London United - Harefield Academy finish 2nd at Future Stars 2011

Saturday, 06 August 2011 10:37

The U18 team delivered the performance of the season to finish a shock second in Future Stars 2011.

Drawn into a very difficult group with national teams of Sweden and Slovenia, London United -Harefield Academy certainly wasn't expected to be more than a credible sparring partner.

However ,despite all odds in their first game London United managed to beat Sweden 88-85. The Londoners were trailing by as much as 18 points but 4 consecutive 3 pointers from Ryan Noel sparked a spirited comeback.

With 12 seconds to go Caylin Raftopoulous' lay-up levelled the game at 75 a piece and sent the game into over time. Overtime bought asnswers for the Swedes, however, two identical lapses in London's concentration allowed Sweden to finnish two uncontested offensive moves. Though with one minute thirty remaining the home team took a 2 point lead 85-83, leaving Sweden chasing the game and the tournament. With Sweden levelling the score with 10 seconds remaining 85-85, up stepped Robert Gilchrist to sink the winning three, sending West London crowd into a frenzy.

In their second group game London United -Harefield Academy was defeated by Slovenia 83-63. However the shock victory in thr group stage over Sweden secured the first ever semi-final spot for London United-Harefield Academy in the history of the Future Stars tournaments.

Clearly motivated by their success in the group stage the Londoners approched their semi-final game against Holland with a strong belief that they could claim yet another scalp of a national team. The Semi-final game was an almost carbon copy of the encounter against Sweden with Holland maintaining a seemingly safe margin of 10-12 points throught the majority of the game. Not prepared to roll over and hand the Dutch a place in the final the Londoners tightened their defence and after series powerfull inside moves by Ryan Martin they delivered yet another shock victory 69-70.

The final game saw a repeat match up of the group stages with London United-Harefield Academy taking on the well balanced division A team Slovenia. The final was a very close encounter up to the middle of the fourth quarter. London United-Harefield Academy led by the steady stewardship of Elvisi Dusha never trailed by more tha 8 points and always threatened yet another upset. With twenty -four seconds remaining the Londoners needed five points to force overtime. But with the Slovenians moving the ball too quickly for the home team to land a foul until just 12 seconds til the final whistle the men from the mountain held on to walk away with a 73-69 victory.

Despite of the defeat in the final game London United-Harefield delivered a Cinderella performance and proved that our young players can compete on even terms with their European counterparts.