Pretoria High School League: Willows report – 17/18 April 2009
Boys…
Willowridge High School kicked off their league games on Friday with their boys squaring up against PBHS. The U/16 A boys played Pretoria Boys High School A team in a lacklustre game which lacked any thrills. Pretoria Boys High School dominated from the start and Willowridge never looked like they were the home team let alone in it to win it. The visitor’s shooting guards did all the hard work and all about wrapped up the game in the first half. Coach Tumi’s boys lacked ideas on offence and their defensive intensity wore off quick. Coach Chris Kaniki of PBHS, did well to ensure that the Willows posts, who were taller, never got a chance to dominate against his resilient side. It will be very interesting to see these teams square up again as Willows have promised revenge, they will have to do better though if they have any ambitions for these season.
The U/14 A boys played PBHS B team and everybody was expecting fireworks as Willows are 2 years U/14 defending champs but that was not to be. The home team went on a 10-2 streak in the first quarter but that was about all she wrote. The game was marred but lots of handling errors and missed lay-up’s, a poor reflection on the coaching provided to the youngsters. PBHS eventually fought back and Willows lack of creativity on the bench as well as millions of missed opportunities led to them suffering a shock 18-16 defeat to the underdogs who put up a good fight. Willows will have to step up their game if they wish to make it 3 years in a row.
The home sides 1st team played PBHS 2nd team in a game that Willows dominated from the start. Although Willows was always in control their performance was far from inspirational against a well coached PBHS team which showed passion, discipline and commitment. The willows culture of relying on individuals might come back to haunt them later in the season.
Girls…
The weekend proved to be a good one for Willows ladies as they gathered valuable points with convincing wins. The U/14 B girls played against The Glen High School A team. The Glen seemed to be in control of the game at the beginning but their 6-2 lead in the first 15 minutes would be as good as the game would get for them. The full court press applied by willows in the second half proved too much for Glen as they ended the game 6 points to the negative against a very hungry willows team. The A team ladies of Willows continued the good showing with a 31-0 drubbing of The Glen High school B team as the latter lacked answers to the pressure basketball played by willows. Willowridge ran the show and left nothing to chance as they walloped their rivals. The U/16 B team took a forfeit against Glen as they got their match times wrong. The U/16 A team met a strong Prestige team which had made easy work of Bees earlier on that day. Willows never really looked like playing and their lazy defence had their coach fuming from the ears. Prestige scored all 20 of their points through one player (number 5) who marshalled the Prestige performance, the Willows coach refused to have the player fouled out as he felt that the game needed to be used for the defence to learn to deal with such players. Willows were not all that bad and managed to win 28-20 in a game which they should have dominated.
Article by Katlego Malatji
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