Basketball Battle at Battersea - News - Wandsworth School Games

Basketball Battle at Battersea

On Friday 4th December, four local and enthusiastic Secondary schools battled out an epic Year 7 & 8 Basketball tournament at the Battersea Sports Centre.  The tournament, hosted by Wandsworth School Sports Partnership and coordinated by School Sports Coordinator Ashley Montgomery, pitted each school against each other in a round robin format.

Going into the final match of the night, Southfields and Elliott had both won their matches against Salesian College and Graveney respectively, with Graveney recording their only win against Salesian College in what turned out to be a third and fourth playoff in the second last match of the night.  Elliott started the match very brightly and ran out to an early lead, with Southfields looking tired from previous matches.  Although a time-out pep talk with 5 minutes remaining appeared to bring Southfields back to life, they were unable to overcome the early deficit and Elliott held on to take out the competition. 

The following Friday, the 11th December, saw a Year 9, 10 and 11 Secondary schools Basketball tournament also battled out at the Battersea Sports Centre.  The tournament, again hosted by the Wandsworth School Sports Partnership and coordinated by School Sports Coordinator Ashley Montgomery, used the same format as the Year 7 & 8 competition.  Battersea Tech and Ernest Bevin joined two schools present the week earlier, that of Southfields and Salesian College.

The competition started at a furious pace, with all teams appearing very keen and up to the challenge of the competition.  Going in to the final match, Salesian College and Ernest Bevin had both notched up two wins with Salesian having still to play their final match against Battersea Tech, who had won one match and knew a win could see them get in medal contention.  And it was Battersea Tech who took full control, jumping out to an impressive lead and not allowing Salesian into the match.  However, a second half turnaround renewed their hope of victory and Salesian clawed back into the match, leaving the score at 19-18 to Battersea with 30 seconds remaining on a Battersea time-out.  On the restart, Salesian intercepted a pass and sunk a dramatic two-pointer to take the match, and the competition outright, right before the buzzer.

On behalf of the Wandsworth School Sports Partnership, thank you to the staff at the Battersea Sports Centre for allowing use to use their excellent facilities.  Also, thank you to the staff and students of Battersea Tech, Elliott, Ernest Bevan, Graveney, Salesian College and Southfields for participating in the competitions.  Well done to all the students on the night for your excellent examples of professionalism and fair play and well done to the schools who received medals for their efforts. 

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