Wins for University of Chichester Thunder and Bognor Pirates feature in this week’s basketball round-up. Get involved by sending your reports and team pictures to steve.bone@chiobserver.co.uk
University of Chichester Thunder 87 Gloucester Jets 77
National League div four south west
After their first back-to-back wins of the season, the Thunder were eager to add another win to put them in secnd position.
Thunder started strongly and looked to attack at any opportunity. Immediately McLaren got opportune steals and
converted them into fast-break lay-ups. Coach Eman also came in to make an impact in his limited minutes scoring off some quick ball movement in the half-court set.
This led to a 10-0 run in the opening minutes forcing the Jets to call time out and regroup. The first quarter
ended 29-21 to Thunder.
In the second the Jets went on their own run, scoring the first six points and drawing fouls from Thunder’s guards and forwards.
The Jets closed the gap but still could not contain Thunder’s guards on the break with Barbary and Marshall hitting jump shots in the lane and scoring tough looks closer in. At the half the Thunder led 50-42.
The third quarter saw Hield showing good presence inside on offence and Sewell was drawing fouls from the Jets, causing them to get into foul trouble.
Scanlon was setting the tempo on defence and instigated two straight shot clock violations from the Jets.
Hardyman also provided good energy in this quarter pushing the ball at any opportunity and getting others involved. Thunder advanced the lead to 73–56.
With a 17-point lead the Thunder were looking to work on, butr the game started to get scrappy and the Jets managed to get within six points of the lead.
Coach Eman called time out to stem the tide and regroup. Coming out of this, Thunder finally started to display the composure needed to see out the game.
Thunder: McLaren 28, Barbary 23, Hield 14.
Horsham Huskies 61 Bognor Pirates 73
Pirates put behind them a home defeat in their previous outing.
The Pirates guards opened the scoring with several fast breaks and worked the ball inside to big man Luke Attfield and captain Rich Lowe, who were to dominate the boards both on shots and rebounds, while the whole team played good aggressive zone defence.
Bognor were 22-14 up at the end of the first period. However, in the second, the Huskies captain started scoring well which Pirates found hard to contain - allowing Huskies to finish the half 37-35 ahead.
The second half saw Pirates change to a man defence with Calum Jackson and James Bennett closing down the Huskies, coupled with the guards looking for the inside passes to their forwards on offence which turned the game around.
It was 54-49 to the Pirates at the end of the third period.
The final quarter saw Lowe working his magic inside the paint with his twists and turns scoring a further ten points to add to some valuable points from Marcus Morling and Matt Sharpe, enabling Pirates to finish 12-point winners.
This was a much better performance from the Bognor side, who also secured 15 out of 18 points from the free throw fouls. MVP was awarded to Rich Lowe.
Scorers: L Attfield 20, R Lowe 19, A Pleskys 12, M Sharpe 7, M Morling 6, J Bennett 4, J Parker 2, C Jackson 2, A Dehaan 1, M Smith.
Bognor Pirates 61 East Grinstead Flyers 56
Pirates narrowly beat East Grinstead in the Sussex League.
While both teams traded baskets in the first period, the Bognor side missed many easy baskets from under the hoop so Flyers were able to keep up to close only 16-14 down.
In period two Flyers maintained their scoring but with many forced inside passes and missed shots, Pirates could manage only seven points - something was clearing lacking as the half-time score saw Pirates 30-23 down.
Coach Kev Robbins told the team to do what they do best- play good simple passes and take good percentage shots. It worked.
The Bognor team came out with much enthusiasm and were fired up on defence. Rob Stapely went for every loose ball and secured a further five points to his first-half score of six points, while big Matt Wakeling was able to out-rebound Flyers big man Steve Elsworthy and secure a further five points from under the basket, keeping Flyers to just nine points in the period.
With the score 41-39 in the Pirates’ favour at the start of the last period, Pirates knew they were back in it - but a quick five points from Flyers in the first minute saw the lead change.
Matt Sharp was quick up the court for some fast breaks and managed to tie the score again followed by another quick two points from Stapely in the second minute. From then on Flyers were unable to take the lead again.
In the last minute with Pirates one point up, David Morgan scored a valuable two points. With nine seconds to go Luke Attfield was fouled and sent to the free throw line.
He had to make at least one shot in case Flyers came back and scored a three pointer - he secured both so Pirates finished five-point winners. A well earned MVP went to Rob Stapely.
Scorers: R Stapely 15, M Sharp 13, M Wakeling 9, L Attfield 8, D Morgan 6, R Knight 4, M Morling 4, K Greenway 2, A Robbins, J Parker.