Returning with belief restored after keeping the EBL League leaders Worthing to a single figure lead with only a few minutes remaining in their away game the previous week, Taunton Tigers started confidently in their Division 1 home game at Wellsprings against Sheffield Arrows last Saturday. Inspired by some determined play by Paul Yabsley and with Joe Saunders coming off the bench to nail two back-to-back long range threes, the visiting Arrows were quivering and found themselves trailing by 8 points within the first 7 mins.
The pressure by the Tigers at both ends of the court continued after the first break. Despite the presence of Sheffield's two big American imports and with Dan Howe demonstrating that his 10 inch height disadvantage didn't matter against the Arrows defence, the smaller ‘all local’ Taunton squad produced some excellent teamwork resulting in a number of great assists and with a few converted fast breaks thrown in for good measure, had stretched their lead to 14 points mid-way through the second quarter.
However, it was only the Arrow's big-man Dustin Bevard that restored some hope for the visitors by getting over the top of the Tigers' defence to help peg the home advantage back to 5 points by half-time.
Following an opening three by Sheffield's Dave Siddall after the break — when nothing seemed to drop for the Tigers, the Arrows came flying back and went on an unanswered 8 point run, enabling them to take the lead for the first time in the game. However, with the home crowd behind them Taunton rallied. MVP Rich Anderson showing the way with some strong offensive moves, enabling the Tigers to regain a slender lead. With no quarter given by either side and with both trading baskets evenly, it was only a Bevard lay-up right on the buzzer that levelled the score at 62 – 62 at the end of the third.
Some fast and furious coast to coast basketball started the last quarter, which saw the Tigers regain a 4 point lead. However, again sparked by a three from Siddall — his fourth, the Arrows gained a key advantage mid-way through the final session with some easy lay-ups due to some uncharacteristic defensive lapses by the home side. This enabled the visitors to sneak-in a decisive 10 – 0 spell to take the lead for only the second time in the game. Baskets were again traded in some fast end-to-end play but with Sheffield then trying to slow the game down and protect their lead, the final couple of minutes saw two of Taunton's key players and Sheffield's three point specialist Siddall all fouled out of the game and the visitors just managing to hang-on to their lead to clinch a 4 point win (80 – 84).
With Tigers' Head Coach Ronnie Heath not on the bench due to work commitments abroad, stand-in Player/Coach Rich Anderson was disappointed with the loss of a game that he felt they could and perhaps should have won. Afterwards he said,
“I felt we did a good job against these guys and despite their big Americans, the stats show we came out on-top in the battle of the boards — a great rebounding achievement. It was only a couple of poor spells that cost us the game, but at this level minor lapses like that will be punished. However, we're improving with every game and so we're optimistic that it's only a matter of time before we secure our first league win at this higher level.”
This weekend the Tigers men will be hoping to redress a 15 point home National Trophy loss to West Anglia Fury when they face a long road trip to Kings Lynn in their next game in Division 1 of the National League. The Tigers senior women host Plymouth Raiders at Wellsprings this Saturday in Round 2 of the National Trophy, tip-off 1.00pm.