Hornets: 67

Oxford Phoenix: 76

Hornets lose out to the Phoenix in a bizaar match that can be described as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

The Good: The Hornets spring out of the traps for the best start ever. Tom Lee sank back to back 3 pointers, Sam bithell hit an outside shot, Andy Sienkiewicz banked a close in shooter, Sam captured a brace from the charity strip, John Whelan returned a rebound and when Sam raced home another two points Hornets had scord 16 in a breathless 4 minutes. Oxford had been busy too rattling in 10 points in a match crammed with high quality basketball. The Hornets seemed like they couldn’t miss.

The Bad: For the next 16 minutes the Hornets seemed like they couldn’t score! Simple shots were missed, long shots were missed, lay ups were missed and free throws were missed. The Hornets ended Q1 3 points down and a ray of hope appeared early in Q2 as Steve Arnold and then Gary Masson scored well worked baskets. But the ray was soon extinguished as the inability to score came back but this time with the inability to defend too! Oxford went onto a 15 point unanswered spree and finished 16 points up at half time. Hornets had scored just 4 points in 16 minutes. Q3 started brightly with Neil Hawkins sinking a 3 pointer and Guy Johnson finding his range with a jump shot. But John got caught in mid air and landed on his elbow to now be out for the rest of the match. The hornets started to raise their game on the inside but now progressed to miss a number of free throws and despite some slick shooting from Tom still finished the quarter 16 points down.

The Good: (OK the match should be titled The Good, The Bad, The Really Bad, The OK in places, The Good and the Ugly but that doesn’t really flow!) The Hornets now without John and with a number of players in foul trouble decided to show they could play Basketball after all! Sam stole and scored, Tom got another 3 pointer and Sam raced another couple in but the defence still leaked particularly against the fast break. Neil was tasked with drying up the fast break and the other Hornets were asked for a big effort in applying a press defence and now the hornets scored 8 unanswerred points Steve, Guy and Sam all contributing along with another 3 from TomThe game was finly balanced with the hornets trailing by only 6 now. The Hornets had 4 players on 4 fouls but had to throw cautio to the wind and pulled out two more 3 pointers from Neil and Tom but still the gap wouldn’t close as the Phoenix kept working the clock and taking well worked points. Sam and Neil fouled out to leave the Hornets with only 5 players left but still they chased the forlorn hope.

The Ugly: In the last minute the Hornets had to get the clock to stop and in trying to steal the ball tom made a clumsy challanged and was penalised with an unsportman like foul. The reaction, from the Phoenix player, came from the Frank Bruno book of Basketball and will, I fear, result in work for the Disciplinary Officer.

The Hornets lost by 9 in a match they would have won easily if they had kept up the performance in the first 4 minutes.

Top Scorer: - Tom - 25 Points

Best Player: - Tom top shooting - 6 x 3 pointers

Best Basket: - Sam creates one out of nothing with a steal and a race down court for a lay up.

Must Improve: - Concentration when baskets aren’t dropping we need to defend better than ever.