Basketball England are offering free Level 2 Referee and Level 2 Table Officials Courses: https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/news/get-involved-free-referee-and-table-officiating-courses/

If you sign up to one of these courses, LeBOA will help support your development as an official so that you are able to pass the qualification. LeBOA are able to help to pair you with experienced officials in your games to help support and ease you into local league games. In addition they are able to send highly experienced and qualified referee coaches and observers to support you at your games and provide feedback as you work towards getting signed off and fully qualified.

They are encouraging all clubs to send as many members as possible on the courses, especially those who are still struggling to cover referee nominations or are struggling for table officials on game nights.

Please help us support basketball in Leicestershire, as without officials the game we love to watch, play or be involved in cannot take place.

If you require any support or have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact them at leboaofficials@gmail.com.

It’s a shame that the 2019-2020 season ended prematurely but it great to see the club thriving with the A Team performing well in the top tier and the youth of the B Team blossoming and dominating in Division 3.

Here are some summary statistics for those of you that are into things like that…

A Team
Top Team Players – James A, Dan, Ryan and Benji played all 12 games (and most of the other players only missed one game).

Top Scorers – Benji managed an average of 22.7 points per game, Byron scored 14.5 and Dan 12.9.

B Team
Top Team Players – Robbo, Joe and Matt F turned out for every single game. Great job guys!

Top Scorers – Nine players reached double digits at least once in the season and four (Laurence, Eren, Matt M and Gary) managed to average above ten points a game.

Harborough were missing several players for the Monday night away fixture with St Matthews and it was a pretty convincing win for the home team. 

Harborough scored well but defence was lacking as they conceded a season-high of 104 points.

Matt F top-scored with 18, Eren and Joe scored 16 and John 14.

Harborough B’s unbeaten run (of eleven games) came to an avoidable end at home to Rawlins. Both teams started strongly with Harborough maintaining a slim lead for the first three quarters.

The intensity of the visitors never waned and their adjustments to counter Harborough’s scoring worked well. As Harborough struggled offensively in the final quarter (only scoring 8 points), heads went down and defence lapsed a little too.

Eren (one of too-few players having a good night) top-scored with 16 and Jammy scored 12.

Games against Kettering are always close-fought affairs and this was no exception. Kettering had the better of the first quarter but after an even second quarter Harborough took the lead in the third. Both teams struggled to score in the final quarter but some good free-throw shooting from Kettering (their last five points of the game) saw them clinch victory.

Byron scored 21 (5x 3s) and Benji 18.

Arguably the most important game of the season saw Harborough B take on the league leaders Gateway Galaxy at their home court.

A strong 1st quarter (Matt M scoring 12 points) saw Harborough take an eight-point lead at the end of the first period. That lead was extended at times but a resilient Galaxy brought the game back to just two points in the opening minutes of the final quarter.

Just a year ago that might have seen heads go down and Galaxy steal the win but the youngsters in the team have come on both mentally and physically in the last twelve months and instead they doubled down to finish the game strongly; limiting Galaxy to just two baskets in the last seven minutes of the game.

Lawrence led the scoring for Harborough with 20 points, Matt M scored 14 and Ben made 11. 

Thursday night saw another strong team performance from Harborough B as they beat Oadby at home 91:46. The first quarter was pretty even with the home team not finding their usual rhythm at the outset. However, once they got going, the visitors couldn’t match the home team at either end of the court. Once again Harborough showcased their two biggest strengths (fast-break offence and a strong inside game) to outscore Oadby by almost 2:1.

The next game (Monday 24th February) against Gateway Galaxy is likely to be a much tougher prospect but, if they can get the win, should see them finally sitting at the top of the table.

The score sheet was pretty well distributed but Lawrence and Eren led with 16 points each.

Further proof, were it needed, that Harborough A are here to stay in Division one came in their away fixture to the unbeaten Dynamite (who at this stage have beaten *every* team).

Harborough started strong, with several unanswered buckets and led at the end of the first quarter (and for much of the second too). The game was close throughout but a strong start to the fourth quarter saw Dynamite build up a lead that Harborough couldn’t clawback. There were lots of positives to take from the game as Harborough made the home team work hard to maintain their unbeaten record (three Dynamite players fouled out).

Benji scored 25 and Byron 18.