Having secured a place in the Division 1 Play-offs the previous week, Taunton Tigers were looking to consolidate that position and bid for a home draw in their double header games last weekend. They did so in no uncertain style with a pair of emphatic wins by scoring over a hundred points in each game.
You can watch the full game video here or View it on Vimeo. The match report continues below.
Thanks to some outstanding long-range shooting, Tigers posted both their highest score and their largest win of the season at Wellsprings on Saturday.
In the end this was an extremely comfortable victory, but Taunton were made to work hard in the early stages. The visitors from the North East had travelled with only 6 players and, so, were always likely to tire later in the game. But for the first quarter and a half they defended fiercely and denied the home side easy looks at the basket. This meant that Taunton had to take shots from distance but they just didn't fall regularly enough and Tees Valley were able to stay in the game. A few minutes into the second quarter Tigers held just a slender 27 – 25 lead.
Taunton's Tim Clifford then ignited his side's offensive effort with two 3-pointers and a 2 from just inside the arc. With scores also coming from Chris Page and Simon Kearney, Tigers were suddenly 16 points up and the pressure was off. Jordan Seeley finished the half with long, long buzzer-beating 3 to make the score 50 – 34.
At the beginning of the second half, Kearney treated the home crowd to a fantastic display of 3-point shooting which took the game completely out of Mohawks' reach. Tigers repeatedly passed the ball with excellent pace, patience and precision to give Kearney open shots and he delivered finish 6 times in a row. The 7th just rimmed out, but he recovered his own rebound and scored the 2. He took a rest after 7 minutes of the highest quality basketball, having scored 20 points in the quarter and helping to make the score 76 – 49. If Tees Valley hoped that would be the end of the onslaught, they were to be disappointed, as Joe Andrews carried on where Kearney had left off and hit four 3-pointers.
Taunton secured a resounding win having been successful with a massive 18 triples (which is possibly a club record) and with 10 players on the score sheet. Head Coach, Tom Kambouris, was pleased with the win but still believes that there is more to come from his squad:
“I felt for Dougie (Coach Paul Douglas) limited to travelling with only 6 players. Sometimes when you see that, it can be a big let-down for the home team and their supporters. Overall, the result was what we wanted, but we are still struggling to achieve some of our offensive objectives. However, we all understand it is not a process that happens overnight, but patiently achieved over a period of time with a lot of hard work.”