The Spartans were always going to be a tough match up but we knew with the right level of concentration and effort we could play well and give them a good game.
The Spartans, however, showed their experience through the first quarter with great shooting, both inside and out, and rarely missed, adding 3 3's in the first all from game MVP #47 J.Buden. At our end the ball was moving well and our offence was working as it should, but the ball wasn't dropping, or we had some little turnovers. Abner was shooting and scoring well, with 5pts in the first, and Yera was being big and dominant inside. 12-22 after one.
The second was much the same, but heads started to drop as the Spartans pressured us on defence and some more great shooting all-round, gave them a 12-0 run midway through the second to extend their lead to 22-46 at the break.
The third saw us switch the defence from a zone to man-to-man and halted their free scoring shooting. Shots were much more contested and we started to believe that we weren't just going to roll over and give them easy buckets. Our offence got a little more static as players heads dropped a little, reflective of the scoreline, but a 3 from Yera (!) and 5 more from Manuel kept us ticking over. 33-69 after 3.
The fourth quarter was some of the best shooting we've had in ages. 6 3-pointers, (Vito, Olly x2, Shawn x2, Manuel) and a total of 30 points in the 10 minutes saw us easily win the quarter as we continued to shut them out on D (holding them to a game low 17) and actually win the second half 41-40! It could have been greater down the stretch but we started to rely on the 3 a little, (fair enough with hot hands) but a great defiant quarter to show great heart, hustle and maturity with the team.
It finished 63-86.
{12-22, 10-24, 11-23, 30-17}
It was a pleasing game, again a loss, but against another good team, if not the best shooting team we have faced. A little lacking on D in the first half, with them running some easy breaks but we kept the score board ticking over and doing what we needed to do; and against a lesser team this would have been a close game or a win.
[Scorers: Wood 15, Aimaganbetov 13, Cheng 9, Carrillo 8, Li 7, Krairit 6, Wickens 4, Petrov 1]