Hornets showed that they will be a force to contend with in Division 1 this year. Warrington are a traditional close rival but hadn’t bought enough big players to cope with the fire power of the Hornets.
Both teams started brightly, Sam Bithell grabbed an opportunist basket to open procedings and scoring was even until 5 minutes in. Warrington scored a well worked 3 pointer to take the lead but at that point Tom Lee and Andrew Rushton showed their ability to turn matches in just a few minutes. Tom scored a couple of well worked 3 pointers and Tush scored on the drive and the shot. Sam Barnard and Kwaku Gueye grabbed points close in as the Hornets amassed 27 points in 5 minutes where they hardly missed a shot. Warrington needed the best from all their players but sadly Rich Hackett dislocated his ankle at this stage and will be out for a number of months. Get well soon Rich.
Q2 was dominated by the big men, Andy Sienkiewicz scored off his own rebounds and Guy Johnson proved yet again that he is a threat whenever the ball is loose near to the ring. Kwaku added a further couple of power drives and Neil Hawkins marshalled the defence into keeping Warrington down to just 8 points for the quarter and the Hornets had a massive lead 53-21 at half time.
Q3 started with Tom again showing his long shot shooting skills and this was combined with John Whelan making a late entrance to the game and a string of rebound returns. Warrington hadn’t given up though and Steve Vaughan showed his shooting skills to keep them in the game.
Q4 was a scrappy afair with both teams trying to score quickly and on the whole failing to do so! Barney stood out with excellent jump shots, Guy and Kwaku also scored from close in. Both teams will have to show better Q4 form to be in a chance of the playoffs next year though.
Top Scorer – Tom 22 Points
Played Out of their skin – Tom and Tush showed their destructive atacking powers but also impressed in defence
Best Basket – Ball Travels around the zone into the low post, out and around the zone again – through all hands- and is then reversed to find Tom standing all alone – 3 points from the moment it left his hand.
Must Improve. Fast break in q4 needed to be more clinical.
