It was always going to be tough for the visitors with home side Taunton starting as hot favourites and this showed in the opening minutes as the Tigers roared away to a 12 – 0 lead before the Jets got on the scoreboard from the free throw line. Tigers' superiority was only really challenged by Glosters' hard working captain Christensen and guard Bower. The latter showing his shooting potential by doubling the Jets score with the first of his 5 threes of the game just before the end of the quarter.
You can watch the full game video here or View it on Vimeo. The match report continues below.
Despite Bower knocking down another from long range early in the second, Tigers responded and stretched their lead with another unanswered run, kick-started by three back to back 3 pointers from Tim Clifford. The half finishing with Taunton well in command and leading 51 – 17.
The third period saw Tigers forego several ‘open’ opportunities as their Head Coach was wanting to fine tune & play-out some offensive moves and the sharper Tigers displayed some unselfish team-work. Lead by Yabsley with 5 assists & 6 steals as well as 17 points in the game, the score differential continued to rise despite Bower knocking-down another couple of long-rangers for Gloster.
The third period saw Tigers forego several open opportunities as their Head Coach wanted to fine tune and practice some offensive moves and the sharper Tigers displayed some unselfish team-work. Led by Yabsley with 5 assists and 6 steals as well as 17 points in the game, the score differential continued to rise despite Bower knocking down another couple of long rangers for Gloster.
A further home run which started at the end of the third and continued into the final quarter, added another 18 points without reply from the visitors and lead to a comfortable 60 point win for Tigers, 93 – 33.
After the game Tigers' Head Coach Kambouris stated,
“We made a point to create game objectives that had nothing to do with the score of this game. We achieved the objective of executing our game plan on the offensive end. So much so, in fact, that we passed up too many open shots to achieve our goals. This was more a by product of my over emphasizing our strict execution.”
“We set a turnover goal that we did not meet. Our rigid offensive goals led to trying to force things instead of taking what was being given to us. Again, this is more my fault than that of our players. Turnovers continue to be a problem for us. We are actively exploring solutions, but as yet haven't made the progress that we will need to make to be competitive in the regular season.”