Following a big, confidence boosting win over league leaders Charnwood College Riders, Sheffield Elite U18 Prem flew to Rio Maior, Portugal for Stage 1 of EYBL. With 4 games scheduled over 3 days the team knew they would have to be prepared for some of the best players Europe had to offer. 

Sheffield Elite 114 - 51 Evo Sports Club (Qatar)

Despite a long day of travelling, Sheffield Elite were keen to make a good start the tournament and would do so against a young Evo Sports Club playing out of Qatar. The game started with high pressure from Sheffield leading to break away dunks and open 3's building a healthy 56-30 lead by half time.

The 2nd half started with Sheffield Elite once again turning up the pressure, continuing to create easy looks from good defence. Sheffield would hold Evo to just 21 points in the 2nd half and, on the back of break out performances from O'Daniel Creary and Devon Williams, would win the game 114 - 51

Oasis Academy (UK) 70 - 67 Sheffield Elite

Going up against Oasis Academy, also from the UK, was always going to add a bit extra to the game and this was clear from the outset. Sheffield Elite started the game quite sluggish and showed cleared signs of fatigue, something that would plague them for the whole game. Struggling to settle into the game offensively Sheffield went into the break down 3, 34-31. 

Sheffield would continue to underperform in the 3rd quarter and found themselves going down by 10 with 4 minutes left to play in the 4th quarter, however, a strong finished cut this lead to 55-50 in favour of Oasis at the start of the 4th quarter. The 4th quarter would follow the same pattern of the rest of the game and Sheffield left it too late to make a run, still down 5 with 3 mins to play. Oasis would run out eventual winners 70-67 and Sheffield Elite knew they let 1 slip. 

Sheffield Elite 49 - 72 Jesi Basket Academy Taurus (Italy)

After a good rest from hectic couple of days before, Sheffield knew they would have to be at their best against Italian side Jesi Basket Academy, currently 2-0. It was clear from the start of the game that this was going to be a tough one and Sheffield would have to fight to stay in the game. Jesi showed great ball movement on offence, shot the ball very well and were near perfect defensively. Sheffield would drop this one 72-49 and move to 1-2 for the tournament. 

DLang Academy (Switzerland) 76 - 86 Sheffield Elite

With aspirations for this team still high everyone knew that they we could not afford to lose this one and Sheffield Elite starting the game at a high tempo, however, this was matched by DLang who would also shoot the ball well and finish strong inside. End of the 1st half Sheffield found themselves behind 36-33 at half time. 

Determined to finish the tournament with a 2-2 record Sheffield started the 3rd quarter the stronger of the 2 sides and would begin to build a lead. An 8-3 run with scores from Vemon Mabou, Kelvin Talbot and Dylan McCormack would put Sheffield back in front and finish the game up 10 winning 86-76.

Following great performances throughout the tournament Kelvin Talbot was named in the All Star 5 and George Andrews was awarded the Team MVP. 

Stage 2 will take place in Milazzo, Sicily (23rd - 26th Jan) with Sheffield Elite needing to go 4-0 to stand a chance of advancing.