pass to Jassey Demba who arrowed a pass to Carter to lay it up to great\u00a0applause from an appreciating crowd moments before Carter hit a pull up jumper score and Jassey Demba scored with a slam dunk.<\/p>\n
Magic opened the scoring in the third period with four points from the free throw line but Rana his a huge treble in an immediate response. The pace of\u00a0the game was electric but Rockets maintained their twelve point advantage throughout the quarter. Sbai banked a big treble and great defence from the\u00a0smallest man in the court, Bikram Rana, helped Rockets keep control of the game. Carter drove to score to give Rockets a 56-43 lead going into the\u00a0final period.<\/p>\n
Carter made a quality jump shot easing Rockets to a 15 point lead but Magic hit a treble as they tried to make a real contest of it as both teams vied\u00a0for that prestigious National Final place. An accidental clash as players fought for the boards saw Magic’s Kalyem Cleary hit the floor hard with his\u00a0necessitating external medical help from paramedics and an ambulance as the game was halted for some 25 minutes. After this time he was stretchered off\u00a0but was now more responsive and received loud applause from the understanding arena audience. His loss certainly didn’t help Magic but\u00a0Rockets needed to regain their composure and focus as there were still some eight minutes to go and the score 58-43. There was no score by either team\u00a0for over two minutes as the injury impacted both sides. Gomez took his own rebound to score and Carter scored before Gomez made a great block . Carter\u00a0was on fire and Rockets defence holding firm as well as showing some awesome team play for Sbal to score. Carter was secure from the penalty stripe but\u00a0Magic stroked a treble giving them encouragement before Sbai gave a great assist to Alex Drincic to score and finish Rockets scoring, taking the place\u00a0in the final with a 70-49 victory.<\/p>\n
Top scorers for Rockets were Ali Sbai with 21 points and 9 rebounds ; Jay Carter with 20 points and 4 rebounds; Bikram Rana Ganesh with 11 points, 6\u00a0rebounds , 3 assists and 2 steals as Fidel Gomez scored 8 points but took down 11 rebounds and made 4 steals.<\/p>\n
Media@readingrockets.co.uk
\nBasketball Hotline 0118 926 3040
\nwww.readingrockets.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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