Taunton Tigers had a perfect weekend as their trip to the north saw them pick up two wins against sides at opposite ends of the table. On Saturday they shocked Division One leaders Manchester Magic with a 97 – 89 victory (stats), while the following day they won 88 – 70 at Tees Valley Mohawks.
You can watch the full game video here or View it on Vimeo. The match report continues below.
On Sunday Page continued his good form he poured in 37 points as Mohawks were consigned to their sixth straight loss. Rickwood added 15 for the visitors and Andrews ten. Brian McCotter led Mohawks with 23, while Steve Leven hit 12 and Lee McLaughlin 11.
McLoughlin hit a trey to open the game, but Tigers responded to take a five point lead in the third minute and stretch this out to 29 – 16 by the end of a first period, in which Tigers were awarded 20 shots from the line.
The home side came back strongly in the second period to make it a two point ball-game with two minutes to go, before Page took control with three successive treys, but Mohawks top-scorer McCotter responded with a long ranger and drained two from the line making it 47 – 40 at half-time.
At the start of the third period, Tigers showed their determination not to let the game slip away with an 11 – 0 run but Tees Valley were still not finished and reduced Taunton's lead to 67 – 53 at the final break.
Whilst the strain of two hard away games were beginning to tell in the final four led by Yabsley, Tigers held on to close the game out. Kambouris saw the weekend as a stepping stone in Taunton's development in sayin,
“It was a scrappy game. Paul (Douglas) had Tees Valley playing hard. Their energy in the second and third quarters challenged us to increase our intensity and focus. Otherwise we were in for a close game.”
“At half-time we challenged ourselves to win every loose ball and every 50 – 50 rebound. We showed ourselves how much we wanted to take that long ride home with two Wins for the weekend.”