The Wrap QBL Round 15 Round 15 | Page 9

finally catching his straps as of late. As expected the game started off neck and neck, with both teams showing no sign of weakness. In what seems to have become tradition, Jason Cadee opened our scoring account a mere 25 seconds in the game with one of his patented three point shots, however, we would not score again until the 7:21 mark when Aaron Anderson pulled up on the break to hit one of his signature jump-shots. From there both teams begun to pick up the pace offensively seeing the contributions of nearly everyone at some point in time. Of particular note, Bryce Washington was being very aggressive along with teammate Chris Cedar as they sparked a fight in the Meteors. Also of note was the shooting exhibition which captain Zac Carter displayed hitting two out of his three 3-point attempts in the first quarter of play. Nonetheless, to no-ones surprise the quarter ended with a mere 2-point lead for our Caps boys, the score being 24-22. The second term of the game was a bit more free-flowing than the first, with both teams scoring in a variety of ways and the lead being exchanged repetitively over the course of the 10 minutes. Within these ten minutes, explosive big, Will Magnay, began scoring the ball with both craftiness and force, throwing down a thunderous dunk to give the Caps the lead with 7:34 to go. The backcourt of Anderson and Cadee were too a force to be reckoned with as they begun heating up from all over the court, through a series of lay-ups and jump-shots. For the Meteors, Verle Williams began to play to his usual standard, creating some trouble for our group. However, we were able to weather the storm consistently and took control of the game which was indicated by our halftime lead of 4 points, with the score being 53-49. The second half could be described as a game of runs, as we established a 15-point lead through stellar offence and defence with 3:16 to go in the 3rd period. After a timeout by the Meteors however, the lead was shrunk back down through a short outburst of 3-pointers by the Mackay backcourt. The fourth quarter again was a battle where they managed to get the game back to 4 points with 1:24 to go. This was when the group showed character and rallied one last time in what was an enormous effort to stagnate the Mackay offence and hold on to get the win when the clock sounded for the last time. Notable performances were both Will Magnay and Jason Cadee who had 23 points and 29 points respectively. Jason also contributed by throwing 7 assists while Will was simply dominant on the board, coming up with 17 of them to go along with 7 blocks. Rockhamption It will always be true that Rockhampton is one of the hardest venues to play in the QBL. Having a home crowd who always produce a deafening noise and are faithful to the bone along with their pick of quality players make Rockhampton a fearsome team to verse every season. This encounter could be described as just that. Rockhampton are a very big team, boasting the likes of frontcourt players: AJ Ogilvy, Nelson Kahler and Sean O’Mara to go with a backcourt tandem of Shaun Bruce, James Mitchell. To top it off they also secured the services of Adelaide 36ers development player Jamaal Robateau. If it wasn’t already clear, this was bound to be a dog fight from the very start. Our group was tired from the previous night’s win and fatigue was clear in some of the boys. Nonetheless they dug deep and played to an extremely high standard and came away with the huge win. The game started with us constantly on the back-foot as the Rockets tore us apart due to both fatigue and the energy they harvested from their crowd. A pair of substitutions as opposed to a timeout were called at the 3:37 mark, with the team facing a 13-point deficit early on in the piece. Those substitutions proved to be effective as a combination of Jacob Wilson, Jason Cadee and Will Magnay were destructive with the aid of Nicholas Stoddart and Tim Soong, bringing the deficit to a mere 6 points going into the first break. In the second term of the game, import Aaron Anderson caught fire from 3-point land, making timely shots to keep the game at a reasonable margin before reclaiming the lead with 5:57 left on the clock. From there it was an uphill battle which saw the lead change multiple times and both teams fighting to stay at parity with the latter. That being said with 0:55 left, the boys really took the momentum of the game in their own hands, scoring a quick 5 points and gaining a 57-51 lead. The second half was really where we thought we made a statement, coming out with our stifling defence and making life really tough for the home team. With the momentum generated in the dying seconds of the first half, we rolled the Rockets over with a barrage of 3-pointers and lay-ups which all came at crucial patches in the game. Ultimately this was the final dagger as Rockhampton was placed in a hole they couldn’t climb out of in time, which saw us winning 106-95. The win was a tremendous team effort, which saw 5 players score over 15 points while the next player that touched the court had 8. The boys were ruthlessly efficient throughout the game as demonstrated by the shooting percentages, 48% percent overall and 48% from the 3-pointer. The boys also dished out 26 assists in what was an all-round team game. This win also locked in First Place, which will give us home court advantage for the upcoming playoffs. 9