This Is Guernsey

Pierre Jehan shields the ball from Jon Gilmore at Fort Regent. (Picture by Rob Currie, 0567384)

TOTAL team basketball shone through as Guernsey’s men’s side beat Jersey for the second year in a row.

Coach Jeff Stuart always highlights the importance of a good team ethic and his players bought into the concept completely as the ball was shared around. In fact, Stuart said his players were so focused on moving the ball to stretch Jersey’s defence during the 64-54 win at Fort Regent that he had to encourage them to be more aggressive and take open shots when they arose.

‘But that’s a good thing from my point of view,’ he said. ‘The players bought into the team ethic so much that they were actually passing up good looks to keep the ball moving and we had to refocus them to take those shots.

‘I think that’s one of the reasons we won by only 10 because we were actually pretty comfortable. Every single member of the team had the team-first mentality and it makes everything so much easier, rather than having 12 guys who are looking out only for themselves.’

On paper Guernsey appeared far too strong for their rivals but Jersey had a couple of talented individuals and Stuart’s team had to make some adjustments as the home side knocked down some threes.

But ultimately Guernsey never really looked worried and Stuart said his main concern was making sure all 12 players got enough time on the court.

‘It’s always going to be a battle because of the rivalry,’ he said.

‘But we didn’t feel threatened by them during the game. We had too much for them and from my point of view it was more a case of making sure everyone had enough minutes.

‘We are so strong across all positions that I would look at the bench and think, “I need to get some of these guys on the court”.’

Liam Smyth took the MVP honours with a high-energy performance. The Collins Stewart Inferno player, who missed out on last year’s inter-insular because he had a year off to focus on volleyball, had 11 points but made a huge impact on defence with a number of steals and grabbed a load of rebounds.

‘It was great to be back this year,’ he said.

‘You never go into it for that reason, but winning MVP is just a really nice bonus. I think high energy is what I bring to the team and it was talked about beforehand.

‘I’m someone that wants to get at the other team. It was a really good day.’

Captain Nigel Govett said the team’s work ethic came from their coach.

‘It was the main thing that Jeff instilled in us from the start,’ he said. ‘Even though there are only five players on the court at once we play a 12-man game and that is what happened on Saturday.

‘Liam fully deserved the MVP honours, but there were no really outstanding individual performances because the team came first.’

Govett added that this group of players had combined to make one of the strongest he had known.

‘I think in the past we have had some better individual talents but in terms of the team concept, no matter which five Jeff puts on the floor, we play the same way.’