Jeff Jones has been named of Molten WBBL Coach of the Month for December after guiding Manchester Mystics to three wins from three games.

It’s his second straight success after landing the November award.

The Mystics started December with a 74-59 success over title rivals Leicester Riders at the National Basketball Performance Centre, then recorded a 67-58 victory over the same opposition in the semi-finals of the WBBL Cup.

Jones rounded off another successful month with a thrilling 82-79 success over Westfield Heath Sheffield Hatters, with Amy Browne nailing the win with a three-point buzzer beater.

Mystics U14s continued their impressive run of form to see out 2016 with 2 more convincing victories, firstly in the Northern Conference at home to Lancashire Spinners, 93-26 and then in a friendly 2 days later against Stockport U16s, 68-43. The high quality of the 2 performances owed much (as my credit card always does) to excellence in the neglected art of passing. As was to be expected, this was easier to achieve in the first game but was equally proficient when up against the bigger, tougher, more experienced u16 side who have some talented players.

In both games, the increasingly influential duo of Holly Bryan and Courtney Kenyon-Betts pulled the strings like skilled puppeteers. This talented pair have become far more composed than they were at the beginning of the season and have now learned to minimise the counter-productive unnecessary dribbling which stifles offensive fluency. They have a knack of seeing and delivering the right pass at the right time which is a compliment which can also be applied to Ellie Atherton and Ellie Hatton who both share the ball generously. (Certainly more than Harry Kane does or Scrooge would.)

When such good ball movement is combined with their willingness to run the floor as well as the boundless energy and finishing ability on the break or from medium range provided by Lucy Bryan and Charli Wroe (who, unbelievably still has another year at in this age range), watching this team could be a cure for conjunctivitis. (It’s a sight for sore eyes!)

Against Lancashire Spinners, everyone played with a maturity beyond their years with Holly and Courtney ensuring that everyone got plenty of the ball so that 5 players, led by Lucy, scored in double figures. Spinners competed well during the first half, benefiting from being allowed to advance the ball without being pressed, but were out-spun in the third due to the pin-point passing and well-timed cutting contained in Mystics’ offense.

The Stockport game was expected to provide a much sterner test for our youngsters. It did but a number of the girls shot so unerringly from medium range that it could have been mistaken for a William Tell master-class. This proved to be a major reason why we were able to get off to such a flying start. The basketball played by the team throughout the first period was by some distance the best of the season so far and seemed to catch our opponents completely off guard. They resembled a petrol station which had been hit by a surprise robbery. (Shell shocked!) This, allied to excellent team defence, exemplified by all of the above mentioned plus Lilja Toland whose lateral speed and willingness to listen enable her to mark virtually anyone and Lauren Addy who gives us the essential physical presence that her team-mates can’t provide, all resulted in a 23-7 blow out in the first quarter.

Our more senior opponents did tighten things up in the second stanza but we still bossed this to the tune of 13-6 to make the half-time score 36-13. The third quarter was much tougher. Stockport were a different animal after the break. They were now growling rather than baaing! They were much more aggressive offensively, using a big high post to good effect and driving hard at every given opportunity. This approach afforded them 14 points in just 6 minutes before we were able to stem the flow and finish the quarter strongly so that our lead had only diminishes by 3 points. The final period saw our opponents start well but we showed a steely resolve and won the period 16-11 to finish 25 points to the good with Charli leading all scorers. 

This was an exceptional team performance by a talented group who are learning to understand one another- which isn’t easy with all the different accents!- more with every passing game (pun fully intended!). They seem to understand the value of working hard at the defensive end and should be proud of the fact that no team in the 14 games played up to now, including friendlies, has managed to scored more than 48 points against them. There is still much to learn and improve upon but hopefully, we can kick off 2017 with similar intensity.

Many thanks, again, to my 2 side-kicks, James and Sammy for all they do for the team. Thank you also to all parents for your much-valued support and lack of grumbling. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all and to both of my regular readers!

Jim Carnegie

Last Saturday, Mystics U14s travelled to Derby to face the Trailblazers yet I couldn’t find any cowboys on view. (I could now go for a cheap shot and say ‘apart from the refs’ but that would be unfair!) I took 11 players, an awkward number to give meaningful minutes to, even in easy games. I did manage to get all 11 on court in both halves which, in a contest which was relatively close throughout, is no easier than climbing Mount Everest in flip-flops!

On a day when each of our 5 starters, Courtney Kenyon-Betts, Holly Bryan, Ellie Atherton, Beth McLoughlin and Lucy Bryan, made major contributions at one end or the other (and at both for 2 or 3 of them), it was they who were guilty of ignoring one of the 10 Commandments in that they stole the show. We won the game for two main reasons. We played superb team defence and we generally did the simple things well. Mega-talented Serbian superstars are able to thread bounce passes through the eye of a needle but most connoisseurs of the game will agree that u14 girls tend not to be able to.(Lol.) When they over-use the bounce pass, it usually results in a turnover or a spillage. Either one causes a mess so we actively encourage our youngsters to use it sparingly. (Very sparingly.) During this game such passes were spotted as often as the cowboys. This, plus less frequent attempts at forcing difficult passes, meant that we turned the ball over on fewer occasions than we did in our one lost game versus Nottingham.

There are still spells when wearing bibs of a non-sporting kind would have been useful due to unnecessary over-dribbling but, thankfully, the message seems to be slowly getting through that, in a team game, it is essential to share the ball and give as many people as possible the chance to contribute. Most of our number have also come to realise that good defensive footwork and pressure on the ball regularly results in opponents presenting us with the ball so that there is no need to risk silly, unwanted fouls by going for tentative steals off the dribble.

Against a significantly taller team blessed with quickness, it is very much to the girls’ credit that they were able to run such a devastating fast break so often in the first quarter. Devastating, that is, until it came to putting the ball through the hoop. We missed enough chances for any severe critic to label as as ‘hoopless.’ Whilst being far from that, we must become more clinical and finish lay ups ‘with our eyes.’ Instead of a comfortable lead, we finished the first period 6 less than that well-known lemonade, 7-up, at 13-12. Courtney and Holly were as reliable and brilliant as ever in their roles of subduing Derby’s two main offensive weapons (a canon and a flame-thrower!) while Beth’s pin-point, bounceless, passes to Lucy and Ellie, who were both back to their best, were a joy to behold (and to catch!) I was, however, concerned that the opposition’s impressive number 6, Katie Januszewska might end up scoring as many points as her name would get in a game of Scrabble!

Our first five remained influential as they mixed with our six other players, Lilja Toland, Charli Wroe, Olivia Forster, Lauren Addy, Elli Hatton and Kadeja Mohammed, all of whom contributed to some degree to our domination of the second quarter. Derby could find no way through our team defence which proved as unforgiving as any wife is when her husband forgets her birthday. A team sufficiently talented to average almost 70 points per game, failed to score any for the first 9 minutes of the quarter, giving us a 27-15 advantage going into half-time.

We came out a bit too complacently after the interval, giving up 3 baskets due to defence which was as slack as the over-sized jumpers my mother used to knit for me.This was addressed via a time-out and with lessons learned, the girls reminded me of that car programme on tv as they went into top gear. Ellie and Lucy benefited from more passes that were slicker than a hair smeared with Brylcream from Beth, Courtney and Holly to notch 12 combined points in a mere 3 minutes and u13, Lilja subsequently gave a promising all-round display which bodes well for next year as we raced into a 43-21 lead. Holly then rubber-stamped proceding with 4 baskets in a row to extend the margin to 25 so that the remaining 9 minutes could then be devoted principally to the 6 non-starters who gave it their all and only allowed the hosts to eat gently into our lead so that we eventually ran out 57-36 winners against very worthy opponents in a game played most sportingly in great spirit.

I want to finish by praising our bench. We win and lose as a team. I was so pleased to see nearly all of our players encouraging one-another, cheering each other on and generally being very positive when waiting for their opportunity to shine. As everyone is aware, even though we are a National League team rather than a Community one, in our less demanding fixtures, I always ensure that every single player gets to play almost equal minutes. This is not possible in tougher games and I do appreciate that the vast majority of parents and players accept this and put our team first. Thank you for that.

Thank you also to my able assistants James and Sammy for all their time and effort and to all parents for their support, even the ones who almost got red cards!

Jim Carnegie