THE LATEST player to impress for the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence is Roor Akhuar, who put together a matchwinning performance in his team’s three-point win over the Hornsby Ku Ring Gai Spiders in the NBL1 East Men’s last weekend.

The CoE were coming off a massive 41-point win over the Albury Wodonga Bandits the night before, and opted to play a fresh batch of players against the Spiders, rotating the immense young talent currently developing at the AIS.

Sunday afternoon’s affair was a much closer contest, with the CoE and Spiders both trading blows in a back and forth affair. With the game tied at 76 apiece in the final 10 seconds of the match, Akhuar stepped up to nail the game-winning triple and light up AIS with a match-winning moment.

Although he was clearly the hero in crunch time, Akhuar was a strong performer throughout the entirety of the match, putting the CoE in a winning position with his immense presence from behind the arc.

BA CoE (79) def. Hornsby Ku Ring Gai Spiders (76)

Roor Akhuar – 17 points, six rebounds

In a hugely impressive win for the CoE on Sunday afternoon, Akhuar was the difference between the two sides, nailing four triples in the match and making his presence felt from deep with an eye-catching performance.

The 18-year-old got involved early as the CoE stormed out to a fast lead by scoring the first eight points of the match, with Akhuar nailing his first triple in transition after Alexander Dickeson poked the ball free and found his sharpshooting teammate on the run.

Akhuar showed his ability to drive inside and draw contact, putting the defence on the back foot by going downhill quite fast and pushing the tempo after a Spiders score, forcing the opposition to foul him and send him to the charity stripe, where he converted both shots in the second quarter to keep the game tight.

He continued to draw contact with smart players in the third quarter, although he did miss one of the shots on his second trip to the free throw line. However, Akhuar made up for it to close the third frame, giving his side a four-point lead heading into the last with a pullup three-pointer in the final seconds of the quarter to further demonstrate how much defensive attention he requires.

After starting the fourth period on the bench, he returned to the fold with a few minutes to play, with Robbie McKinlay calling on his shotmaking with the game going down to the wire. He rewarded the faith almost immediately, splashing home his third triple of the match to give the CoE the lead with a couple of minutes in a huge moment within the context of the match.

However, his moment was yet to come, with the CoE inbounding the ball on the back of another huge steal from Dickeson with proceedings tied and seven seconds on the clock. The ball found its way into Akhuar’s hands on the perimeter, and he used his pivot foot to fake out the defence before cutting back the other direction. This gave him a clean look at the basket, and he made no mistake, nailing the triple as time expired to give the CoE the win as his teammates spilled onto the court.

He finished the match with 17 points and six rebounds, shooting 4/5 from behind the arc and delivering the win to the CoE at home. He should feature heavily in the team’s rotations moving forward, and could have a huge role in their quest for the East Men’s championship.