Heart-wrenching one-point loss after incredible first quarter

The way we started this game, with such perfection and intensity, should have buried the game in the first ten minutes. By the time Nathaniel had hit his buzzer beater, teed up by Diddy, at the end of the first we were twenty points ahead and had deemed Langley's offence blunt, allowing just a single field goal. It actually took around 4 minutes of intense play from both sides to break the scoring open at all, but once it did we scored in all sorts of ways, from deep; on the fast break; through shifting their defence around. Exactly the identity we want this team to be known for: fast and aggressive.

However, inexplicably, the near perfect way we looked after the ball went completely ary in the second quarter. We began to turn the ball over at an awful rate. In fact an astounding 15 times in the quarter! We still took a comfortable lead into the half but the feel of the game had changed, the opposition had been given hope and we were trying to stay calm and correct our mistakes. It became harder to keep the mood positive as Langley continued to claw themselves back in the third, increasingly finding joy and easy points of the boards.

It was only once the scores tied at 43-all, halfway through the 4th quarter, that we could almost accept that the lead had been thrown away and that we had to try and win it all again. Unfortunately it coincided with a period of ice-cold shooting from deep. Players were missing multiple shots that they would normally knock down with ease, while frustratingly, their point guard began to show a shooting touch he'd kept well hidden all game! Harry, Lincoln and Tom Cookson continued to find ways to score inside and get to the line to keep the scoreboard ticking over while we waited for these open shots to drop. Devastatingly, they never did and we were left with a horrible feeling of having thrown away a game that we so desperately needed to win. We'll keep working.

Top scorers: Nathaniel 11, Ewan 11, Diddy 10, Pauli 8
Rebounds: Pauli 11, Ewan 11, Linc 6, Nathaniel 6
Assists: Lincoln 9, Diddy 5