Thurs 23rd Nov.
With the Tres Barilles Heat looking to truly win the whole division, having competed in Div2 last year, we always knew this was going to be a tough evening, but a new revitalised style of play for the Seahawks was really going to show its class.
Our team is always going to have speed and age on our side, but lack size and strength, and we still need to capitalise on this, but having previously relied on our individual plays, we have been working on "team play" and using each other more.
The first quarter was brilliant. We knew the Heat would be using big Ejele inside to dominate the paint, but then using their sharp shooting Filipino guards to hit the 3's. And so we pre-empted this and switched to a 3-2 zone to get out to the corners, and it was working well. Defence was standing strong and not giving up silly fouls, only 3 giving in the quarter and no shooting fouls, plus only one 3 ball from the Heat, kept us in touching distance. Offensively the ball was moving, finding the post players and open shots, but also getting a few break aways. While I was shooting well, and added 10, Gozim closed out the quarter to put us down 1, 12-13 after 10 mins.
In the second Peter started to inject his pace opening up the defence on drives, Gozim was playing big inside, and Iraj on an otherwise quiet night opened his account. Defensively Josh and Myles were teaming up well on the wings to stop the 3's, while Yera was having a big night underneath with good solid D and rebounding. On the buzzer Iraj added a final free throw to put it tied 27-27 at the break.
The third quarter was the difference in the game, with a good solid full-press from the Heat flustered the guards and even when we did break through the offence was then rushed and gave the ball away too easily. We still kept the scoreboard ticking over, Josh adding a couple, Myles hitting another and Yera getting a put back, but the press forced turnovers and easy baskets for the Heat, and relying on the big guy inside and hot shooting from Pascaul meant they outscored us 26-11 in the quarter.
And although our heads had dropped a little, annoyed with ourselves more than anything, we started to play intelligent basketball again. The ball was moving again, and we closed the gap a little, until they just hammered us inside with the man-mountain. Ejele got two 3-point plays, another from the foul stripe and they'd stretched to 25pt lead. However we kept playing to the buzzer, Josh and Myles again adding points in good solid all round plays cut into that lead and it ended 50-70.
A great performance for the whole team. Against the team that sits atop the Division, who can shoot, run and play inside, we showed that our mental game is improving and we are gelling as a team unit. Although some walked away downhearted this was one of the best displays we have shown in a long time. Without the 3rd quarter, it was a 5 point loss; so now we can focus on making our game plan work for the full 40, and make those adjustments quicker when needed.
[Scorers: O Wood 16, G Nwokolo 9, J Strongman 8, P Huang 7, M Rothenberg 4, I Safaee 4, Y Aimeganbetov 2]