BASINGSTOKE Blizzards basketball team won a league thriller after being knocked out of the Karl Taylor Cup the previous day.
Both games were on the road and, in the exciting league encounter, the Hampshire side travelled to Slough to take on the Slough Scorpions, writes Marcel Mavronicholas.
Both teams came out of the blocks quickly, with Adam Paddon answering Slough’s opening shot with a three pointer of his own – the level start 5-5.
From there the Blizzards struggled and found themselves 23-8 down at the first buzzer.
Into the second quarter Rob Gerrard came on for the Basingstoke team and helped them score 12 unanswered points to make it 31-26 at half-time.
The third quarter commenced with an unwell Gerrard on the bench. Aaron Taylorson kept the Blizzards in the game but they still trailed by five before Gerrard returned to the action with two quick baskets.
Richardson then tied the scores 37-37 all, but the Scorpions hit a three pointer on the buzzer to take that advantage into the final quarter.
Slough kept the lead, hitting two threes, but that was immediately countered by Joey Haynes’ two on the spin to make it 48-46.
Then the Blizzards upped the pace, playing their three two zone defence more aggressively.
This saw the visiting side’s Jim Darlow, Haynes and Gerrard all make steals for another impressive 12-0 spell, which gave them the lead 59-51 going into the last minute.
Even with two three pointers the home side’s response was not enough as the final score of 60-57 maintained the Blizzards’ promotion push.
On the previous night the Basingstoke side travelled to Crowthorne for a cup game against the Aztec Jaguars – and again they failed to beat the league leaders.
However, this was with a weakened side – accentuated by injuries to Simon Wyatt and Tom Mavronicholas.
Things did not start too badly and they were only down by one point after the first quarter and still in touch at 29-25 at half-time.
Then, at the start of the third quarter, the Jaguars played a full court press and the Blizzards were unable to break it and fell further back at 47-31.
A late rally in the last quarter saw them reduce the margin with a quick 10 points, but it was all in vain as they lost 47-40.
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