2nd Game: vs Saints

Ok, so this game was a late one, starting at 10:10pm. I received an sms from Devo around 4:30 that afternoon informing me that he couldn't play that night, so we would end up with 5 players. I went and picked up the top incase we got six players.

Well Dave and me were the first to arrive, and as we went past the opposition bench, I noticed the same guy that played on Monday night for Celtic against Focus Knights. He was to play for Saints in this match. Normally his attitude bugs me, so I was a little worried about how it may affect the game.

About 4 minutes into the game, Dave took a shot and landed partly on an opponents shoe which resulted in him rolling his ankle, and therefore took no further part in the game. Hopefully the damage isn't to bad. From that point on for the first half we played with just four players, Tim, Simbo, Harbs and myself. The halftime score was 7 to 41, with 7 team fouls. Tim actually picked up his 5th foul at the end of the half. The other team were nice about it and allowed Tim to continue to play the rest of the game.

This player I was talking about earlier appologised for what happened after the game on Monday night about the clock. That was good to see and hear, as I guess I never thought that he would.

Dave's girlfriend came during the first half to pick him up, and while they were on the sidelines, one of the Saints players decided to make a pass across the court in their direction. It wasn't a good pass as there was noone there to stop the ball and it ended up hitting her in the face. Ouch!! That was nasty.

The second half of the match Buzz, who was scoring for us, came on and played wearing jeans. Normally you have to wear shorts, but the result wasn't in doubt. I could mention the final scoreline, but it doesn't matter. For much of the second half the other team weren't really taking the game to seriously, and let us do almost whatever we wanted. Buzz spent much of the time in our attacking half, and scored after taking 3 or 4 shots, with each time the Saints player rebounding the ball and giving it back to him. After taking several shot attempts include a few 3ptrs, I eventually made a basket in the key. Simbo, Tim and Harbs each made a few shots, with our total score being 21. We lost by heaps, but it wasn't the worst game I have been involved in.

In terms of a score line, a few years ago when we played in 'C' grade we had a match vs the top team. For that game only Trav and myself were the only regular players for the team, we found another 5 players for fillins, but none had the fitness or skill level to compete with our opponents. Needless to say Trav and myself also lacked the fitness and skill for the grade. Anyway that game we failed to score a single point. Trav and a couple of free throw attempts, but that was the closest we got. The team was Beavers, and they were on top of the ladder at the time. They were up like 40 to zero and decided that they would play full court press on us.. Now that just isn't very sporting is it. They ended up with 110 points for the game.

Next week our game is on Wednesday at 10:10pm.

Focus Knights

I've decided that i'll also do a short review of the Focus Knights Basketball team, the players include Lindsay, Adam, Scott, Russ, Hayden, Troy, Terry, and Chris. Eight players is alot to have on your roster, but it does allow for some players not being able to play every game. It does, however sometimes mean that players might not be committed enough and result in only having four players turn up occassionally.

In part this basketball team used to be the Yorkie Yabberring Yobbos, starting off with some players from York St COC before most left for various reasons. Now only a couple attend York St.

Anyway, last monday night they played against Celtic Tigers, and led for most of the game, and at some parts were up by 15 points. The second half saw the Knight pick up 12 team fouls compared to Celtic getting 3 fouls. This meant that in the last minute, the Celtic players went to the free throw line. This allowed them to close the margin from 11 points down to 4 points at the end of the game. One of the Celtic players told me that I should wait for the ball to be in play before restarting the clock. There was about 3 seconds left on the clock when I apparently started it to soon. I thought the ball was in play. Wouldn't have changed the result anyway. That same guy I've played against in the social grades before, and he appears to be very cocky on the court. He usually scores alot of points for Celtic with a few 3ptrs during the game.

Celtic have a big guy who plays center, but really didn't score as many as he should have, seem to miss several close in shots. The final score was 43 to 39. And means the Focus Knights are in the top half of the ladder now.

1st Game: vs Kings

These guys we have played against a few times in the past. They have some players that play at least in B grade. They also can be a little arrogant at times, and show off a fair bit.

Anyway, with Dave playing the Indoor Cricket pre liminary final, we had six players for this match. Our lineup was Tim, Simbo, Andy, Will, Devo, and Drew.

Having not played basketball since last year, most of us took awhile to get back into it all. Andy was the only one who had been playing regularly. He has been playing on a team with Dave for Sovereign Knights. Tim managed to get 3 fouls within the first 7 minutes of the match, so after that he had to pull back abit with his defence, as in this competition a played is fouled out on their 5th foul. He managed to make it through the game collecting just one more foul.

Our subs worked out pretty well, with everyone getting a rest when they needed it. This tried to keep us fresh. This is meant to be for fun, but the opposition zap the fun away a bit. Andy is good at running the floor, which is sorta what Watson did for us last year. We won the ball from the tip, but couldn't use it well enough to score first, in fact we were 9 points down before we scored. Andy made our first points for the match with a layup. Simbo scored a basket inside the key late in the first half. We went to the half time break down 23 to 4. Our second half saw some better defense and strategies used. Will made a 3ptr early in the half. Simbo had a few more chances at scoring inside and made 1 more basket. Tim scored on the drive into the lane. Will also scored inside. My efforts were all for naught, I took a few shots that I probably shouldn't have, a few of my passes were nowhere near a teammate. One pass I did make to Tim, I bounced the ball between my own legs, and possibly through an opponents legs, and luckily Tim was there to pick up the ball.

Hopefully we do a bit better next week. Don't know what time the game is yet. The final score for this game was 13 to 36.

The New Potatos

Ok, so after not entering a team last season, myself and Dave decided that we'd like to play in the social competition. I asked some of the people who played for my team last year. Tim, Simbo, Devo, and Will said they'd play. Although Will might not play every week, due to possibly starting Volleyball in a couple of weeks. Tim asked another guy from BAF, Andy. There was also another guy that was going to play, but can't due to a back injury. At the moment we have 7 players listed on the team. There is another guy from BAF that I think wants to play also, but couldn't this week.

We are still missing one of the basketball tops (#4) that we used last year.