Saturday 12th January 2013: Cheadle Thunder 40 - Heaton Falcons 27
Half time score: Cheadle Thunder 23 - Heaton Falcons 9
Thunder team: Tom, Joe, Sol, Matt, Sean, Josh
Points scored: Josh 20, Joe 8, Sean 8, Sol 4
Heaton Falcons points scored: Thomas 11, Danny 6, Robert 5, Mason 5
Thunder have long had a problem with slow starts, often falling behind early on and not being able to catch up. I hope it isn't tempting fate to say that in recent weeks that's not happened and today was the best start we've seen for a while.
Josh and Sol sunk seven baskets in the first few minutes to give Thunder a strong lead. Sol's trademark longer shots went in, whilst Josh's ability to drive through and contrive a score from almost any position by the basket improves week on week. More points from Joe and Sean saw Thunder take a 14 point lead into half time.
Every player contributed and there was strong defending and passing from Matt and Tom (who picked up three early fouls in the line of duty).
Falcons will be disappointed at their finishing in the first half, but that doesn't take away from a very strong Thunder performance.
In the second half Falcons played much better, Thomas sinking a couple of of big 3-pointers and Mason making several blistering runs to the key that Thunder were unable to stop. Thunder's lead was being steadily chipped away and they were getting just a little loose in defence, allowing too much to sneak through.
But after a timeout, Thunder pulled it together. We didn't see the domination of the first half, but Thunder came back strongly and did enough to take victory with a comfortable 13 point margin.
Overall the best performance we've seen in a while, albeit against a slightly weaker team than some we've faced. In particular, Thunder were marking properly this week (for a change!), with man-marking working effectively and a decent record on defensive rebounds.
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