Having picked up their first league win of the season the previous week, Taunton Tigers made it two in a row with this convincing performance against Guernsey. Both teams struggled to get their offences going in the first quarter, and it ended with a remarkably low score of 6 – 9 in Tigers' favour. Each side took 16 shots from the field with Taunton making just 4 and Guernsey only 3.
Things had to improve in the second quarter and, fortunately, it was the away side which made a move in the last four minutes of the half. With the scoreboard reading 17 – 19, Tigers went on a 10 – 2 run. Tad Gray kicked things off with the aid of a Mike Sebire offensive rebound, Alistair Bird followed up with a shot from outside the arc, and then George Scarborough, Sebire and Bird all punished the home side with free-throws. In the context of a low-scoring match, 19 – 29 was a handy advantage to take into the locker room.
Early in the second half Guernsey pulled back to within 5 points, but Taunton held their nerve and slowly rebuilt the lead. 5 points from Kev Anderson (who led the Tigers' scoring in the game with 14 points, and was successful with 5 of 5 shots from the free-throw line) capped a 4 – 13 run which effectively saw off the home side's challenge.
Taunton's defence was dominant in the final quarter, restricting Guernsey to just 1 point in the first 4 minutes of the period and ensuring that there would be no panic in the final stages of the contest. At the other end of the court, Anderson, Scarborough, Joe Saunders, Adam Rickwood, Rich Nelsey and Scott Speed piled on the points to close the game out.
Coach Gary Carter was pleased by the signs of improvement that his side is showing,
“The game never really got going and, as a team, we could never really get into a consistent flow. We know that there were too many missed opportunities on offence, but it's great to see that, defensively, we're becoming a much stronger team. That enabled us to get another win under our belts heading into the game against Gloster who had a fantastic result against Chichester.”