A PROMISING first half to Jersey’s opening basketball match against Bermuda on Saturday morning left coach Mike Whitfield and captain Greg Ruellan happy with their team’s performance, despite losing the match 111-52.

I’m surprisingly pleased,’ said Ruellan, competing in his fourth Games.

‘Last time we played them in Guernsey it wasn’t a competitive game but it definitely was today.’ ‘We couldn’t get a ball out of their half four years ago so I’m very pleased,’ added Whitfield.

The Jersey side started strongly against the lively Bermudians, who were around two inches taller and featured Sullivan Philip, a former London Towers player who now plays in the Hungarian top league and was last year voted British Basketball League defensive player of the year.

After the opposition took the lead it was No 9 David Middleton who netted Jersey’s first thanks to Piotr Uznanski, whose cheeky run to sweep past the defence preceded a well-timed pass which set up the goal.

While the second half of the match gave Bermuda the chance to pull away, the coach felt the whole team stepped up to the challenge on the day and he could not single any one player out.

However, Didzis Lauskis was ever prominent in the match despite his impact decidedly lessened as he suffered a bad cut to his finger dunking the ball.

Ruellan also put in a solid performance while David Middleton, Sam d’Avoigne and Piotr Uznanski caught the eye with impressive displays of skill throughout the match in Venetoklio Hall, Rhodes Town.