Collins Stewart show their title credentials

By Aaron Scoones

Collins Stewart 63, CS Inferno 48

COLLINS STEWART last night showed that they could be the team to take the Yorkshire Guernsey Division One honours. Their 15-point victory over club-mates Inferno ensured that they are now clear at the top of the table.

But, more importantly, their win at Beau Sejour was against the team who many people had predicted could be this year’s champions.

However, Collins’ player-coach Jeff Stuart is not getting carried away.

‘One game at a time,’ said the big Welshman.

‘I’d say our defence was mesmeric. Every time they came down the court we gave them something different to look at.

‘We felt that their two guards, Paul van Beek and Jason Hooper, controlled their game and if we put man-to-man marking on them that would close them out. Then we played a patient offence and because they play a very high pace game, that took them out of their rhythm.’

With Collins Stewart’s height and size advantage under the post with Stuart and the dogged Nigel Govett, Inferno stuck to playing an outside shooting game.

That initially paid off as they took an early 9-4 lead, but by the end of the first quarter Collins were ahead 19-13 as their small forward Paul Wilkes started to shine.

The Australian finished the game as his team’s top scorer with 15 points.

Collins never looked like handing over their advantage as by half-time they were 38-23 up.

The third quarter saw their young players - Scott Rowe, Matt Sawbridge, Aaron Walden and Ricard Fletcher - come to the fore.

Fletcher looked particularly good with a few crossover moves and a couple of big three-pointers.

‘All our young guys played really well,’ said Stuart.

‘They came on and gave us a lot of energy. They are maturing before our eyes.’

Inferno tried to up the tempo in the last quarter through van Beek and Hooper, but it was never going to be enough.

‘They were better than us tonight,’ said Inferno’s player-coach Adam Farish.

‘They played better as a team and they worked us out. They asked questions that we didn’t have answers for.

‘We just have to bounce back.’