It was a difficult weekend for Taunton Tigers ahead of the run-in to the play-off places of National Division 1. A road trip against 2nd place Reading Rockets and 4th place London Leopards was always going to be full of challenges and Taunton struggled for big periods.
A 31 point loss to Reading could easily be viewed as a par performance. Both teams have enjoyed improved results in the New Year and the Rockets, newly crowned national Trophy winners, demonstrated that the significant gap between the teams still existed.
Taunton played well for long periods and at times played some of their best basketball against one of the most fearful and organised defences in the game. Tigers moved the ball well and a spread of points showed their willingness and ability to move the ball.
The shooting maps also showed that the smaller Taunton had done a much better job of reducing inside opportunities for Readings' big men. This left space for the Rockets outside shooters though and American Harper (19 Points) with 5 three-point scores took full advantage alongside David Watts (21 Points) and Richard Wellings (16 Points).
Richard Anderson (17 Points), Joe Andrews (14 Points) and Paul Yabsley (13 Points) led the scoring for Taunton with the final score 106 – 75.
The performance had Team Manager Paul Carter positive ahead of the following days ’battle of the big cats‘ against London Leopards.
“We can go and win at Leopards if we can play like that again. Reading have too much for us right now but we are showing we can compete against anyone outside the top-two.”
It was a tired and lack lustre performance that followed however on Sunday. Leopards imposed themselves on the game right from the start, aware that a win was essential to retain the 4th spot and home draw for the play-offs. An angry exchange between the two coaches Ronnie Heath (Tigers) and Jon Burnell (Leopards) after only 4 minutes provided clear evidence of how important the game was to both clubs. The coaches both received a technical foul and a caution.
The South-East team's impressive history had been blighted by a loss to Taunton in the National Trophy and so following a narrow 101-96 win in their next encounter the Leopards were not going to make the mistake of underestimating the Tigers. Carl Latham-Henry asked some difficult questions from the guard spot and he was supported well by a strong inside presence and the outside shooting of Gareth Laws (22 Points) and Sam Salter (18 Points).
The final score-line of 87 – 54 to the Leopards was a fair reflection of game with the home team controlling the game form start to finish.
Heath was very disappointed with one of the weaker performances of the season but promised to get things right for the play-off decider at home to Coventry (103 – 55 winners against West Anglia) after this weekends break from fixtures.
“We got the whole of Sunday and our approach to the game totally wrong. We simply were not individually or collectively mentally prepared. As Head Coach I have to ultimately take responsibility for that. Trust me we will have put things right by the time Coventry arrive.”