DHS results for 11 – 13 OCTOBER 2007

OPPONENTS: ST CHARLES COLLEGE (PMB) ALL GAMES AWAY

1^ST 86 – 56

2^ND 35 – 23

3^RD 23 – 23

16A 37 – 38

16B 37 – 09

15A 70 – 07

15B 74 – 12

14A 32 – 13

14B 21 – 06

St Charles must have fancied their chances going into the game, as they had played nine games, so far this season and DHS not even having played in one official game. Its is always difficult playing at St Charles in the hostile environment of their gym, where all those in the know in Maritzburg come to watch what has become the biggest school game in the province as well as to see if DHS will loose. The stayers team knowing all this and in front of a large crowd played well in the opening encounters to be up at the end of the first quarter 22 – 15. Cebo Nxumalo, who ran the break well to score some easy points early on. DHS continued to build on their lead to win the second quarter 19 – 13; but they made too many defensive mistakes which allowed St Charles to remain in the hunt and put themselves under pressure. Christopher Fynn had a poor half on offensive but made up for it with some good rebounding and a few blocked shots. Sim Ndima a doubtful starter come on early in the second quarter and injected some pace into the front line attack and the team looked more dangerous with him out there running. The third quarter saw St Charles go on a run, pulling back the lead DHS had built with some good outside shooting, only to be have the DHS players respond by stepping up the defense weathering the storm and snuffing out the flame. DHS outscored the St Charles team 23 – 14 by the end of the quarter. Point Guard Toby Ncube will be a force to be reckoned with this season he commanded his troops on the court like a seasoned veteran which belied his tender years and shows promise of things to come. The fourth quarter saw Dumisani Gebashe take over and holding court, with eight straight unanswered points, this broke the back of the St Charles challenge and saw DHS home to a resounding 86 – 56 victory over our long time rivals. We look forward to another bruising encounter with our rivals from sleepy hollow in three weeks time at home.

OPPONENTS: KEARSNEY (BOTHAS HILL) ALL GAMES AWAY

1^ST 57 – 22

2^ND 41 – 25

3^RD DNP

16A 35 – 30

16B 26 – 24

15A 47 – 06

15B 58 – 10

14A 41 – 04

14B 17 – 05

The team came down to earth with a loud thump on Saturday morning when they arrived in the rolling hills of Botha’s Hill to play the Kearsney first team. After the high of the St Charles game the team struggled to get going and committed too many offensive mistakes to really put pressure on a highly motivated Kearsney team that was much bigger per player than our team. The Kearsney team just sat in a 2 – 3 zone and invited us to shoot on perhaps, the most unfriendly rims in the province bar the dreaded Alex rims. The team took some time to get going on offence but did not let down the defensive pressure which took its toll on our opponents; who took poor shots and turned the ball over too many times. No. 12 Karnezos from Kearsney proved to be a thorn in the DHS side getting a number of offensive rebound allowing Kearsney to have an unacceptable number of second attempts at the basket. Christopher Fynn played better on offence and combined well with Dumisani Gebashe to prove to be a hand full for the Kearsney defenders once they had worked out how to move into space against the zone. While the outside3 shooting was poor from DHS there were signs that the players are starting to understand the defense and becoming more comfortable as a team. There are positive signs that as the season progresses the team will grow from strength to strength. The quarter scores were 16 – 5, 13 – 4, 11 – 4 and 17 -6. The team did well to keep the score board ticking over while limiting their opponents scoring opportunities.