Yorkshire Dragons rocked up at the Essex Sports Arena short benched. Just make sure that no one gets fouled out of the game, right? The tactics were clear for the men from Coach Hart: draw the fouls, pick them off, one at a time…
The 31-22 scoreline at the end of the first quarter sounds like a half decent game. In truth, it was a little flat. A lot of the Sunday evening family crowd had disappeared, with the first working day of the new year about to bash you on the head.
Dragons managed a decent comeback in the second, with Rebels taking a slender 48-43 lead into the HT buzzer. Mr DJ dropped some classic De La Soul during the break. I’m still grinning, tbh. Woh. That sounded fresh coming over the Arena PA.
Somehow the Rebs found themselves locked into a one point game. Miles ‘Chef’ (he’s cooking…) Brown carried the Rebels with some BIG three pointers, as well as keeping his cool under the free throw line. Tyrese Hudson had his best game in a Rebs jersey for some time.
The scoreboard was showing the Rebs leading 81-79 going into the final quarter. I didn’t quite follow the exact gameplay, but some dark arts on the court led to two Dragons players being fouled out of the game. Given that they only travelled with a bench of seven, this was a little unfortunate.
The away team had to play the final five minutes or so with no subs. Rebs read the situation well, playing out the remainder of the game at tremendous pace, tiring out the opposition, whilst making regular substitution themselves.
The final score of 104-92 in favour of the Rebs was a masterclass in coaching. There was a little friction on the home bench at one stage, but I think we got there in the end.
