Coming off a solid performance last Sunday against the Pumas, Jags headed to the beach to take on the Police. Jags were hoping to take last weeks positives into the game and get their first win. Straight away, the Jags confidence was shown on the court. The Jags zone forced the Police into taking many rushed shots and rushed passes. The turnovers of the Police gave the Jags a lot more offensive possessions. A deep three from Fergus really got the Jags going offensively. The driving to the rim of Jack gave Police a lot to deal. Excellent rebounding on both ends by Kieran and Shaun saw Jags dominate the boards. A poor last few minutes for Jags saw them down 21-17 at the end of the first.
At the start of the second quarter, Jags struggled to deal with the energy and fast break offence of Police’s point guard. The first few minutes of the quarter was disastrous for Jags. Once again, Cyrus came off the bench to great effect as his hustle on offence saw Jags get lots of close range shots. Police stretched their lead out to 14 which disheartened Jags, but a bank three from Ross, and a mid range shot from Matty with 2 seconds left, saw Jags go into half time down 9.
As usual, Jags came out strong in the second half. Switching to man marking saw Kieran shut down the Police’s main attacking threat. On offence, Jags hit 5 threes in the quarter which included 2 each for Fergus and Jack. Jack took control of the game as his driving saw Police get in foul trouble. Jack converted free throws which saw Jags get back in the game.
Going into the fourth, Jags were down by 6. Matthew worked extremely hard to create open shots for himself and his teammates but the shots just weren’t falling. Half way through the fourth and still down by 6, Shaun was fouled out and Jags began to box out poorly which saw them down by 13. Despite this, a spirited Jags team didn’t let this bother them and they took the game back to within 6. Jags opted to drive and kick for threes which worked as Fergus and Jack hit threes to give Jags hope but with only 1 minute left it was simply too little, too late.
A special mention to Wendy Hepburn who was the assistant coach for the very first time tonight in the league. Her coaching kept the team calm and her positivity was vital to Jags staying in the game right until the last few minutes.
FINAL SCORE POLICE 70-59 JAGS
Jags Top Scorers:
Jack Ricci – 25
Shaun Heer – 12
Fergus Cran – 12
