Learning on the road

… in their 2nd away game of the season. With some key players missing Pride still took a very competitive squad to Oldham, showing the strength of the senior setup is currently. The court offered the first challenge being very long with an unforgiving surface and even less forgiving rims. Familiarity with the facilities certainly helped Oldham get off to a good start with them showing some nice touches to finish from mid range. Pride kicked in though with Paulino Vasquez scoring inside and Josh Fitzpatrick knocking down 2 early 3 pointers to take an early 8-7 lead. Oldham then picked up the pace and a few tough calls sent the consistent fake and drive plays to the line. Andy Thrower opened his scoring account and Calum Munro hit a nice 3 in reply but the 1st quarter ended 26-13.

The second period started with greater intensity by Preston with Tom Lyons providing significant impact from the bench. He forced a stop at one end, got hit hard in the face twice drawing 2 fouls and then scored a nice pump fake basket at the other end, all within the first minute of the quarter. Joel Hunter checked into the game and with Elliot Chew tried to deal with the Oldham pressure in the back court. Having dealt well with the press early on, Preston had a mad minute or so turning the ball over 4 times in a row without a shot taken, offering easy points for a hungry Titans side. Pride finally got the ball inside to Paulino, Andy and Malcolm, all scoring but the quarter ended 23-11 and 49-24 at the half.

Having talked through the issues Pride went into the 3rd quarter in a zone defence and immediately got some stops and momentum back. With some of Titans starting 5 sitting, Preston pushed on with Andy Thrower scoring 3 quick baskets off some nice post interchanges and Nathan Dykes provided some aggressive driving to the bucket and converting from the charity stripe. Paulino then took over the scoring putting in 3 baskets of his own and Pride won the quarter 16-18.

With the game almost done, Pride set some incremental targets to work towards, quickly achieving 50 points and then pushing towards 60. Nathan, Paulino and Josh provided most of the early scoring in the 4th with Tom Lyons getting the latter few points. Possibly summing up the night was a great defensive play of 23 seconds only for a Titan big man to bank in an uncomfortable long 2 as the shot clock expired. Pride would have ended the quarter hitting their target had a couple of calls been made late but ended up narrowly losing the 4th 16-15 and the game 81-57.

It was certainly a game where the team can learn a lot against a good Oldham side who moved the ball around well and made their shots. Well done to Titans, a game that was all part of the development for Pride 2nds.

MVP Paulino for top scoring and providing strength and intensity on both boards.

Paulino Vasquez – 16 pts, 4 fouls
Andy Thrower – 12 points, 3 fouls
Josh Fitzpatrick – 11 points, 1 foul
Nathan Dykes – 6 points, 1 foul
Tom Lyons – 5 points, 0 fouls
Calum Munro – 3 points, 2 fouls
Elliot Chew – 2 points ,2 fouls
Malcolm Kandulu – 2 points, 0 fouls
Joel Hunter – 0 points, 1 foul