On a Monday evening in February Loreto faced an Allerton High team that had troubled us greatly in a previous encounter. We got off to an encouraging start, going on a 10-4 run in the opening 4 minutes. Allerton recovered quickly to bring themselves back into the contest but it was Loreto who took the quarter 25-17. Loreto’s Kaiyem Cleary was back on form, scoring 18 first half points to help us into a 42-36 lead at the break.

In the second half an impressive 14-0 gave Loreto the game’s first comfortable lead. Despite a valiant effort from Allerton the lead was now too great to overcome, resulting in Loreto taking the contest at the final whistle 92-70.

Coach Peter Paraskeva commented after the game: “The team showed vast improvement over our most recent games. Last time out against Allerton we really struggled with their robust switching defence. Today we handled it much better and took advantage of mismatches.”

Loreto’s scoring was headed by Kaiyem Cleary 25, Michael Anumba 22 and Bartosz Blachut with 13.

Loreto are on the road again in March to face Charnwood College.