Hornets: 50
Preston: 99
Hornets given a basketball lesson by top class Preston.
In the last friendly before the season starts Preston Pride brought a team to Holmes Chapel that could easily compete in the National League and on tonight’s form already will be one of the favourites to win the Manchester Premiership.
Pride raced out of the starting blocks scoring off drives and well worked shots from almost every offence. Guy Johnson opened for the Hornets with a power drive but Hornets were down 14-2 after 3 minutes and looking at a long night of Basketball as Preston worked through their playbook. Andrew Rushton steadied the ship with some well worked drives and Zander Fyfe, in his debut, scored a brace from the free throw line. But the Preston shooting was relentless and Hornets trailed 28-12 at the end of the quarter.
Hornet lungs were burning and Preston turned the heat up, applying a full court press to lock the Hornets in their own half and forcing a string of turnovers. Zander and Guy scored baskets off the drive and Sam Bithell dropped a well worked shot but the Hornets were kept to just 6 points while the Preston scoring machine rolled on. 18-55 at the halfway mark.
Hornets could have wilted under the pressure but now find their own pride and steadiedly adjusted to the pressure and speed of the game. Tush showed that he can play basketball at any level and worked cleverly off assists from Sam, Danny Wareham and Kris Wood to score a string of points. Sam drained a long 3 pointer and Andy Sienkiewicz grabed a rebound and used all his strength to power a basket. Were it not for some woeful free shots towards the end Hornets would have leveled this quarter but as it was Preston eased away slightly.
Preston came out strongly in Q4 and shut out Holmes Chapel for 4 minutes again causing a run of turnovers. Tush responded with drives and shots and Tom Lee slotted a long range shot. Hornets never gave in and chased and harried to earn all of their 50 points in the game and kept Preston below 100 points (Just! Final score 50-99).
Top Scorer – Tush 30 Points
Played Out of their skin – Tush – don’t forget all those points were against a top defence
Best Basket – Ball travels quickly out of defence in a side line fast break and is then slipped in to Zander cutting down the lane to finish at speed
Must Improve – Composure against the Press – it caused loads of turnovers
Great Game, Enjoyed Reffing it, work on playing against a tight defence guys so as tio cut down on the turnovers!!