Today’s match report is written by Jonathan.

Late December saw our home game at Woking College against one of the toughest teams in the league, the Reading Rockets. Our team consisted of Youssef, Jonathan, Ben, Sean, Julian, Thomas, Jack, and, Temi. Even though Kai was injured, he still came along to support the team.

The game started with Reading scoring first, but we came back quickly with Sean scoring the first basket for the team. Youssef kept up the intensity with a great steal and finish. Julian and Temi were very effective when driving and dishing, scoring some layups from under the basket. The score at the end of the first quarter was Reading with 27 and Woking with 25.

In the second quarter we upped our pressure resulting in a strong run but foul trouble for Temi and Youssef. However, they actually committed no fouls for the rest of the game and still played good defence. Sean did a really good job of getting rebounds and throwing long down-court passes to Jack for the finish. Thomas also helped out a lot by setting screens and being aggressive on rebounds. At the end of the second quarter we had taken the lead with us at 44 points and them at 41.

The third quarter started off a bit rough with them scoring too many easy layups. But, Ben got us back in it when he made a great back-door cut and finish. Jack also helped us by using his jump shot for knocking down close range two’s. Also on defence Sean took the first charge of the season, helping us prevent a basket. At the end of the third Reading was back up 65 to 64.

The final quarter started off with Jack getting a really nice steal in transition. After that, he and Temi drew back-to back charges! The fans got super loud and supportive which really helped our game. Then Sean got a really nice and-1 to bring us up a little bit closer to Readings score. We continued to push the ball and tried to score fast-break layups but it just wasn’t enough for us to get back. So we picked up our first loss of the season 83 to 77 in a magnificent battle that will be told for ages.

There is still everything to play for in the return fixture in January!