The OIS Basketball Varsity Boys are ISSA champions!After coming second at the last ISSA in Ankara and the CHESS tournament in Portugal this year, the boys were able to secure the first place at the ISSA tournament in Portugal, which was organised by St. Dominic’s and hosted by Dominic’s, Sharing International School and OIS.
The victory was a start to finish one, with commanding group stage wins against International School of Aberdeen, St. Dominic’s, and Lycee Français of London. In the quarters, Lycee was again the opponent, and the boys managed to win convincingly. After a slow first minutes against, once again, St. Dominic’s, the OIS boys turned on the jets and it was clear after ten minutes that there could only be one winner. In the much anticipated on final against BLIS (Ankara) which was also a rematch of last year’s final, the OIS team played the highest level of Basketball of the tournament.
The game was decided well before half time, due to an incredible display of both offense and defense. Cal Poppink finished as the top scorer and also directed the offence of the team like a true floor general. Matteo Fairthlough simply outran the opponent on many occasions and scored a plethora of fast break points. Zander Waterhouse played cool, calm and collected, had many points, rebounds and blocked shots. Captain Sacha van Baars played ultra- efficient and aggressive defence all tournament and stopped BLIS’ best players on many occasions. Those four boys mentioned all played their last game for OIS as they are graduating this year.
Year 12 students Elvis Kam, Arthur de l’Hermite, Soliman Mathieu and Jules Maire will be the core of next year’s team and all played extremely well this tournament. Year 11 students Max Lightfoot and Mikhail Savelev complemented the team and showed that the future for OIS will still shine bright.
I have been the coach of the OIS Varsity team of the last 9 years, and we were fighting to not get last in the beginning, inched our way into the realm of contenders, and had and many second places recently. However, I am not only incredibly proud of this victory, but how mature and dedicated our players have been over the years. 1,2,3 OIS!
