Both BLIZZARDS sides were in action on Tuesday night against Aztec teams.
In Div 1 the BLIZZARDS were playing at home against the JAGUARS and before that game started, the Div 2 side were at Wellington College playing against Aztec Lemmings.
The Div 2 side had a good few players missing and the core of the development team was definitely the 5 youngsters that were playing Under 16’s in the 2016/17 season, this meant a big lack of height playing a bigger, taller more experienced side.
This wasn’t going to stop them, as they were quickly on top form, 2-12 after 4 minutes, speed being the essence of their successful start.
Harry Preston was dominating defensively against their big men even though he had accumulated fouls early in the first quarter, he was also hitting threes and making decisive assists.
While our old U16’s team mates, Jack Bond, Taylor Dawson, Stuart Elliott, Ben Firrell & Steven Murtagh were outplaying the opposition, with amazing fast breaks, and speed of ball movement on offence giving them regular open shots, all five were on top form.
This gave the boys a healthy 32-48 half time lead.
The locals rallied and five minutes into the second half had closed the gap to six points 46-52 then 50-56 . This was short lived as Ben Firrell started to accumulate points and by the end of the quarter the Blizzards were back in their comfort zone 14pts up 52-66. The smoothly oiled speed machine was back in full swing and dully pulled away in the last quarter to win handsomely by 21pts 58-79.
Team:
Ben Firrell 18pts, Taylor Dawson 16pts, Harry Preston 16pts,
Stuart Elliott 13pts, Steven Murtagh 9pts, Ricky Stephens 5pts, Chris Reece 2pts, Jack Bond, Luke Karmazyn.

Meanwhile back at QMC with Andreas and Mavv taking up coaching duties the BLIZZARDS were up against the Jaguars, the team that had beaten them in the first round of the Karl Taylor Cup earlier in the season. Since that defeat the boys were 5/0, confidence was high as they were looking to consolidate a play off birth.
Unlike the young guns a Crowthorne their start was slow and they were quickly behind 5-13 after five and 10-20 down at the first buzzer. That was the wake up call and two threes from Joey Haynes followed by consecutive baskets by James Vousden drew the teams level 26-26 with 3 minutes to HT, missed free throws from the Jaguars let the locals of the hook but the visitors still got to half time with a slender lead 28-30.
Aztecs were again quick of the mark after the break 33-41, but 3 quick threes two from James Voudens and one from Marcus Leach kept the locals in the game 39-41. As the BLIZZARDS started to apply more pressure only missed free throws stopped them from taking a clear lead, with ten to play they had the lead 48-47. The game was on a knife edge the Jaguars were soon back in front until Szymon Wawrzyniak took control retaking the lead with a three with five to play, nine quick points from him making the difference for the locals to go 65-60 up. A solid defence made the difference as the BLIZZARDS finished off strongly for their fifth consecutive win as the moved up the league table into 4th place.
Team:
James Vousden 17pts, Szymon Wawrzyniak 15pts, Chris Mullan 14pts, Joey Haynes 9pts, Laurence Wright 6pts, Aaron Taylorson 5pts, Marcus Leach 3pts, Andreas Antoniou 1pt, Torsten O’Brien, Tom Mavronicholas

Location

Wellington College Crowthorne