A depleted Taunton Tigers Men's team lost a nail biter away against North East Wales Nets last week finally going down 80 – 71. With 25 seconds to go Taunton were down only 2 points and with possession of the ball. The inexperienced line-up turned the ball over taking early risks and finished 9 points down trying to chase the game.
The game was tight right from the start with the Teams exchanging baskets early on. Bird (15 points), Saunders (14 points) and Howe (9 points) in the same side ensured that Taunton were not sure of fire power but it did leave the Tigers with a soft belly defensively. By the half the Nets had opened up a 46 – 38 lead with Tigers hanging on to shirt-tails.
With long term injuries and illness rife amongst the squad even Coach Ronnie Heath was forced to ‘Kit-up’ to ensure Taunton could field the minimum 8 players on the score sheet. In the absence of Jones and Andrews, Mat Nolan former skipper stepped in to captain the side. Nolan did a great job rousing the young line-up and produced an MVP performance personally keeping the Tigers in the hunt.
Andersons Rich (12 points) and Kev (10 points) were providing some inside presence for Tigers whilst Mike Sebire continued to bang inside playing out of position once again. Heath employed a jump defence in the second half to counter the best players from the Nets and this allowed the Tigers to chip away at the lead before falling short right at the end.
Heath was disappointed but immediately looked towards the Liverpool home game this weekend,
“We will have our biggest crowd of the season and I know it will give the players an enormous boost at a difficult time. We hope to have a couple of key players off the sick list and a win against the Liverpool would bring back that early season confidence.”