Saturday 30th April Semi Final Manchester Magic 49 v 70 Reading Rockets
Against the universally accepted best junior programme in England(Manchester Magic), Rockets junior Men stormed to victory after a great
second 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.
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 and 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 scored 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 15-9. Then the diminutive 5’7 point guard took a charge as Magic drove to score.
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 a 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.
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 quarter. Rockets were playing confidently and Head Coach Pedro Garcia Rosada swapped his players keeping the pressure on Magic as Rockets were in the ascendancy. 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 the 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 of 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 digit 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 themselves 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 applause from an appreciating crowd moments before Carter hit a pull up jumper score and Jassey Demba scored with a slam dunk.
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 the game was electric but Rockets maintained their twelve point advantage throughout the quarter. Sbai banked a big treble and great defence from the smallest 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 final period.
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 for 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 necessitating external medical help from paramedics and an ambulance as the game was halted for some 25 minutes. After this time he was stretchered off but was now more responsive and received loud applause from the understanding arena audience. His loss certainly didn’t help Magic but Rockets 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 for 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 was 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 Magic stroked a treble giving them encouragement before Sbai gave a great assist to Alex Drincic to score and finish Rockets scoring, taking the place in the final with a 70-49 victory.
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 rebounds , 3 assists and 2 steals as Fidel Gomez scored 8 points but took down 11 rebounds and made 4 steals.
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