Desperate for their first league win of the season in front of a massive home support, Tigers just failed to find a win against the Mohawks of Middlesbrough. Taunton showed patches of their best form, but their performance was littered with individual errors. As Head Coach Ronnie Heath explained afterwards possessions is the name of the game.
“Defensively we were excellent for most of the game, but we gave them more second shots (through rebounds) than I can ever remember. Even more significantly we turned the ball over 28 times through largely unforced errors and a lack of patience and that simply won't get the job done at this level.”
“I can't knock the players' effort and ability to keep going but our confidence is low right now and getting the players believing in themselves again will be our biggest task this week. It doesn't get any harder than an away fixture against Reading this Saturday and what follows is a must win against Cardiff on Sunday.”
Tees Valley started the brightest with American Morley (19 points) getting to hoop and scoring from the foul-line. Veteran Jones was rolling back the years down the other end though scoring 6 of Tigers first 10 points inside the paint.
Heath with the ability to rotate all 12 players, it appeared Taunton had the edge at the end of each quarter as Tees Valley tired. Small runs at the end of the 1st and 2nd quarters gave Tigers a 40 – 37 lead going into the half-time break.
It is in difficult times that luck often deserts you and a dislocated toe to Joe Andrews early in the second half was exactly what Taunton didn't need. Andrews already with 10 points was arguably Tigers best player but his replacement Joe Saunders finished with 15 points of his own and a typical long range 3-point bomb at the end of the 3rd set up a thrilling finale with the scores tied at 57 – 57.
MVP Jordan Seeley stole the ball late in the 4th with Taunton down by 2 and took the ball strong to basket against Morley. When there was a clash of bodies everyone assumed Morley would pick up his 5th foul and leave the game but instead an offensive foul was called against Seeley.
Taunton was forced to stop the clock down the stretch but the Mohawks finished with 8 from 8 in the last minute to close out the game.
Taunton will need a win against Cardiff this Sunday at home to lift them off the bottom of the table. The last game against the 2 teams finished with a 1 point win for the Tigers so the Wellsprings crowd can expect another nail-biter.