Premier League

Bears: 39

London Titans

The Bears were back in action returning back to the University of Birmingham Sports Centre to host the visiting London Titans.  The Titans had newly signed GB Women’s Captain Helen Freeman playing alongside Television celebrity Ade Adepitan in their side and was this was going to be a tough challenge to the Bears who had still not had a win in the season so far

In the first quarter the Titans took a firm grip on the Bears, playing strong at both ends of the court and providing very few chances for the Bears to score. With speed in all the Titans team, the Bears were again limited to few chances at the Titans basket, and were not able to live the speedy Titans team.  At the buzzer at the end of the first quarter, the Titans went into the break with a healthy lead Bears 4 – 17 Titans

The break seemed to help the bewildered Bears who came out stronger determined to shore up their defence.  With more pressure asserted by the Bears the Titans could not rack up any more of a lead sand the end of the quarter seen both teams not adding much to the scores Bears 14 – 28 Titans.

The last quarter again was a close fought period with both teams cancelling each other out, but left the Bears with a glimmer of hope of pulling back some of the score going into the last quarter with the scores Bears 20 – 33 Titans.

The last quarter finally seen the Bears come to life and began to slowly pull the scores back to nearly a single point but their run ran out of steam and the Titans pulled away from the Bears to see out a great game. Bears 39 – 47 Titans

After the game Coach Masterson said “I would like to congratulate Titans and their coach Macca McCullen for a fantastic game.  I need to try work out why we are starting too slow and letting these teams get away from us, but I can’t fault the effort and fight in the team.  We are still a work in progress but hopefully we’ll get to the level where we need to eventually”

Division One South

Bears 2: 28

London Titans 2: 79

The Bears 2 kicked off their season after their promotion from Division Two against London Titans 2 who were last season’s runners in the division.  With Bears missing a number of players from last season who were either promoted to their first team or absent due to illness this was going to be an uphill battle before the teams tipped off.  Coach Robinson had called up junior players Ellan Fraser and Kyle Jackson to his line up alongside veteran Adrian Taber who added some experience to the young side he put out.  The Bears were unable to stay with the free-flowing play of the Titans team who dominated from the start and seen the game out to a convincing win.

After the game Coach Robinson said “Today was always going to be a tough start for us after promotion last season, and with many of the players moving up to our first team or not being here today. Have to make a special mention about the two juniors, Kyle and Ellan. They were fantastic and today was a good lesson on how far they have come but also have far they need to progress, “