Arrows U18s complete Pre-season clean sweep over the Hawks

Derbyshire Arrows 73 Rotherham Hawks 50

The Arrows complted their Pre-season sweep over the Rotherham Hawks with an encouraging 23 point victory, 73-50. The arrows had to play the last of their Pre-season schedule without guards Matt Oakey, Will Hopper and Jack Ellis, but thanks to 6 Nelson Mario points were able to go into the first break level at 14 a piece.

The second quarter was a pure defensive display by the Arrows as they kept Rotherham down to just 3 points. There was baskets for Mutanmiri, Holt and 6 points for captain Rory Wheatcroft. This built up a 12 point lead come the half time break.

The third quarter started with a struggle as teams traded scores and stops to keep the game level before the Arrows were able to get away, Callum Newsham contributing well in general play and James Wilson, Myles Murphy and Mitch Dennison scoring. Rotherham fought back and took the quarter by 4, to end the quarter 46-38.

The fourth quarter was a period of dominance for the Arrows as Mario, Wheatcroft and Nick Holt were able to get going with their scoring, before Wilson added to his tally and Mutanmiri finished the game off. Nick Holt was particularly impressive with 17 points and 16 rebounds claiming the MVP. But Coach Jonathan Kelly was quick to acknowledge the whole team, " We worked really hard as a team and played unselfish Basketball. We never panicked when we were going through tricky spells and all 8 players played a part to get this win".

Arrows Scorers; Holt 17, Wheatcroft 16, Mario 15, Wilson 10, Mutanmiri 7, Dennison 6, Murphy 2.