British Wheelchair Basketball League – Sports report    6/4/2019

The Bears hosted CWBA this weekend in a premier league fixture that was live-streamed by the BBC, in one of the club’s biggest events to date! The game formed part of an afternoon of fun and brilliant basketball, hosted by the Bears at University of Birmingham Sport and Fitness. Over 200 supporters enjoyed fun and games with The Bears’ mascot, Bernard, and Rory the Lion as well as a fantastic half-time performance by Next Level Dance Academy. Earlier on in the day, Bears 2 took over the awe-inspiring show court to take on Norwich Lowriders!

Premier Division

Bears: 29

C.W.B.A: 71

The premier league fixture was once again a challenge for the rookie Bears’ side.  As C.W.B.A bristled with GB talent, securing a win was always going to be a major task.  From the tip off C.W.B.A raced to an impressive lead, playing some slick basketball whilst containing Bears offence and dominating at the both ends of the court.  With the talented Peter Cusack running the court and scoring at will, and the impressive Jake Robinson finding his long range shot, C.W.B.A had the game wrapped up in the first half with the scores Bears 4 – 35 C.W.B.A

The second half was all about pride for the Bears and at last they were able to free their main threat, Daz Peasley, whilst Dan Gill also found space to boost the Bears’ score.  With a bench full of GB Women and Under 23s at his disposal, coach Alistair Hope was spoilt for choice and was able to give run outs for all his players and see out the game with a considerable score of Bears 29 – 71 C.W.B.A

After the game a despondent coach Masterson said “Congratulations To CWBA and their coach Ali Hope.  We were totally outclassed today but when you see the team we were up against, I can’t be too hard on my team.  As the rookie side, this season has been tough but we are working hard to learn from this experience and to strengthen as a team. Looking beyond the score, today was more than this game and I am so proud to have been able to showcase our brilliant club. Hopefully this will really put us on the map and attract some new players for the future.  Maybe some of them will be the new GB players of the future!”

Division 2 South

Bears 2: 56

Norwich Lowriders: 20

Earlier in the day, Bears 2 dominated the UB Sport and Fitness show court in a brilliant fixture against Norwich Lowriders. The first quarter saw both teams struggle to adjust to a new court as they struggled to find their rhythm. With both teams unable to find their shooting range, the scores at the end of the first quarter was Bears 2: 8 – 4 Lowriders

The Bears came out in the second quarter with a feel for their new environment, and they soon began to run up a healthy lead. At the other end, Lowriders were unable to find any consistency in the shooting.  At the half-time buzzer the scores were. Bears 2: 25 – 12 Lowriders

The Bears brought the same winning form into the second half, setting up a mean defence and limiting Lowriders at their basket.  The scores going into the last quarter Bears 46 – 16 Lowriders

The last quarter was an easy run out to the final buzzer with both teams giving their squad the run of the floor and the game was played out to  Bears 56 – 20 Lowriders.

After the game, Bears 2 coach Daz Peasley said “ A bit of a slow start today but I’m not sure if that was the new venue or the occasion, but we eventually woke up and got a good win against a good side.”