Hornets win after shocking first half performance.
It's often said that for teams to do well they have to know how to "Win Ugly" - to steal matches they shouldn't after playing poorly. Well the Hornets fell from the Ugly Tree in this match, and hit every branch on the way down - but still turned out victorious.
The Hornets were sent out with a number of instructions all of which were ignored especially the one about not running into early foul trouble - after 3 minutes the score was 2-1 to the Hornets but both teams had reached 4 fouls! After 6 minutes the score was 4-1 with the only beacon of light on the Hornets team being Andy Sienkiewicz. Shots and rebounds were missed but at least the defence stood firm. Turnovers were a plenty from both teams in possibly the worst passage of play the league will see this year. Danny Wareham was fouled on a lay up to open his tally from the line and Guy Johnson also picked up points from the line. Andrew Rushton went on a scoring spree and Sam Barnard come off the bench to add points. When Guy sank a well worked jumpshot after 9 minutes the Hornets looked comfortable at 19-12 up. But the last minute saw the Hornets go to sleep and let Rossendale fast break and then score off a silly foul and a turnover. Hornets lead by 2 at the end of the quarter.
Q2 was even worse as now the Hornets defence went to sleep and allowed more fast break scores and uncontested shooting from the Rossendale point guard. Andy and Guy stood out as players who wanted the ball and went out to grab rebounds at both ends and both earned points from jump shots and free throws. But the Hornet turnover count was massive and they only scored 12 points in the quarter to go into half time 6 points down - and staring a Home defeat in the face from bottom of the table Rossendale.
Sharp words were delivered to the team at half time but the ones that seemed to get through were some soft ones from Tush that said each player had a personal pride to play for. That seemed to do the job as Tush, Guy and John Whelan all started to find their range and Barney and Andy work some good openings inside. The defence was much more intense and the Hornets grabbed the lead back after 4 minutes and never let it slip again.
Rossendale had key players foul out in Q4 and this opened up their defence for Tush in particular to exploit but the whole team played their part in racking up a big score while keeping the defence tight. A 15 point win sounds like a comfortable victory - nothing like it!
Top Scorer: - Tush - 35 points
Best Player: - Andy S - comfortably his best match for the Hornets yet - Rebounds at both ends, well selected jump shots and perfect from the free throw line. Tush - dominant Q4 performance (16 points) many of his offensive rebounds
Best Basket: - Guy draws the defence and slips a great assist for Barney to Dunk
Must Improve: - Giving away silly fouls and jogging back to defend.
