‘Team-first mentality’ delights coach Stuart

Tuesday 22nd April 2008, 2:29PM BST.

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.