Westminster Warriors Basketball Club

WARRIORS 133 - BRENTWOOD 55

Warriors U18's continued their undefeated season with a return to form and dominant win over the visiting Brentwood Fire, by a 78 point margin on Saturday afternoon at the 'Greenhouse'.

A balanced Warrior attack saw 7 players reach double figures, led by Ryan Martin's 27. Martin dominated from the beginning, on both ends of the floor, grabbing a game high 14 rebounds to go along with 4 steals, 3 assists and 2 blocks for good measure. Scoring on a number of drives into the Brentwood lane, Martin was complimented well by the outside shooting of high-scoring wing duo of Mostapha Alfaki (22) and Leon Bennett-Harris (15), however, not to be outdone, Martin showed off his newest 'weapon' this season with 3 deep 3 pointers of his own in a 9 point burst. As the game began to get out of reach for the visitors, Martin ensured there would be no way back with a vicious dunk right ontop of a helpless defender - sending the homecrowd into an excited frenzy.

Most encouraging for the Warriors was the play of the rapidly developing Lucky Olaniyi, who came off the bench to score an explosive 15 points on 76% shooting from the field. A return to form for Eliandro Inacio was also a welcomed sight for coach Nhamo Shire who had been concerned about a lack of focus in the past 2 games. "I was proud of our team today. Not any one individual...the whole team. We played unselfish, team basketball on both ends of the floor and looked like the real deal in phases out there today. We moved the ball well on offense, even though I knew our guys could have taken the one-on-one scores earlier in the shot clock, we still moved the ball for the open shot, which we've been working on alot in practise. The sets looked sharper and the defense was better, which I think was reflected in the scoreline today. I think Illy, Fil (Fillip Lekovic) and Leon were all very focused today, with Ryan and Mostapha doing what they've been doing all season long. We're still not where we need to be yet to fulfil our goals for this year, but there are certainly positives to build upon from this game" coach Shire said.

The win secured a first place finish for the Warriors in the Southern Premier division, despite there being 2 games left to play of the regular season. Asked whether his thoughts were now on the post-season and a run through to the Final 4's in May, coach Shire added: "We are still a work in progress. Individually I'm happy with the effort of most of our guys as of late, but we are not 100% yet. I'm not overlooking any opponent we'll face this year, so my focus right now is on the return match with Brentwood and then a big game over at London United next weekend. It's looking like London United will be playing for their lives as they have to win that game to make the playoffs, so it will be a great test for us to assess where we are at this important time of the year. It's nice to know we'll finish the regular season as number 1 in the South, but winning the division was just one of our sub-goals on the road to something bigger for this team this year. Our focus remains on getting better at every practise so we can play to our potential when the games come along".

Key Statistics:

Scoring: Martin 27, Alfaki 22, Inacio 16

Rebounding: Martin 14, Lekovic 8, Inacio 7

Assists: Okereafor 5, Martin 3, Bennett-Harris 3

Steals: Martin 4, Okereafor 4, Bennett-Harris 3