The Perfect Regular Season & Play-offs March

The team started their campaign in blistering form, dominating the league stages.

• Regular Season Record: 8 Wins – 0 Losses
• Play-off Seed: #1

Entering the play-offs as the top seed, the Magic faced a physical challenge in the Quarterfinals against Orchard Mead Academy. Orchard looked to disrupt our rhythm early on, using their height advantage to secure rebounds and keep the score tightly contested in the first half. However, our Year 7s showed great maturity. They adjusted their strategy, found their rhythm, and began punishing Orchard on the fast break, securing a hard-fought victory to advance.

The Semi-Final against Bosworth Academy (representing the Brooklyn Nets) was a different story altogether. The Magic hit the court running and never looked back. Delivering a clinical performance at both ends of the floor, they cruised to a commanding victory, punching their ticket to the Finals at Nottingham Trent University.

Final Four Drama at Nottingham Trent

The Finals atmosphere was electric, and our first matchup was a heavyweight clash against Twycross Academy (the Boston Celtics).

The Magic were uncharacteristically slow out of the blocks, and a sharp Twycross side capitalised, opening up an 8-point lead by the end of the first quarter. But true to their character, our boys refused to back down. Digging deep, they chipped away at the deficit. By the fourth quarter, the gap was closed to just 2 points! In a frantic, nail-biting finish, the result unfortunately didn't go our way. The Magic suffered their very first defeat of the season in an incredibly narrow loss, sending Twycross to the final and placing us in the 3rd/4th place play-off.

Still reeling from the disappointment of the previous game, the team had to dig deep against Leighton Middle School (the LA Clippers). By half-time, the Clippers had built a 10-point lead, but the Magic came out fighting in the second half. Despite another valiant, hard-fought effort, the team suffered a second defeat, ultimately finishing a very respectable 4th overall.

Sharpshooter Nuing Steals the Spotlight

Beyond the team games, the Finals Day featured a thrilling individual Shooting Contest. Each school selected one representative to score as many points as possible from five different floor markers in just one minute. 

Player Spotlight: Nuing stepped up to represent the Magic and absolutely excelled, finishing the initial round with the second-highest score of the day to book his place in the final. 

The shooting final was pure drama. Nuing and his opponent finished deadlocked at 16 points each, sending the contest into a sudden-death free-throw shoot-out. In an incredibly tense finish, Nuing narrowly missed out on the top spot, but walks away with an incredible second-place finish across the entire competition!

A Season to Be Proud Of

While the Finals didn't bring the silverware the boys had hoped for, this takes nothing away from an extraordinary achievement. To go unbeaten in the league, navigate a tense play-off run, and compete at the highest level at Nottingham Trent University is a phenomenal feat.

It has been a fantastic season of basketball for the Year 7s. They should be immensely proud of their development as players, their resilience in the face of adversity, and their fantastic progress throughout the competition.

Congratulations to the entire squad - the future of basketball at Carre's looks incredibly bright!