Spires beaten but Weymouth Tropics lose to Storm (From Dorset Echo)

Spires beaten but Weymouth Tropics lose to Storm

3:30pm Tuesday 19th February 2013 in Sport By Echo Reporter

Weymouth Tropics 34 Salisbury Spires 32

Weymouth Tropics 27 Dorset Storm B 32

THE Weymouth Tropics travelled to Poole for their third match up of the season against Dorset Storm and the Salisbury Spires in the hunt for the league title.

The first game was against the Spires, a side which the young and athletic Weymouth team felt confident taking on after a narrow loss in their previous game against the Salisbury side.

The match started with Weymouth attacking the basket aggressively and getting lay-ups from Jake Kinder and Josh Westlake.

With Weymouth playing at a high tempo they quickly established a double digit lead, allowing some of Weymouth’s more experienced players to take a rest with coach Alex Fuhrmann ensuring the entire squad had a run out.

The second half didn’t lack the intensity of the first as the Tropics found fast break scores from Taine Mackay, Matt Clarke-Williams and some particularly strong rebounding from Scott White.

Despite the Spires closing the gap to within a single basket, Weymouth refused to give up their lead, holding out for a 34-32 win. The second game looked to be more challenging against the Dorset Storm as they had also just beaten the Tropics side in their previous game by a greater margin.

This was the game everyone had been waiting for and both teams seemed fired up.

Weymouth came out with the same intensity they had shown in the previous game but the Storm side was fully prepared.

Despite their diligence, Weymouth struggled to find the basket and with Storm converting on easy fast break lay-ups they got out to a quick six- point lead in the second quarter.

Once Weymouth had settled down and started to play their game they found gaps in the opposing defence with scores coming from Kinder. With only one quarter left and still trying to fight their way back into the game, Weymouth went with their strongest five to bring home victory.

The lead was quickly cut down to three after an impressive basket from Clarke-Williams. Unfortunately, the Storm were too strong, gripping their lead and closing the game out to win 32-27.

Fuhrmann was pleased with the Tropics’ performance despite a narrow loss in the last game. He said: “We were unfortunate not to win both games.

“I think if we had played better earlier on in the second game we wouldn’t have been chasing the lead for the rest of the game.

“Despite the loss we still had a convincing win against Salisbury and showed that we’re not a walk over.”

Tropics: Jake Kinder, Josh Westlake, Taine Mackay, Josh Purslow, Joseph Heffell, Matt Clarke-Williams, Joe Stickley, Jerry Thompson, Scott White