Posted on January 9th, 2014

Blackburn Phoenix 3 vs. West Craven Turbines

The Turbines Mens team was back in action after the Christmas break with a game against the third and final Blackburn Phoenix side competing in the Hyndburn league. The opposition were Blackburn’s first team and therefore their strongest team which meant that Turbines had to provide a better performance than their own against the less advanced Blackburn teams 1 and 2. Turbines had eight players for this fixture and were very much changed. Big forwards Pete Marshall and Oliver Hylands were both out due to injury and Player/Coach Renko Ireton was unavailable due to other coaching duties. However, despite the injuries Turbines were able to bring back experienced guard John Coats and forward Jake Dawson back from University.

The game started out evenly matched with both teams putting in a slow but steady performance and with each team collecting well taken field goals. Forward Raul Gonzalez was keen to get on the score sheet early on as was Pete Robinson, Jake Dawson, Phil Smith and Dan Widdup. This ended the first quarter 13-16 with Phoenix taking the lead.

The second quarter brought in Ben Capps and John Coates who also made an immediate impact on the game with Coates providing some well taken baseline jump shots and Capps providing some decent assists for big men Gonzalez and Widdup. The second quarter saw some of Turbines practical ability on the offence with two of their best plays of the night. First came towards the end of the second quarter with Smith faking his man on the high wing and taking it round to score a deep two and receive a foul for the three point play. The second play came when Capps had received the ball at the top of the wing and handed to ball off to Coates on the near right side, this then brought Robinson to set Capps the high screen as Capps then took the passing lane where Coates fed him the easy ball with Capps scoring the layup. Also some great efforts came on the defensive end with blocks from Dawson, Coates and Robinson. However, Phoenix remained on top with a six point lead with the score at 27-33. 

The third quarter came and the Turbines began to fast break and drive at the opposition. Turbines managed to start collecting fouls and cause Phoenix to force a technical foul but with numerous free throw attempts Robinson could not convert. However, the game remained even and although at times the Turbines managed to narrow the gap between the leaders, Blackburn Phoenix would still maintain their six point lead.

The fourth quarter saw Turbines become tired and accompanied with a loss of concentration on defence and allowed Blackburn to score a lot from transition. Although Blackburn received another technical foul the free throws became ineffective and the game was taken away from Turbines. This allowed rookie Bradshaw to get some good minutes on court and collect defensive rebounds against players that have played at a high standard of basketball. Phoenix had managed to restrict Turbines to just 5 points in the fourth quarter and leave the game at 66-36.

It was good all-round performance from the team just after the Christmas break despite Turbines missing key players. The scoring tally lacked in individual efforts, however, it was distributed equally throughout players showing a good team performance. The MVP goes to Gonzalez for his rebounding dominance and his well taken moves in the centre of the offence. A good effort from Coates and Dawson showed their presence on court is very valuable when available. All scorers Robinson 8, Widdup 7, Gonzalez and Coats 6, Dawson 4, Smith 3 and Capps 2.

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