GUERNSEY men’s basketball team received an instant wake-up call as they lost their opening match with Gibraltar by 40 points. In the sweltering heat of the Ialyssos indoor hall, the greens let the well-organised Gibraltarians out of their sight in the first half and, despite rallying in the third and fourth quarters, they never caught up, losing 77-37.
But Guernsey coach Jeff Stuart was still upbeat afterwards.
‘These guys [Gibraltar] competed for the bronze medal last time basketball was in the Games.
‘We had a slow start and they had a good start. It took us a while to get into it.
‘I’m pretty sure we outscored them in the second half. We put our heart and souls into the second half and we outworked them.
‘We’ll go out next game and build on it and improve. It wasn’t going our way, everything was bouncing out of our hands and that’s a difficult thing to overcome, but we worked through it and played really well in the second half and that’s really positive. And the other thing was that we still supported each other as a team. No one’s head went down.’
Guernsey’s top scorer was former Muratti footballer Jan Renouf, who hit 12 points.
Despite the match starting at 9am, the non-air-conditioned hall was as hot as a furnace. After the match, Renouf spoke about how difficult it was for the Sarnians.
‘It was a shock to us at the start and we didn’t start well. You can’t prepare for what it’s like.
‘The big plus, though, was that we won the third quarter. We really picked it up and we played like we can. It was a great team effort in the second half.’
Gibraltar’s Adam Cassaglia top-scored with 14 points and his coach, Randy Haefner, was a happy man after the final buzzer.
‘We thought it was going to be a tough game,’ said the American.
‘I think Guernsey struggled more with the heat than we did.’
* Guernsey men lost last night 101-40 to Menorca.
Loading ...
Share this article:
What are these?