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.
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