Thurs 2nd Nov, @ BCS.
The first home game of the season saw the Seahawks host Winchester Royals 2. The Royals starting unbeaten, having beaten the Classics and the Nets, were my choice to win the league at the end of the season, having finished 2nd in Div2 last year, but now having a Div1 and Div 2 teams splitting their squad. Without Nik, still out with his ankle injury, and Gozim dropping out in the warm up, having hurt a toe in Football match earlier, we were always going to be short inside.
The first quarter started well; offensively the ball was moving well and we were again using our speed to drive to the basket, with loads of shots dropping with the soft touch. Yera opened our account, I added a 3 from my spot on the elbow, Iraj was using his quick feet and spin move to dice through the D and cause havoc. Peter, slowed from being banged up vs. Hythe earlier in the week, was still getting the first step on his man and getting to the basket. Defensively we were standing big underneath, Yera, Jack, Myles, Iraj playing solid D and not giving up anything easy. However, we had little answer for their ball movement and sharp shooting guards, who added three 3-pointers in the first. But we were playing at the top of our game, and ended the quarter tied 15-15.
The second was more of the same. I added a 3point play to open the quarter and this started a little roll for us. The crowd were adding to the atmosphere, pushing us along the way. Harri Bates was running well, and found the bottom of the net from the corner, Iraj and Yera both adding to our tally, to push our lead to 30-22, with their shooting going quiet. Defensively we were giving away too many cheap fouls, trying to get steals inside of containing them with our feet, or leaning over underneath, whilst standing strong. This put our big guys in foul trouble and we lacked some size underneath. Our offense was still running well and a sweet pass on the break from Peter got me another 3point play to push our lead to 35-27. But in the final minutes of the half, their shooters found their touch added 9 points from beyond the arc to take the lead 38-40 at the break.
After the break, we didn't show signs of slowing. Our offence was still finding holes and pushing in transition, Myles, Harri, Henry all running the wings well, and doing well to break the full court press. Being critical, we relied on this a little too much; whilst set plays showed little movement, lacked off-the-ball screens and had some turnovers, we were still getting good looks one-on-one and driving to the hoop, using our speed. And the 3rd quarter was the Iraj Show as he added 8 to his tally, (even after missing 5 free throws) as they struggled to contain him. The score was 50-50 mid way through 3, before they just started to stretch us (52-58) and they started to come inside a little more against our foul-troubled big men. #22 (Nye) and #45 (Cracket) doing the work underneath and from the line taking it to 54-67 at the break.
The forth was good to-fro between the teams; Peter and myself cutting their lead back down to 12, 61-73. They hit a couple more 3-balls, to extend it back out, but Iraj and Peter still doing the damage down the other end and keeping us in it. Once Jack fouled out we were undersized but this didn't hurt our determination; and when Peter got a sweet chase down block on their big guy, we found a final bout of fire to keep us pushing. But it just wasn't enough to cut into their lead. It finished 67-82.
A massive monumental effort from all the players shows what we are capable of. Iraj, Peter and Myself doing the majority of the scoring, but Yera and Jack playing some solid D underneath. Shout out to Myles pushing himself through after an earlier football match; Shawn playing solidly in his first senior game; and the crowd who kept us going for 40 minutes and showing their voices when they went to the line.
Room for improvement on set offences and cheap fouls but massively proud of what we showed tonight.
[Scorers: O Wood 20, I Safaee 17, P Huang 16, Y Aimaganbetol 6, J Xu 4, H Bates 4]