The second game in the Essex Rebels' double header at Our House on Saturday evening saw Loughborough Riders rocking up at the Essex Sports Arena.
Also present were two ex-Rebels coaches in the building, as well as new Head Coach Josh Perkins.
It was great to see Ross Norfolk doing his snapper duties, as well as Jordan Ashley on the officials' bench, keeping order with everything taking place on centre court.
Both ex-coaches are always welcome. Ross managed to steer the club through a very difficult time during his period in charge.
Only last week Jordan Ashley was leading the men’s Div One team to a fantastic home court win against Newcastle. It would be good to see him back one day coaching the Div One men.
Loughborough Riders weren’t quite as exciting. They took to the court wearing their dull grey kit - think Man United away at Southampton vibes back in the day.
It didn’t help that one of their players insisted on wearing the most ridiculously long pair of shorts. They were basically down to his ankles. He looked a bit of a dick, to be honest.
The two teams came out. Home hero Tyrese Hudson was clearly pumped up for this.
Also impressing was Kyron Martin, who sunk a couple of massive three pointers, leading to the first time out in the game being called by the Riders.
Still filing into the arena was a steady procession of student latecomers. Never change.
A hard fought first quarter led to the Rebels taking a 29-16 lead into the second. I didn’t keep track of how many points Tyrese Hudson struck up but he was working hard under the basket with his rebounds and making them sink.
A bit of house business then took place with some messages on the big screen for the students. We were surprised to see Fresher’s Fortnight being plugged. Hang on, FORTNIGHT? When do they actually start studying?
The action returned in what was always going to be a high scoring game. Both teams were resilient out there, taking no prisoners in both offence and defence.
The Kiss Cam then appeared on the big screen. This was my cue to go for a brief toilet break.
MWAHHHH
Rebels were always ahead but they just couldn’t quite get enough space between them and their visitors. A well executed set piece three pointer right on the buzzer allowed Riders to trail by only 7 points at the halftime break.
The third period was incredibly strong for the Riders. They could see this game was far from gone. SHOUT OUT to the dude sitting in front of us who insisted on playing FIFA on his phone throughout the whole game.
Rebels took a 76-63 lead into the fourth. Riders had to be praised for pushing it but Rebels even more so for not allowing them to catch level.
Then we come to the fourth quarter. Oh boy, where to start?
Basketball is a physical game. You don’t see the petulance often on show in professional football, and there’s none of the fisticuffs associated with sports like ice hockey. But it still is pretty intense out there, with plenty of rough and tumble.
There was clearly some beef between Tyrese Hudson and one of the Riders players. I have no idea if there’s any backstory to this.
What can be politely described as a friendly tussle led to the Riders player being tripped by Tyrese, and then around ten seconds later, both were squaring up after a separate incident, eyeball to eyeball.
Oh dear.
There was something of a minor bench clearance. Three Rebs players left the bench to stand up for their teammate. I actually quite like this even if the basketball laws of the game might disagree.
What then followed was endless deliberation by the referee. This went on longer than any usual VAR crap in the Premier League. Almost ten minutes passed before the judgement came.
The outcome was two Rebs players being ejected from the game and somehow Riders having an incredible six free throws from the line.
WTF?
Five of these were sunk with ease. Fair play to the dude but he kept his cool and did the business, taking Riders level with the Rebs. We were heading into overtime with the scores at 90-all.
There was only one way this game was going to go. The Rebs were clearly rankled by the scuffles and then the bench clearance. The six free throws were just taking the piss.
Riders time managed the game extremely well, took their shots, went ahead, and then killed it off.
A final score of Loughborough Riders 101, Essex Rebels 99 seemed a little unfair.