Storm Brings Down Comets

by noelrr
21/08/2011

The Blacktown Storm Youth League men's team has qualified for the Finals Weekend of the 2011 Waratah Youth League Basketball competition, following an outstanding 93-80 win over the Sydney Comets on Saturday night at the Kevin Betts Stadium, Mt Druitt - in an elimination quarter final.

The Comets are perennial semi-finalists over the long history of the Division One Youth League competition and presented a massive obstacle to the Storm, who were still to make their debut appearance, at this level, in the final four having only won their way into Division One for the first time in 2010.

Blacktown fans would have been very nervous at half time, with the Comets leading 55-53 but importantly not able to over-awe the talented Storm line-up.

Both sides had been in outstanding attacking form during the first half but it was the Storm which stood up to be counted in the second half.

The home team swept by the Comets with an imperious second half performance, shutting down their high-flying opponents to just 25 points in that period of play.

In contrast, the Storm were magnificent, scoring 40 points behind yet another outstanding performance from power forward Peter Kuzmanovic, well supported by Tim Garland, to grab an impressive 13-point win.

The tide of the game changed significantly after a huge slam dunk from Will Bradshaw, who had only returned this week from injury.

That memorable moment helped spark the Storm, who subsequently raced away to victory.

As a result of that performance, the Storm have secured their debut appearance in Division One at the prestigious "Finals Weekend", which will be held in Newcastle over the 27-28th August.

Storm head coach Greg Radford said "It was a gutsy effort to overcome the Comets lead and then go on with it and win by 13 points".

"I think the other teams (in the playoffs) are going to look at that result and hope the Storm are not back on track".

"The last time we were in this form, we won nine games in a row and hammered the Central Coast Crusaders (minor premiers) during that run" said Radford.

Blacktown Storm 93 (Peter Kuzmanovic 30 points, Tim Garland 20, Nico Ebilane 10, Will Bradshaw 9) def Sydney Comets 80 (Sam Higgins 21 points, James O'Callaghan 15, Andrew Fuller 10)

Report Post