CT v TV aces 10/03/12

First half

Though they played with a lot of energy and mobility from the start of this match, CT found it hard to defend without totting up the fouls and hard to attack against TVA's full court defence Cheadle made some fast transitions, but their shooting looked rushed and nervous. TVA, on the other hand, looked relaxed, playing their typical game aimed at getting the ball to #31 or #23 at low post.

After 10 minutes of play a smart(ish) series of passes up court gave Joe first basket for Cheadle. A couple of minutes later and exceptional steal by Sol - so fast that the TVA player didn't seem to know where the ball had gone- gave Josh the chance to draw a rare foul from the opposition and a point from the free throws. Dan did some good work in defence towards the end of the half, which cut the TVA score rate a bit. Overall the high points for Cheadle were few and far between.

Half time score 18-3 to TVA

Second Half

Again, the half started with CT very much on the defensive and totting up fouls, TVA getting the ball to their leading players in a workman-like way. Tom got a cheer for a surprise long-shot at 4 minutes - out of the blue and looking very casual. Joe and Josh managed to find the hoop too in the last few minutes. CT really didn't have an answer to TVA's simple game.

Final score 42:9 to TVA

Stats:

CT: Joe - 4, Josh - 3, Tom 2

TVA: #23 (formerly #0) and #31 both scored 16+ points; #5 - 6+

Pros and Cons:

Brownie points to everyone for individual effort. Sol was flying, and both he and Joe made some great steals. There was a lot more effort from everyone on the rebound. Dan was making good use of his height defending against the taller TVA players, but there was some physical defensive play all round from Cheadle - as shown by the team hitting the limit on fouls in each half!

What was missing was in attack - the ball didn't make that vital transition up the court quickly enough, giving TVA time to regroup. Too often the whole team was bogged down on one side of the court with no-one on the other side to take a pass.

Nevertheless we held TVA down to well under 50 points, which is a first. I think they looked a bit miffed. Bonus!

CT v Southside Hornets 3/3/12

First half:

Sean, Tom, Josh, Harry, & Matt A were first in for Cheadle.

Hornets pressed hard at the beginning, but Cheadle scored first at 3 minutes - Sean making a longish shot from a fast cross-court pass by Tom. Then a good pass from Matt A 30 seconds later gave Josh the chance to make it 4:0. Hornets pressed all the harder as a result, and finally, after 5 minutes, they broke through dramatically with 3 baskets made within 60 seconds (#7 and #24).

After a time-out CT couldn't quite get back into the same form they'd started with. Though Josh did score again (great passes here from Matt A and then Harry) Cheadle were on the back foot defensively and were lucky that Hornets' leading players couldn't make the free throws.

With the score at 12 minutes 10:6 Joe, Matt F and Dan came on to join Josh and Harry. The new line-up attacked more, but were unlucky with their shots, Dan, Joe and Harry all had near misses and Josh couldn't quite get his free throws in this week . Matt A, coming back on to replace Matt F (too sick to play) made a final after-time penalty point to finish the half.

Half time score: CT - 7; SH - 16

Second Half:

With Josh and Harry off on a hike (!) and Matt F sitting the rest of the game out, the rest of the match was up to Dan, Joe, Sean, Tom, and Matt A.

SH came on strong at the beginning making 4 baskets (#7 and #10) in the first 5 minutes against poor opposition from CT, who seemed not to have the energy even to run back in defence, let alone launch an attack. But after a time-out the team pulled itself back together and at 8 minutes Sean made a good basket after outpacing the opposition up court, and Tom added a second from his favourite position in low-post.

SH responded with 2 quick baskets but some good defence by CT blunted the sting of the Hornets' attack (ha-ha!), and they often looked confused when CT were attacking - Joe's basket at 10 minutes was made from a throw in by Dan that left the defenders in the wrong half of the court.

In the last 5 minutes of the game there were signs that CT were getting tired, and SH #7 made 3 easy baskets against a relaxed defence - though without Matt A marking him he may well have scored more. But the final 2 minutes were Cheadle's: great basket from Joe, leaving the pack way behind; and Matt A's excellent mobility and persistence in the last few seconds gave him the final 2 points.

Final Score CT - 17; SH - 39

Stats:

CT: Joe, Sean, Josh - 4 each; Matt A - 3; Tom - 2

SH: (very difficult to see the numbers on this team) #7 - 20 or more; #24 - 6+; #10 - 2?

Pros and cons:

Very good start by Cheadle with attacking play that SH couldn't counter. After SH broke through and scored 2 baskets quickly CT seemed to lose their nerve, and hardly contested the 3rd. But the team did pull itself back together fairly quickly. Not such a quick recovery in the second half - it took 5 or 6 minutes and a chat from Andy to get the team up and running again. But after that it was a pretty good fight-back from a line-up who had been on court for most of the game.

There were a lot of good passes in this game, quite often leaving SH out of position and creating opportunities for CT.

When we played Hornets in November last year the score was 38:12, so a slight improvement on first sight. But CT had 2 players absent, 2 leaving at half-time, and another too sick to play more than a few minutes, so we upgrade the improvement from “slight” to “definite”

The reduced squad did lead to players getting out of their comfort zones - Dan in attack and Tom driving into the key, Sean and Joe both getting into Matt A's territory and picking up some good rebounds.

And on that subject, best moment of the match for me was Boomerang claiming a rebound from a scrum of four SH players all fighting and jumping for the same ball. And looking cool with it. Well, if f you've got it, flaunt it, I suppose.

CT v Southside Flyers 25/02/12

First half:

Cheadle looked out of the game for the first 10 minutes, weak in defence and unable to attack effectively against Southside's relentless full court press.

After the exchange, and with SF 14:0 ahead, Cheadle started to play a little, Matt A collecting a few rebounds and Matt F doing some strong man-marking to cut the SF score rate.

With 3 minutes to go, and 20 points down, CT briefly went on the attack, getting the ball up-court with some good fast passes that left Southside out of position. Josh and Matt A both made 2 baskets each but Cheadle relaxed in defence again, and the Flyers matched them point for point before the whistle

Half time score 8:28

Second half

Cheadle started well with quick baskets from Joe and Matt F, but they were too slow to respond when SF turned on the heat and were soon on the back foot again. They could keep the opposition off the paint, but their unwillingness to mark close-up and tackle let Southside show their considerable skills at the long-shots.

In the last 10 minutes of the match Cheadle seemed almost to have given up hope of attacking against SF's high pressure tactics. There were a couple of good plays from Cheadle at the end of the match - but Southside, after playing full court for 40 minutes could afford to relax and celebrate.

Final Score: 20:55

Stats:

CT: Matt A - 6; Josh, Joe - 4 each; Matt F, Sol - 2 each. (I'm missing 2 pts here: anyone care to claim them?)

SF: #5 - 14; #8 - 13; #12 - 6; #4, #20 - 5 each ; #7, #16 - 2 each

Bob's View:

Cheadle lost 19:55 against this team last time, so this wasn't a great result. There were some good moments for CT, but they were moments and they were few and far between.

In defence, Cheadle didn't counter SF's long-shots - the Flyers made 4 three-point goals in this match, and often scored from just inside the three point line. Though it might not work against teams who specialise in set-ups, against this team if everyone on court had got down to some closer, more active, more physical marking around the key we could have seriously cut their score-rate. Yes, I did say everyone.

In attack, SF's tireless full-court man-marking broke most Cheadle attacks, even before they reached the halfway line. There were some CT attacks that worked well though, so it's worth asking why.

One of the earliest started from a surprise pass from Dan out of a scrum of SF players - the ball was passed so quickly up the court that SF were left out of position and behind. After almost 10 minutes of lack-lustre play, Cheadle suddenly looked like a team.

Sol was unlucky with that shot, but the play showed up a weakness of the SF game - their excellent marking foiled long drives, but it could leave them out of position against a fast, mobile, passing attack. When Cheadle made that sort of attack, they usually made chances and often scored.

But not often enough. Most often, Cheadle were too laid back, waiting for the ball to come their way. Against strenuous man-marking, attacking players always need to be on the move, making themselves hard to mark, finding themselves a good place to receive a pass.

And I do mean always. And I mean everyone!

Fixtures March 2012

3rd March   9:20 - Southside Hornets
10th March 8:30 - TV Aces
17th March 9:20 - NR Kings

24th March - Play-Offs TBA