JMA, 19/11/2011

Having not played since 22 October 2011, everyone was eager to get in to this game.  Ealing were a team we had not played before but we were hopeful we could get a result after our last, close run game against Dagenham.

We lost the tip but, whereas before we might have conceded a basket straight away, it was well in to the second minute before both teams traded a few baskets.  In the fourth minute the game took off with a Jerome inspired offence.  We rebounded cleanly to score and followed this up almost immediately with a superb floating layup by Jerome.  This started a run which resulted in us scoring 14 unanswered points and finishing the quarter 14-8 up.

The break came at the right time for the Phoenicians and they started the second quarter at a sprint – it was only a number of misses from the free throw line which helped the Rockets stem the Phoenicians progress.  It was a relatively low scoring quarter with the Phoenicians starting and finishing stronger whilst the Rockets dominated the mid quarter.  Rockets had to be careful as Ealing clawed back some of our advantage with Rockets maintaining their lead at 25-19.

We moved in to quarter three with both teams starting to ramp up the determination to win.  Rockets managed to pull ahead by 10 points by the 5^th minute but this was clawed back by Ealing as they pushed to close the difference. They defended strongly and denied the Rockets completely for the last 5 minutes of this quarter whilst adding 5 points to their own tally ending the quarter 37-32 to the Rockets.

Nerves were frayed and it was clear that after our excellent start, Ealing had managed to win the second and third quarters and we were only five points ahead.  After our great start, were we going to lose it at the close?  This was one of the most tense final quarters I have seen so far.  The Phoenicians pulled back another four points on us in the first 2 minutes to reduce our lead to just one point.  But in the third minute we started to pull away moving to eight points ahead by the final two minutes.  It was clear that the Phoenicians were not giving up and wave upon wave of attacks hit our defences.  It was testament to our resolve that the Phoenicians had several offensive moves called for exceeding the 24 seconds.  It was great to see the team really get behind the on court players, chanting “Defence” to help them out – more of that please going forward.

Final Score : Reading Rockets 52 v Ealing Phoenicians 42

The support and camaraderie in the team now is paying dividends and it was clear to see that everyone was working hard for each other.  Rebounding continues to improve and competitiveness is increasing.  The team should be proud of closing out the game with a win – this is progress!!

Go on the Rockets!!!!

Team and scorer table: