European Championships 2007- U16 Women

Finally! All the trials and training were over and I was ready for Italy. Since my exams finished I worked tirelessly on my fitness and shooting to get me prepared for the most exciting experience of my basketball career so far!

Before we flew out to Italy, we had two days training to familiarise ourselves with one another again. Each of the girls had mixed emotions: some were excited, while others were nervous and worried.

We arrived in Italy on Thursday 26^th July, right in the middle of a heat wave! At the opening ceremony Millie and I as Captain and Vice Captain, led the team in a procession around the court. This was the first chance to check out our opposition.

The heat was hard on everyone especially as the tournament started the next day.

ROUND 1

 Our first game was against Ireland and the team were particularly nervous. However, I was ready to play after having performed well at training before we left. But I wasn’t prepared to be starting 5! The team secured a pleasing win, building our confidence for tomorrow’s game against Bulgaria.

Against Bulgaria, the team proved that we could play with great defensive intensity despite the heat and again secured a win. All was looking hopeful!

 The following day we played the Netherlands, who we had played earlier in July, winning one game and losing the other. The game was going to be exciting but it looked like I might not be playing when I twisted my knee in training that day. I did manage to play and pretty well considering. The atmosphere was great with the England and Holland supporters battling as well as the teams. England were looking strong and even stretched to a 14 point lead at one point. But we performed poorly in the last quarter in particular. Complacent?  I’m not sure but it was a disappointing loss by two points which the team were going to have to forget about in the next round.

 This was a reverse of the first two games where we were down at half time and stepped it up in the second half. The team were yet to stay focused and disciplined for the entire 40 minutes.

ROUND 2

After a much needed rest day, we faced Israel. The team had watched a DVD of Israel and knew to expect a lot of driving and passing off offensively and identified the weakness of their defence. However, when it came to the game, Israel played an intense defensive pressure which they hadn’t done before. This was a compliment to England but never the less we failed to cope with the pressure with an exceedingly high number of turnovers. We were down at half time and tried to claw it back but had left it too late. Israel deserved to win based on their performance.

 Our next opposition were Romania. As they were one of the weakest teams, Coach decided to sit me out of this game in order to rest my knee as much as possible.

 The team didn’t play at their best and only just secured a win by 6 points. But a win’s a win!

If we were to stand a chance of reaching the semi-finals, we would have to beat Germany in the following game and we still may not have got there depending on other results. We just had to focus on our game and everyone wanted to give a great game to finish the round. To help me give my best performance, I got hypnotized so that I would forget about the initial pain in my knee. I’m not sure how well it worked because it still hurt when I played but I was determined to play well and felt I had a strong game both offensively and defensively. However, as a team we struggled to put away baskets after our initial 6-0 lead. We were down 18-27 at half time. We tried to fight back in the second half but only for spells which they then cancelled out at the other end. Final score was 40-50. But, the low scoring was a reflection of our solid team defence (most of the time anyway). Germany went on to get promotion.

 ROUND 3

England ended up in the 5,6,7,8 placement group with Holland, Finland and Bosnia.

 First we played Finland who were a beatable team, but for some reason, perhaps the team weren’t hungry enough for the win because we didn’t play together as we all knew we could. Finland never looked to be dominating the game and we tried to fight back in the 4^th quarter but had left it far too late. End result was 65-46 to Finland.

The only consolation for the loss was that we met Holland in the fight for 7^th place!

Each player on our team wanted to play them off the court and were determined to win, and for probably for the first time, the team performed together and well for the majority of the game showing what England are capable off. We finished the tournament on a high with a result 54-39!

 Overall, I think the team had a good tournament and everyone fulfilled their role well and the team learnt a lot about what it takes to play in Europe.

MY TOURNAMENT

I am happy with my tournament performance both defensively and offensively. I never finished on more than 3 fouls (first time for everything!) and top scored too. I shot over 76% from the free throw line which was helpful as I was there regularly! However, I was gutted when I got injured because I felt I could have played a bigger role if it wasn’t for my knee and would probably have had more court time.

 It was the best experience of my basketball career so far and a great opportunity to learn about the way European sides play and how I can improve my game!

I hope to remain in the national programme but am waiting to hear from the U18 set-up. Meanwhile, I intend to come back from injury (hopefully with the same level of fitness as before) and to have a great season with Hatters Division 2!

Naomi's first article about her England experience is still avilable to read by clicking on the link.

england.pdf