GibYellow Basketball Club

A close but satisfying win!! Quite a number of players missing on both teams but plenty of passion and pride at play.

Our scoring was provided almost exclusively by three players: Gareth got 22points, Haitham got 21 points whilst Romain was our top scorer with 23 points!! Only one other player scored. This was Ian Gracia with a single bucket to his name. Limited contributions from the Dans - the veteran Sisarello and the youth Casciaro. Tyrone Kabingue and Jason Schwartz alsot playing their part to ensure final victory in a game that never let up but which we managed to stay ahead until the end.

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So close yet so far!!! A measly 2 point loss!! This against a team that has so far beaten us 3 times already this season. On those previous occasions we lost by far larger margins so therefore this was an improvement, but such a disappointment, especially as we had been leading almost the whole match!! Another great performance from Gareth. Ably seconded by Romain. Quentin and David our young stars also making significant contributions. Haitham as ever a defensive stalwart but also putting points on the board with his mazy drives. Tyrone putting in a good effort particularly on defense and finally the two Dans giving limited but useful minutes.

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Well that was a repeat performance against the same opposition with the same result. We come away with the feeling we could have done so much better but the reality is that the 20+ score difference is a fair reflection of how the game was.

They had size on isus and that was telling. No stats on that aspect but I’m sure they beat us on rebounds. That’s not to ssy that we were terrible, far from it. Good production as usual from Romain and Gareth. Tyrone got 12 points but just too many turnovers and allowing second chances for us to be able to take control of the game.

It is especially a pity because this was the semifinal of the RBT plate.

The show must go on.

Well that was quite the turn out!! A poor start (it’s not unusual) followed by a great recovery and then slowly but surely grinding out a very good result (green green grass of home?). That the opposing team was quite young with just the one veteran might have tilted the balance in our favour (its a man’s man’s world). Notwithstanding we had either teenagers or 40 plus year olds with the one exception in his 30’s. Our top scorer Gareth gave us 18 (whats new pussycat?) 14 from our French (sexbomb) Romain. 10 from our player coach Jason (thunderball). With decent contributions from the veterans Andrew, Daniel and youth Javier, Tom and Dan to get us over the line.

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Not a great result despite a decent start which is usually our achilles heel. The U18 just run us into ground and so they should, having youth and energy on their side. We had several last minute absences which meant we had a small bench. The usual suspects got us points (Gareth got 17 pts whilst David got 12pts) but too little from the others. The score was therefore disappointing. We’ll put up more of a fight next time when we have a fuller turn up.

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Happy New Year!!

But it was not a happy new return to basketball for us. 😩 A 26 point loss against a team that is not too far above our level was disappointing to say the least. An even contest for most of the game but two scoring spurts by the opposing team in the third and fourth quarters left us for dead. Gareth did his best scoring wise but the supporting cast was insufficient. Defence and rebounding was not great either so when we could have pulled away we just couldn’t tighten the screws but they definitely took their chances when they had them. Nonetheless, we are grateful for the return to normality and our beloved game. David had a swollen ankle, Tyrone had been in a motorcycle accident, etc, etc. Excuses, excuses. Even though our opponent was a division 1 team, we could have done so much better.

Basketball is back!!

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So our game vs the Bayside Lincoln went better than expected but was nonetheless disappointing, if yoy can forgive the oxymoron. This was the Bayside top team. A team competing to win the first division. Whilst we are literally in a different league with pur sights set on the second division title. They were certainly short of players, fielding only 6. This gave us a good chance to sneak a win. We gave it a good try, pushing them as hard as we could, most of the time anyways. We did slip on occasion, the defence seemed to switch off sporadically and our defensive transitions could have been better. And in the end this was our undoing, despite some great contributions from Gareth (as always), Romain, David, Haitham. The ever enthusiastic Jānis maintained his 100% fouling out record with 5 fouls in about 20 mins. Our young Javi making a surprising number of baskets and plenty of time on the court. Tyrone was subdued on the day (probably due to non-appearance of his personal contingent of cheerleaders). Nayan and veteran Daniel making up the rest of the team trying to contribute as best they can. Overall a good turnout but frustratingly, not good enough.



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Big loss against our A team. Completely expected but nonetheless ego-bruising. A well natured game started off evenly but turned into a drubbing. Opposing team had very strong, skillful players and we just weren’t able to compete when things got serious. That’s not to say that we didn’t give it a good shot. As always, the likes of Romain, Haitham, and our ever resourceful Gareth pushed as hard as possible. Tyrone Kabingue, our Philippine fiend did well as usual (probably due to his adoring legion of fans). We had the young Javier making his premature contributions (what a player he will be). And a whole host of role players who gave it their all. Our time will come.



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So this Monday we played our archenemy the Blue Stars (their reserve team who is our direct rival in second division). And we won!! Hooray to us!! We started poorly as per usual but got progressively better until we pulled away in the last quarter after we fended off a strong comeback (they managed to draw with us at 36 all). They were missing their most impactful player and possibly flagged a bit fitness wise by the last quarter which aided our own push to secure the victory. Gareth Balban once again being our go to guy although maybe not as effective as usual he still put up a massive 29 points, backed up by 13 points from our sharp shooter David Conner (only 17yo) and Romain Molina 7pts. We also had Javier Felice (playing against his uncle!!) putting up 4points who is only 15 yo. All in all a good exciting game with the right result in our unashamedly biased opinion.



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We win again!! We played a massively understrength team with only 5 players all game and the score reflects that. We still managed to start poorly and were down 4 to 11 points at one point in the first quarter. But we got our heads straight and made it 11 all by the end of that first period. After that we pulled away thanks mostly to fast breaks. We missed a lot of seemingly easy looks but tiredness caused the other team to lower their efforts and the end result was inevitable. Great performances from Romain and Gareth again and special mention to Nayan who shot well and Haitham who always gives his all on defence. However, we must do better.



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Defeat!! Unfortunately, our second foray of the season ended in a loss against direct rival Bavaria Blue Stars Reserves.

A poor first half, and in particular, a parsimonious second quarter as regards scoring, had us having to do a lot of catching up to do in the second half. Whilst we ended up losing by only five we left ourselves to much to do. Only two of our scorers in double figures (Romain Molina 11 points and Gareth Balban 18) is testament to our difficulty getting buckets. Obviously, we need to have more contributors on offence. Having said this, if we had made more of our free throws we could have won the game. Something to work on in training (Mondays 6:30pm to 9pm and Tuesdays 9pm to 11pm - let me know if you are interested in training with us).

Next game is the 6th November. Come watch us if you dare!!

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In case you would like to watch our forthcoming games here is a schedule for you.



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