Hampton’s U18 Basketball team bounce back with dominant 40-point victory

By Rishi Vijayan

‘You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again’

Now, I admit that it’s somewhat unlikely that 5-time NBA championship-winning head coach Pat Riley had the mighty Hampton School U18A basketball program in mind when he delivered those wise words. However, if someone were to fill Mr Riley in on the hugely impressive response of the squad on Wednesday 29 November to a close loss in their last game, there is no doubt in my mind that he would approve. 

With the team’s star talents in Omer Demiral and Dante Patel making long-awaited returns to action to supplement an already strong core of talented team players led by captain Leo Fredanus van Gelder, the towering Joseph Earle and the mercurial Matt Lyons it should not be surprising to anyone familiar with the team to hear of an emphatic victory in the squad’s first game with almost everyone available.

That being said, the drubbing to the tune of 69 points to just 29 against Rutlish School was impressive enough to even shock the most fervent of Hampton fanatics with just how well the team clicked together.

When Omer and Dante executed some of their trademark flashy passes, there was no doubt that targets such as Fifth Years Noel Yonas and Mikael Nur would be on hand to finish the job. Speaking of Mikael, it’s quite imperative that I mention that he scored the most points in the game in a remarkable performance that stood about even amongst strong showings from the whole squad. Zakir Mughal and Joseph Bakr kept the defence honest with their ability to punish anyone that dared to leave them open from the three-point line, making the net ripple once each. Whilst the notion that the biggest and strongest teams are inherently better is misjudged, when a team has the size and strength offered by Theodore Tyler-Low and Danny Settle, it makes the lives of their opponents very difficult as any attempts to score close to the rim were met with the fiercest of resistance ending up with several blocks between them. Finally, whilst it may not have been jaw-dropping as the beautiful acrobatics displayed by Dante and Matt in some of their finishes nor as impressive as the ruthless efficiency of Omer and Mikael, it would be disingenuously humble of me if I weren’t to respectfully mention a nice ‘coast to coast’ play of mine, stealing the ball at our end and hurtling down the court to finish at the other end whilst being fouled. Don’t mind if I do.

As the buzzer sounded to signify the end of what had been quite a successful game of basketball, there were smiles on everyone’s faces as the blend of athleticism, technique and teamwork displayed by the team left us with a very impressive score line and plenty of hope for what lies ahead for Hampton’s, and indeed the country’s, fastest-growing sport. It seems Mr Page and Mr Hurst were onto something in organising those almost unbearably early training sessions on Tuesday mornings.