With only four fit players taking to the court and Charlie playing with an injured foot, the Under 14 boys knew they had a big game on their hands as they had a Groundhog Day moment in playing the Panthers again after beating them by 4 points last week.
The Panthers started well racing out to a 9-0 lead as Corowa’s shots continued to rim out. Charlie got the side on the board with some free throws which seemed to kick start their game.
With the centre out due to illness the opposition centre was getting away from Corowa due to a lack of height. A switch with Harry Logie onto him seemed to work with Harry keeping him accountable.
Oscar stepped into the defensive role again quelling their best guard and keeping him to 7 points for the game.
The boys kept in touch and were keeping the margin down to 3-5 points before they ran out of gas with the Panthers able to build their lead out to 9-13 points before Corowa reeled it in again.
Will Forrest was on fire and we kept getting the ball to him in offence as he was carving a way through their defence to score a game high 25 points.
Josh Kremmer got a few baskets to drop as well to keep the score ticking over however with no bench and Charlie on the court when his foot injury calmed down.
It wasn’t to be Corowa’s day going down by 13 points. Whilst a loss, this was their best effort game so far this season and the boys should hold their heads high as they fought hard against all the odds and nearly snatched a victory.
Under 16s
Following on from last week’s win the boys worked hard to build an early lead before the Thunder found their rhythm and hit back to level it at 8 all halfway through the first half.
The Thunder shooting guard was causing Corowa issues until the Big Rippa hit the court with an assignment to shut him out of the key.
Rip went to work and started to curb his influence on the game. Corowa’s points production was again strong in the first half with the half time score 22-17. This was followed by some Lach Ireland magic on a fast break knowing he had a teammate with him and being hounded by the opposition palmed a pass to his team mate who scored an easy basket.
Lach did the team thing and made sure Corowa got the score instead of trying to do too much.
Big Maxy was put into centre for the first time this season and did well as Maxy, Snow and Franklin rotated through this position during the game as the opposition centre is a decent player.
Lach did a great move under the basket when confronted by their centre and managed to stop, pivot and get around him with a great move.
Jordie was also moving well and scored his first 3 pointer of the season half way through the 2nd half to maintain a lead. The guys managed to build on their first half lead to close out the game well 45-27 winners.
All the guys played their part well. Pleasingly, Corowa’s defence was a lot harder to break this week after they tightened up on the opposition guard with s work to do on defence, as all teams do, to shut out the better teams.
Great test coming up next week against top of the table Magic.
Corowa are up for the contest and should be a ripping game.
14°C