Crucial game against Winchester as it would decide who would top the group. A win would guarantee it but a loss would mean we would be at the mercy of points difference.

A tight first period was dominated by their incredibly static zone which forced us to shoot from outside. Scoring was low as a consequence – 11-10 to Winchester. The second was a replica of the first but we had at least started to draw fouls from them sending us to the foul line 11 times, unfortunately we only made 5. Two late threes saw them extend their lead to 11 at the half.

A change of defence in the third worked and we cut it to 6, but their big guy came alive and punished us in the paint scoring 11 of his 21 in the period. The early fouls and weak bench would be their downfall though as the fourth was a roller-coaster of emotions.

Sam Grant finally made some shots and multiple trips to the foul line cut the lead to 2 with a minute to play. Merry had a three bounce around and eventually not fall. Francis had two free throws to tie , he missed both but Williams got the offensive rebound and put back. Francis then fouled and sent them to the line with 8 seconds left. A miss and a make gave them a 1 point lead. Merry took the inbound and then went coast to coast and got the lay-up to drop on the buzzer. Win!!!

LRD