Final score: Cheadle Thunder 32 - Heaton Hawks 39
Half time score: Cheadle Thunder 11 - Heaton Hawks 23
Thunder team: Joe, Sol, Matt, Dan, Sean, Josh, Josh H, Tom
Points scored: Josh 9, Sol 8, Joe 8, Sean 7
Heaton Hawks points scored: Josh (#30) 29, Seb (#10) 6, Rahul (#15) 2, Adam (#7) 2
Games between Thunder and Hawks tend to be odd affairs, and today's was no exception. Hawk's number 30 is several inches taller than everyone else on the court - and a decent player - and the final score largely reflects his efforts. Thunder struggle against taller opposition and may need to get some tactics to better deal with that!
Thunder struggled in the first half as the Hawks number 30 piled on the points (scoring 20 of their 23).
A stronger team effort in the second half saw Thunder narrow the gap to just five points, before a late basket from Hawks just before the buzzer. In the second half Thunder simply worked harder, in attack and defence. Sol, Joe and Sean were strong around the basket in attack, working well together, with Dan, Tom and Josh H all playing their part, especially in defence.
Thunder did best when all five players on the court were doing their bit. In defence, the team were far more successful at putting Hawks off their shooting in the second half. In attack they were much busier, making strong runs into the key and picking up a lot more offensive rebounds.
The final result was in truth a lottery. There was only one referee on the court, which resulted in a good deal more dodgy decisions that we'd normally see: he can't be everywhere at once and there's a reason basketball matches have two refs!
The two top scorers (our Josh and their Josh) were both fouled off, with several of the fouls being questionable at best. As it happens, our Josh was fouled off with 16 minutes still on the clock, theirs with 3: had decisions gone the other way it could easily have been the other way round, in which case Thunder would almost certainly have brought home the victory.
So a lot of positives, especially in the second half in which Thunder comfortably scored more points.
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