Leeds Carnegie Basketball Blog

Carnegie Come up Short against National Champions

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:26:28 +0000

Carnegie have most certainly been putting in some solid performances the past few weeks, the result just hasn’t been in their favour at the end of the game. Carnegie’s last four losses have been just one possession games within the last 30 seconds of each game, playing against arguably two of the best teams in the country, Bristol and London Leopards. Are they just unlucky? One thing is for sure, the results will start to fall in their favour in the final ten games of the season.

Sunday’s game against London Leopards was a close encounter throughout, with neither team taking a commanding lead. Leeds were forced to play without starting shooting guard Henry Wilkins through illness. After Carnegie took a 9-6 lead behind a Jack Stannard three pointer, Leopards would start to get into rhythm offensively taking a 22-13 lead. Dave Ajumobi would however drag it back to 22-15 with a tough lay-up through contact just before the buzzer.

After London’s Teel opened up with two free throws, on his way to 36 points in the game, Leeds would make their run behind some strong play from Josh Houghton. After hitting a three pointer, he would follow it up by getting fouled on his way to the basket, making two from two free throws to bring Leeds back to within one point. By the end of the half Carnegie would trail 43-39.

The second half would open up with Teel scoring 5 points straight to increase the deficit. But as within recent weeks, Carnegie would make a run of their own. Armand Anebo scored five of his fourteen points to complete yet another double double (14 points, 11 rebounds). Carnegie would take a 60-59 lead into the fourth quarter.

In the first five minutes of the final quarter no team could break free from the other, with the biggest lead being only 2 points. It was then Leeds that would make a small breakthrough, Anebo grabbed a huge offensive rebound and put it back in to stretch Carnegie’s lead to 5 points with three minutes remaining. However, back-to-back turnovers saw London capitalise and pull themselves right back into the game. After London had a 4 point lead with less than a minute to play, Ajumobi drove to the hoop and got fouled. He would make both free-throws to make it a one possession game with 38 seconds left to play. Out of the time-out, Ajumobi would take it upon himself to guard the game’s top scorer Vernon Teel. He succeeded in forcing a bad shot and grabbed the rebound to give Carnegie a chance to tie, however as Leeds pushed the ball up the court, they would turn the ball over and would never get that chance. Leopards scored on the buzzer and the game ended 76-72.

Top Scorers

Leeds Carnegie

Armand Anebo – 14 Points, 11 Rebounds

Dave Ajumobi – 12 Points, 6 Rebounds

Sean Clifford – 12 Points, 5 Rebounds, 5 Assists

London Leopards

Vernon Teel – 36 Points, 8 Steals, 7 Rebounds

Ousman Krubally – 20 Points, 15 Rebounds

Zak Wells – 6 Points, 10 Rebounds

Two Carnegie Junior Prospects Go Head-to-Head

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:17:39 +0000

On Friday night, two of Carnegie’s leading young prospects, Daniel (Danny) Evans and Trey Bitton-Price, had just finished up a skills session with the Men’s Division One team. The two Carnegie U16’s players decided to go one-on-one, after Daniel Evans hit six deep threes in a row, realising that this might be something special, the camera started rolling. See for yourself what happened:

Both players would just go crazy, after Trey hits six three’s in a row, England U16’s player Danny Evans would respond, hitting two ridiculous jumpers with the defence all over him.

Who wins? You decide

It was too tough for everyone watching to decide who should be victorious in this head-to-head, so we thought we’d let you decide. Log onto the Carnegie Basketball Facebook page to vote.

Daniel (Danny) Evans

Age – 15 (1996)

Height – 6ft 1

Position – PG

Career High: 38 Points

Danny was born and bred in Leeds, attending schools in Alwoodly. At only 15 he has already won the Jason Shakespeare Young Player award for the Yorkshire region and was the first Carnegie Junior player to represent England. Danny has a lot of support from his family, particularly his Granddad who takes him to nearly every practice he attends. Danny has started to attend senior practices in order to accelerate his progression in becoming one of the top young players in the country.

Trey Bitton-Price

Age – 16 (1995)

Height – 5ft 6

Position – PG

Career High: 48 Points

Trey was also born and bred in Leeds, however most of his family are based in America. Trey has represented Yorkshire at both U15 and U17. He is known for his incredible athletic ability, as well as basketball he has also competed in athletics, coming second in a national final for the 100m. He can also jump 1m 90cm in high jump. Despite not representing England or GB yet, he has high hopes for the future.

Carnegie's Buzzer Nightmare

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:01:27 +0000

Carnegie were dealt a huge blow after playing arguably the best half of basketball of the season. A controversial buzzer beater, which was awarded to Bristol, saw Leeds lose 80-78 after leading for nearly the entire game. See the video below and hoopsfix.com’s article about the shot.

The first quarter started in fairy tale fashion. Carnegie, who have a disappointing 4-8 record, should have been odds on favourite to lose against league leaders Bristol. However the team have been making huge strides in the past few weeks and after a huge win over local rivals Bradford, the team knew they could surprise the Flyers. They certainly succeeded, after back to back threes from guard Henry Wilkins in the first two possessions of the game, the team didn’t look back in the first quarter. The team was firing on all cylinders, Dave Ajumobi had racked up 7 points and 7 rebounds, capped off by Wilkins hitting another three consecutive threes to end the quarter. The quarter would end with Carnegie firmly in control, leading 34-18.

The second quarter would see Leeds briefly stretch the lead out to 19 points off of a fast break lay up from Gyorgy Polya. Bristol would then start to make their run, they would reduce the deficit to 12 points after a McLaughlin-Williams three point play mid way through the quarter. However Carnegie would withstand the push and behind Armand Anebo’s first three pointer of the season on his way to a double double (18 points, 11 rebounds), would push the lead back out to 15 points. A Greg Streete three pointer would bring Bristol back at Carnegie and the quarter would end 49-37. As described by commentator Mike Shaft ‘Probably the best half of basketball in EBL Division One this season.’

After the break the Flyers were clearly determined to get back into the game and opened up with a McLaughlin-Williams three pointer. It was however Carnegie’s captain Sean Clifford’s turn to step up, He would make three drives to the basket on back to back possessions, to maintain Carnegie’s buffer. Bristol’s Bowne would close out the quarter with back to back put backs, making the difference just five points heading into the final period. The score 63-58.

The final quarter would start exactly how the Leeds crowd were hoping for, a 5-0 run to start the quarter saw them stretch it out to a ten point lead again. An Ajumobi and one put back would see him complete his double double. (14 points, 11 rebounds) Bristol would again continue to fight back and after two made Treasure freethrows, Bristol would get their first lead of the game with just under two minutes to play. Carnegie however were far from done, they came right back to tie the game and Anebo would grab a long rebound and go coast-to-coast to stretch it to a 5 point lead with 45 seconds left to play in the game. With Leeds looking in control of the game, Greg Streete for Bristol had other ideas, he hit a huge three pointer and then got a steal at the half and would finish at the basket to tie the game up with under 15 seconds left to play. After a quick push, the ball would land in the hands of Carnegie’s new recruit Babs Somoye who would get fouled at the hoop. With two free throws with exactly nine seconds to play and the game tied. He had a chance to put Leeds back in front. He would hit the first, after he missed the second there would be a scramble for the ball that saw it land out of bounds. The referees would award the ball to Bristol. With 6.8 seconds to play they pushed the ball up the court and it would land in the hands of Alfaki, he would heave it from the wing to see it drop in the hoop. After a few seconds deliberating, the referees awarded the points. Should it have counted? See for yourself on the video below:

Top Scorers

Leeds Carnegie

Henry Wilkins – 20 Points, 3 Rebounds, 2 Assists

Armand Anebo – 18 Points, 11 Rebounds

Sean Clifford – 16 Points, 6 Rebounds, 5 Assists

Bristol Academy Flyers

Doug McLaughlin-Williams – 22 Points, 4 Rebounds

Davis Bowne – 13 Points, 11 Rebounds

Tyrone Treasure – 12 Points, 5 Rebounds

Henry Wilkins – Five 3 Pointers in the First Quarter

Sean Clifford – Three in a Row

Carnegie II can't extinguish Huddersfield Heat

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:50:47 +0000

After Carnegie II’s massive victory over Durham this Wednesday in BUCS, they looked to follow up that victory against a much tougher Huddersfield Heat in National League Division Three. With the league’s leading points scorer Jason Swaine scoring a massive 34 points, the team could not defeat Huddersfield despite their 8-0 run in the final minute of the game. They eventually lost 98-93.

The first quarter was a very balanced offensive performance by Carnegie II, with 7 of their players getting onto the scoresheet. However Heat’s Irving and Swaine would score 9 points each to give them a 24-21 lead at the end of the quarter. In the second, Useckas would score 9 of his 25 points to as the team would keep up with Huddersfield, however Swaine would hit yet another three pointer to stretch the lead out to 10 points. 51-41 at the half.

Things would get worse in the third quarter as Carnegie would go down by 14 and their starting point guard Josh Scanlon would get fouled out. This however seemed to spark Leeds and more specifically Ben Cepulis into action. He would score 10 of Carnegie’s last 16 points of the quarter as Carnegie brought it back to 7 points heading into the final quarter.

As Huddersfield stretched the lead out to 11 within the first three minutes, Useckas would add another 2 to his points total, then it was Metcalf’s time to shine again, hitting back-to-back threes to pull Carnegie within 3 points. Huddersfield would then stretch out the lead to 13 points with some inside scoring from Huddersfield’s Gray. After Carnegie II last home game against Sheffield Saints coming right down to the wire, the team again didn’t disappoint the crowd. Going on an 11-2 run in just a minute and a half the game was again a three point game. With only 10 seconds left on the clock Chris McCann was forced to foul to send the opposition to the line. Heat’s captain and coach Perez would coolly knock down both. Carnegie would then fail to score and the game ended 98-93.

Top Scorers

Leeds Carnegie

Cepulis – 26 Points

Useckas – 25 Points

McCann – 13 Points

Huddersfield Heat

Swaine – 34 Points

Gray – 19 Points

Irving – 15 Points

Bombs Away - BUCS Review (Wednesday 8th February 2012)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:06:25 +0000

Every team at Leeds Carnegie Basketball were in action in BUCS this week. Five of the seven teams came away with victories, however it would be individual performances that would make Wednesday even more incredible. For Carnegie Armand Anebo scored a season high 22 points, along with a massive 16 rebounds and Henry Wilkins would have a career high 32 points including 6 threes in Edinburgh. However it would be back at Carnegie Sports Centre that the records were broken, Josh Metcalf would hit 14 three’s on his way to 55 points (Both stats smashing previous Carnegie records), as Carnegie II would also set a new Carnegie record of 124 points in one game.

Carnegie 98 – 63 Edinburgh (Win)

With Carnegie travelling north of the border for the second time this season, they knew they had to continue their tremendous BUCS form to keep the pressure on Durham and Worcester at the top of the BUCS Premier table. With the team only carrying seven players due to academic commitments, the task would be a tough ask. Particularly with Kirkpatrick playing in the home game for Edinburgh (He scored 38 points in the same fixture the previous year in their shock win against the reigning BUCS Champions). The game started a lot closer than Coach Matt Newby would have liked. After Carnegie pulled out a 16-7 lead from running the break and threes from both Ajumobi and Wilkins, Edinburgh fought back to end the first quarter 17-14 in favour of Carnegie.

Wilkins would open up the second quarter with a seven straight points, but again Edinburgh would not slow down and continued to stay with the Leeds team thanks to 5 points in the quarter from Rowan. The half would end 36-29, with Edinburgh still firmly in the game.

After such a slow scoring half from both sides, both teams came out in the second half firing. Carnegie would hit eight field goals in a row, however Edinburgh would stay right with Carnegie again, hitting 4 threes in the quarter. With five minutes played in the quarter, Anebo would grab an offensive rebound to complete his double double (22 Points, 16 Rebounds). The third quarter would come to a climax with a buzzer beating three pointer from Edinburgh’s Jones, which would see the score at 64-54.

In the fourth quarter Leeds Carnegie would be in their element, despite having only seven players, Carnegie’s fitness would shine through. Wilkins would outscore Edinburgh in the fourth quarter on his own 17-9, with Hylands also chipping in with 6 points with several strong rolls to the hoop. With a perfectly run offence, Clifford would find Wilkins for three at the top to make it four players with a double double. Leeds would win the quarter 34-9, winning the game comfortably in the end after a spirited fight from Edinburgh.

Top Scorers

Henry Wilkins – 32 Points, 4 Rebounds, 3 Assists

Armand Anebo – 22 Points, 16 Rebounds, 4 Steals

Oliver Hylands – 14 Points, 10 Rebounds, 4 Assists

Sean Clifford – 13 Points, 10 Assists

Carnegie Women 70 – 61 Sheffield Hallam (Win)

An already depleted Carnegie Women’s team were today without team captain Ellie Shaxon to face Sheffield Hallam. With point guard Nicolette Fong Lyew Quee still out with a broken hand, the team would have just seven players to face Sheffield. After winning 85-27 in the away fixture, the team were hoping for an easy win. However Sheffield have added former Carnegie and GB player Helen Naylor. Naylor would score 36 of Sheffield’s 61 points.

The game was always in Leeds control, Coach Nick Dawson said ‘We were trying a lot of different things today, we weren’t aiming to shut down individual players. Credit to Helen who played well.’

Luksyte and Wright would be their usual scoring presence contributing 37 points between them. Davison would find her shooting form and would add 17 points.

Carnegie Women now hold a 4 and 3 record in the BUCS league and are currently fourth in the table with 3 games left to play this season.

Top Scorers

Greta Luksyte – 20 Points

Ruth Davison – 17 Points

Keisha Wright – 17 Points

Carnegie II 124 – 58 Durham II (Win)

The game that Carnegie II guard Josh Metcalf would get noticed, 55 points, 14 of 18 from the three point line (A new Carnegie record for both points scored in a single game and the most three’s made in a game). The game comes after Metcalf hit 4 three pointers in the fourth quarter alone in his last National League outing against Sheffield Saints. He said ‘They (Durham) were in a zone for the first quarter and my team mates got me a lot of good looks. So I had like 5 in the first quarter, and by the time they’d adjusted I was just feeling it and kept putting them up.’

The team opened up with a truly incredible run, leading the game 40-20 after the first quarter. Every time Durham would try to make a run, Metcalf would make another three, making it nearly impossible for them to compete. Not to go unnoticed, Tom Hodson and Justinas Useckas were contributing to the points tally. Both players recorded a double double on the game with 21 and 18 points respectively to go along with 12 rebounds a piece. With the game at 67-37 at the half, Durham knew the game was out of reach, but would still battle on. Carnegie II, led by Coach Ben Kirk, were absolutely relentless, winning the second half 57-21. Holding Durham to just four points in the fourth quarter.

Coach Kirk said ‘The ball movement was great, Josh Scanlon did a great job distributing the ball throughout the game and when Tom Joyce was playing at point in the fourth, he continued the high standard that Josh had set.’

The game would end 124-58, which in itself is a record for most points scored by a Leeds Carnegie team ever. The win also pushes the team to 9-0 in the BUCS this season. After back to back seasons with Carnegie missing out on promotion by just one game. Could this be the season that Carnegie II finally get out of Men’s 2B?

Top Scorers

Josh Metcalf – 55 Points

Tom Hodson – 21 Points, 12 Rebounds

Justinas Useckas – 18 Points, 12 Rebounds

Other Results from Wednesday

Carnegie Women II 28 – 31 Manchester Uni (Loss)

Carnegie III 62 – 43 University of York (Win)

Carnegie IV 58 – 35 University of Hull II (Win)

Carnegie V 36 – 87 University of Leeds II (Loss)

Carnegie Women Snowed In, Not Out

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:54:47 +0000

Saturday saw not only extreme action on the weather front outside, but also in the Wildcats arena on the court! The first half was a tale of two quarters with Nottingham coming out on fire, lighting their home court up with an offensive arsenal. Carnegie were simply overwhelmed, as Nottingham’s two new Christmas signings, combined with Nottingham native Siobhan Prior and American import Caitlin Flood gave the Wildcats a big 14 point first quarter lead. Coach Dawson described Carnegie’s offensive woes, “We simply didn’t play as a team, it was one and done after one and done. Sometimes we didn’t even pass the ball at all, we just went one on five. This is an experienced team we are playing against an you can’t get away with that against them”.

The second quarter proved a different story, after going down by as many as 17 points, Carnegie provided a stellar fight back to go on a couple of extended runs, bringing the half time discrepancy to just 4 points. Coach Dawson commented “we switched our defensive tactics which gave us better match-ups and forced us to play more as a team. Then the players just followed suit on offense with some excellent ball movement, great decision making and aggressive team play”.

The half time focus was on stopping Cailtin Flood from getting offensive rebounds, which was hurting Leeds, while also trying to quieten the Wildcats new American point guard who was racking up the three pointers. The second half didn’t start well, with Wildcats getting two quick scores, but the game remained close throughout the third quarter. It continued to go in runs, with Wildcats seemingly making big three point shots whenever Carnegie gathered enough momentum to look like going ahead.

The fourth quarter followed much the same path as the third quarter, with Carnegie having multiple opportunities to tie or go ahead, but always came up short on crucial momentum swinging possessions. Ultimately Coach Dawson was complimentary about his side’s performance and summed up the loss with these words. “We played as hard as we could have today and we took another step in the right direction. Defensively we did some good things, but we just didn’t execute when we needed it most. We have some young players who are still learning the finer details of the game and I am proud of their effort. Once we learn the lesson not to treat every player on the opponents roster the same, we will be winning games like today’s.” He furthered this comments with individual praise “Steph Jones really stepped up today, since Nikki (Broken wrist) went down, we are looking to her more and more to be able to add a dimension to our offense by consistently getting past players. We don’t really have anyone else who is quick enough to do that every time they touch the ball. She gives us that and it was evident in the half court, as well as in a couple of excellent full court transition baskets she scored, she really gave us a lift today. Greta struggled from distance but was able to get to the free throw line and continue scoring for us. While Keisha was dominant once again for us, attacking the rim whilst everyone else made excellent decisions for us on offense which really gave us a chance to win.“

Coach Dawson is optimistic about the remainder of the season, “Sure we are now bottom of the table and it’s frustrating that Durham and Northumbria have picked up games against Sevenoaks now they clearly aren’t the team they were before they lost some players, as we had already played them twice before they left. But you know what? We can only control the controllable, I am very happy with the players I have and the progress we are making. Despite the win loss column, we really are improving and each week we do something else better. That’s our current focus on just improving what we do and we know the results will start to come our way. We are a very young side and we have a whole bunch of things left to learn, but that’s what makes working with this group of athletes so great. They know they have potential to improve and they are prepared to accept winning or losing for what it is, a learning experience. That’s why we are able to be competitive and give ourselves a chance to win every time we step on the floor. If you look at the results we have had, no-one has blown us out and we don’t fear anyone.”

Top Scorers

Leeds Carnegie

Luksyte: 27 Points

Wright: 25 Points

Davison: 14 Points

Ajumobi, Carnegie slay Dragons in Nail Biter

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:23:04 +0000

Leeds Carnegie avenged their two overtime loses in the National Trophy and the regular season, with a victory by 9 points in regular time over local rivals Bradford Dragons in Bradford. The game would live up to the hype of the previous encounters, with twenty four lead changes with the game being tied thirteen times throughout the game. Final score 75-66.

With Carnegie looking to kick start a winning run after two tough losses since Christmas, they knew it would always be tough against a strong Bradford team sitting in fourth position of EBL Division One. However they would keep their composure to close out the game on a 16-7 run in the last five minutes of play.

The first quarter would be closely fought. With both teams playing tough defence, neither team could find an offensive rhythm and the game would be tied at 8 after five minutes. The second half of the quarter saw Bradford get going a little on offence, with former Carnegie player Scott shooting the ball well, however Ajumobi and Houghton would keep Carnegie in contention and the quarter ended 21-15 in favour of Bradford.

Dragons could find no answer for Ajumobi, in the first half alone he would score four 3 point plays on his way to a season high 31 points. Along with Hungarian guard Gyorgy Polya hitting two 3 pointers, Carnegie would lead 38-34 at the half.

For most of the second half, despite Leeds looking in control, would see Dragons continually fight back. After Carnegie made it a six point lead at the end of the third quarter and then opened up the fourth quarter with another 3 points. Bradford were looking down and out, but then would pull off a 9-0 run of their own to level the game going into the final five minutes of play.

It would then be Houghton’s time to shine, with a 3 pointer to put the team up by three 62-59. Then after both teams would exchange blows, keeping the game close, Ajumobi would pound the ball inside and score yet another 3 point play. Dragons would struggle to hit free throws and with Carnegie moving the ball well, would see it end up in Houghton’s hands in the corner for another 3 pointer on a perfect shooting night from the field (5 from 5). Carnegie closed out the game to take the game by nine points and gain the head-to-head between the two teams for the season.

Top Scorers

Leeds Carnegie

David Ajumobi – 31 Points, 12 Rebounds

Josh Houghton – 17 Points., 3 Assists

Gyorgy Polya – 9 Points

Bradford Dragons

Rihard Sulcs – 22 Points, 10 Rebounds

Robert Edmunds – 16 Points, 6 Rebounds, 5 Assists

Denis Scott – 12 Points, 8 Rebounds