Thurs 10th May
The Seahawks have been playing brilliantly lately. A well fought loss to Classics the previous week, a super close loss to the Tigers before that, getting pipped by the Badgers, another close loss to the Classics before Easter, a great game vs the Heat...
It was time we got over the finish line and got a W. The Nets offered a good chance, giving us 2 wins last year, but beating us this season with a few new players.
The first quarter started well with Josh and Peter doing the damage at the offensive end. Defensively we were solid underneath with Yera and Gozim but gave away some size and strength but worked hard to overcome it. We jumped out to 11-7 before a comeback made it 15-15. Peter and Josh added 4 each to their tallies to take us to 23-18 at the break.
The second started with the Seahawks firing, getting a good run, culminating with a 3 from myself. However, we then failed to turn the screw and sat back on our laurels and let the Nets back into the game. The game became scrappy, with unforced errors at both ends and missed open shots. We quickly got into foul trouble and allowed them easy points from the stripe and a final basket gave them the lead 30-32 at the intermission.
We took the time to catch our breath and with a solid team talk we knew we had to bring the fire and give everything we had, and not allow ourselves to become the "nearly" guys and get into a habit of losing down the stretch. It started by good pressure on the opening inboards forcing a loose pass that I could pick up and even up the scores. Gozim hit a midrange shot from the elbow to put us ahead. To and fro from both ends, again with some unforced errors in spells, but some good ball movement and well thought shots, including a well moved and team play giving Josh loads of space to splash a 3. Solid pressure D from the Guards, Peter, Henry and Abner in rotation, we held their scoring and just did what we needed to at the other end. We'd cut the lead to just one, 41-42 at the end of 3.
10 mins to take the win...
I added a jumper to put us up and then Josh added 2, playing a stellar game underneath, driving with ease, and getting floaters, layups, fadeaways, everything to drop. Again great ball movement and overload play found me wide open at the top of the 3, and answering the crowd gave us a 5 point lead with 7mins to play. We'd been in this situation enough this year, but normally on the team chasing, so we knew what was coming and had to play sensible, unforced basketball. The ball did the work and we continued to press and work on D. Josh added another 3 ball and the crowd were right behind us to drag out this win. As time ticked by, we played sensible slow offence and ran down the clock but managed to get the ball to drop, before the game was put to bed.
A great great well-deserved win! Its been a long time coming but we have earned it, in every way.
[Scorers: Strongman 23, Wood 14, Huang 11, Li 4, Nwokolo 2, Aimaganbetov 2]