Men’s Basketball – Sussex Cup, round one

The starting five of Gavin Baxter, Geoff Lowe, Anthony Mannall, Baba Osiyemi, and Sam Buckland struggled in the opening minutes as they went 0-8 down. An early timeout allowed Tigers to focus on their team offence which saw them create more open opportunities as Baba Osiyemi scored a mid-range jumper, and a fast break lay-up, and Anthony Mannall nailed a 3 pointer from the top of the key. Osiyemi beat his defender off the dribble to score a tough lay-up and then, on the next offence was fouled while shooting so went to the foul line and hit both free throws. Tigers conceded 4 quick baskets, which saw them introduce Gary Harrison, Ade Mills, Mark Hill and Brodie Barnard into the game. Swifter ball movement allowed Geoff Lowe to find space and hit an open 3 pointer in the right corner and then backed it up with another from 45° on the left. Tigers drew a couple of consecutive fouls from Angmering which saw Ade Mills go the line first and hit one from two, while Lowe hit two from two. Tigers went into the break after the 1st quarter with a narrow 21 – 19.

Angmering started the second quarter strongly and as they went inside to their 2 bigs who out muscled and rebounded the Tigers forwards to gain position close to the hoop. Tigers began to pick up too many silly reaching fouls and quickly conceded the lead to Angmering again. The introduction of Mal Affonso strengthened the Tigers rebounding, but they conceded a few transition baskets before Gary Harrison hit a short range jump shot from the left, and Osiyemi scored an elbow jumper. Angmering held a 10 point lead at the halfway mark 36 – 26.

Tigers switched to a combination man and zone defence for the second half, which initially stopped the first couple of Angmering offences. Geoff Lowe began the second half scoring with another corner 3, and Gavin Baxter tried to push the ball up the court faster as Tigers tried to increase the tempo of the match and seek more fast break points. A high scoring third quarter finished with Tigers 48-62 down.

Tigers extended their defence at the beginning of the fourth quarter with Anthony Mannall picking the Angmering ball handler early and forcing him to the sideline. Great rotation from saw players jumpining into the passing lanes and either stealing or deflecting errant passes which were run back for fast break opportunities. A strong run of baskets from Lowe, Osiyemi, Harrison, and a maiden senior basket for Affonso broght the margin down to 5 points with 2 minutes to play. And while this was the high tempo they home side required, they could not narrow the gap any further in the closing stages as Angmering scored a number of free throws at the end to win the tie 74 – 83.

A very competitive match for their first match of the season, but these teams know each other well as they were the two promoted teams from Division 2 last season and will look forward to meeting each other a couple more times this season.

Quarter Scores (Tigers first) : Q1 21-19, Q2 5-17, Q3 22-26, Q4 26-21, = 74-83

Scorers: Baba Osiyemi 31 (13 x 2s, 5 x FTs), Geoff Lowe 27 (5 x 3s, 1 x 2, 10 x FTs), Gary Harrison 6 (3 x 2s), Anthony Mannall 5 (1 x 3, 1 x 2), Mark Hill 2 (1 x 2), Mal Affonso 2 (1 x 2), Ade Mills 1 (1 x FT).

South East Tigers next home match is against East Grinstead Flyers at Battle Sports Centre on Wednesday 20th November at 8.00pm