The "Waiting game" for the Boys' basketball team

Captain, Jan Philip Mertens and his team will have to wait until Friday March 18 to find out if their efforts are enough to qualify for the Oxfordshire Schools County semi finals. Henry Box School, Witney top the table with 8 victories from 8 matches. St. Clare's and D'Overbroecks are joint second. St. Clare's have 6 victories from 8 matches. D'Overbroecks play their final league match on Thursday March 17 against Kingham Hill School. Coach Franky Marulanda tells the story of the final two league victories.

St. Clare's boys 63 vs Burford School 30

The St. Clare's Boys who have been desperately trying to find ways of making it to the finals were in search of yet another victory.

They travelled to Burford School with only 6 players, missing key Forward Andreas who was unable to travel due to sickness. St. Clare's turned up with 6 players and plenty of positive energy.

As the game started, St. Clare's attacked Burford hard to score the first 6 points in the hands of Captain Jan-Phillip Martens (#14) who was playing the high post together with Michal (#6), a position that suited them both and made Burford's defensive task that much harder, as St. Clare's offensive movement forced Burford to rotate leaving areas totally unprotected.

St. Clare's were up by the half, 33-14 and continued to exploit Burford's weaknesses to end the game victorious at 63-30.

Scorers and stats:
#0 Piotr: 0 pts, 1 Assist, 2 Turn Overs, 2 Missed Free Throws
#4 Hao Ni: 16 pts, 2 Rebounds, 5 Steals, 2 Assists & 4 Turn Overs
#6 Micael: 16 pts, 8 Rebounds, 2 Steals, 1 Deflection, 1 Assist & 2 Turn Overs
#10 Emilis: 2 pts, 5 Rebounds, 2 Steals, 1 Deflection, 1 Block shot, 2 Assists, 2 Turn Overs
#14 Jan-Phillip: 18 pts, 12 Rebounds, 3 steals, 1 Assist, 6 Turn Overs
#23 Ivan: 10 pts, 3 rebounds, 6 steals, 5 deflections, 5 assists, 5 turn overs

Kingham School 26 vs. St. Clare's 33

Although the Coaching staff was aware that the court was a bit small, nothing had prepared them for what they saw, a 3/4 court with no side space what so ever. Immediately the Coach knew that this was going to be a tough defensive game with very few points scored. They had Andreas back in the line up, without a great amount of energy and still struggling, but the big man was there to make his mark.

The game started and St. Clare's took the game to Kingham from the very beginning, picking them up at the half way line and putting their point guard under a lot of pressure, which gave St. Clare's a healthy 11-2 lead by the end of the first quarter. However Kingham managed to make a great comback by outscoring St. Clare's in the second reducing the lead to only 4 pts, 14-18 by the end of the first half.

The third quarter was an amazingly tough period as both teams tried to out-defend each other, but St. Clare's managed to keep the lead at 18-23. The last quarter was a do or die time for Kingham, while St. Clare's rested both its big players in the third quarter as well as the guards, which paid off as they took the game 26-33.

Scorers and stats:
#4 Hao Ni: 2 pts, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 turn overs
#6 Micael: 6 pts, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 turn overs, 3 Steals, 1 deflection
#8 Andreas: 0 pts, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turn over, 1 block shot
#10 Emilis: 0 pts, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 deflection, 1 assist, 2 block shots, 2 turn overs
#14 Jan-Phillip:14 pts, 10 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block shot, 2 deflections, 2 turn overs
#23 Ivan: 11 pts, 2 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 assists, 2 turn overs, 1 block shot

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