The U19's (missing a few key starters due to Uni visits) hosted the Brockenhurst Bulldogs B side and started the game running and gunning. Manuel and Nathan controlled the front court, pressuring their guards into turnovers and forced shots, whilst Yera was big and strong underneath with some good blocks and dominant rebounding. However, it was clear from the first whistle that this was going to be a close contest and would go to the buzzer. The first ended 12-13 with the Dogs getting the go-ahead early before Nathan put 3 points to his name to draw us within 1.
The second quarter was all Seahawks. With a whole range of our players getting on the scoresheet, the offence was working and the defence was creating easy chances. A 3 from the Dogs was their best effort in the quarter but a 15-7 quarter had us up 27-20 at the break.
The third started well with a 7-0 run, Yera getting 3 and Manuel 4, before we started to relax and took our foot off the gas. The Dogs got back into the game with an 8-0 run of their own before Abner stopped the rot. 40-33 after 3 and we appeared to have the comfortable lead and dominance to answer them.
However, the 4th was all Brockenhurst from about the 2nd minute. Our offence dried up, making small errors, or relaxing too much. Defensively our forwards let too much come inside and some basic errors allowed their bigs to get some easy baskets underneath, with #12 getting a 3 point play, then 6 more to grab 9 points to himself in the quarter.
When the score got closer and closer, it was a situation that many of our boys hadn't been in, and we found that heads started to wander. Forced shots and missed lay-ups under pressure was the difference, and down the stretch we couldn't buy a basket. It ended 46-50 in a devastating loss.
[Scorers: Aimaganbetov 14, Carrillo 12, Wickens 9, Li 9, Huber 2]