Belfield with a new coach and a young team at very short notice agreed to play a practice game against the Arawak Braves on Saturday 4Th April at eight o’clock directly after the BABA opening Ceremony. The Ceremony was due to began at 6pm but was delayed and finally began at about 7pm. This resulted with the two teams hurriedly leaving the gymnasium and heading to the Belfield hard courts.
Belfied had everything well organized. There was a timekeeper, a referee, and a scorer who kept us up to date with the scores on a regular basis. The game started at about 9.15pm.
Arawak Braves had eight players present. Hanif, Allair, Andy, Jason, Darren, Jeremy,Adrian, who acted as the coach because the coach was late, and Roland who had to go and get permission from his girl to play. Adrian choose a starting line up of Andy (5) Hanif (4) Darren (3) Allair (2) and Jason (1).
Belfield’s coach took the opportunity to let his players run his offensive and defensive systems. The team do have some experience players but they have a number of young players who are now getting familiar with running and applying basketball systems. As is the case in these situations the players will make mistakes but they generally did a good job.
As for the Arawak Braves the starting five was basically an U21 team. The average combine age of this group is 19. Like the Belfield team they struggled. They went out of position often, missed easy opportunities on the offensive, missed easy lay ups, made some bad passes but what was refreshing was their attitude. During the regular time outs that were called by both teams the players listened and then made genuine efforts to improve on their understanding and reading of the situations. It was very pleasing. These young guys were always in the game although not dominating.
Here the ball is rotated to the left. Darren drives and pull up for the jumper.
The team ended the half down by six after Adrian hit a three point shot on the buzzer with 2 sec left on the clock. During the short halftime break we talked about the defence alot and the areas where we were falling down. Each player saw where the adjustments had to be made. They agreed that not having numbers regularly at practice sessions was the reason for many of the problems experienced. Goals were set for the team and individuals to execute in the second half and everyone seemed eager to improve their performance.
The third quarter was very short. So short that it seemed like 5 mins although it was 10 mins running time. Both teams tried really hard to execute their game plan. Unfortunately they fail to score regularly the shots the systems created. Arawak Braves had the better of the exchanges as they really worked hard on defence and improved their rebounding performance 95%. This resulted with them getting their fast break going. The two teams both scored less than 10 points in this quarter but this was because of the time factor.
Then came the fourth quarter. The two coaches agreed that the third quarter was too short and to extend this one to 20 mins. Arawak Braves wasted no time. They made all the neccessary defensive adjustments that had to be made. The three small men worked hard pressuring the ball handlers ,stopping the penetrations, closing off the baseline drives,helping and covering for one another, and combined with Adrian, Andy and Hanif to control the defensive boards allowing no second shots and getting four out of every five rebounds down there. This allowed them to start their fast break but unlike the last quarter they scored more of the lay ups. Everyone contributed and more good offensive decisions were made. Hanif became visible offensively and along with Andy and Adrian hit both boards very hard. Darren ,Allair and Jason did much better too as they ran the court better, and their shot selection was much improved. Roland was good on the defence and actually got a number of rebounds. However I want him to play more aggressive offence but i was happy with the defensive effort made. The team was very cohesive and therefore very productive in this quarter as they scored thirty points. Even the fourteen year old rookie Jeremy took part. Although not knowing a lot above what was going on he managed to intercept seven passes and had two big steals.
We recognized that we have some issues and that mistakes will be made sometimes in trying to deal with them. We must remember that basketball is the teams focus and that in order to play together we have to respect and be there for each other. Believe it or not we all have one goal. To help the team to win. That was clear on Saturday night. After the game everyone was satisfied, happy and felt part of a TEAM. Yes there is lots of work to do. Work that will be done by everyone in the practices and practice games to come. When I left Belfied court on Saturday night at 11 30pm and looked at the young and older players heading towards the bus stop and cars to get home this quote came to my mind. BEHIND EVERY DARK CLOUD THERE IS A SILVER LINNING. These men could have been out Partying but Arawak Braves needed them and they were there for the team. Thanks men
