Coming into the second half of the season, the Hawks were determined to bounce back off the first half’s disappointing start. Our 11th game was on the road against London pulse and the players set out on a high, with hawks leading in the first 5 minutes of the game with shots from Cameron Mcintosh, Mubbasher Niaz and Jack Aylott. Unfortunately due to defensive errors and the opposition starting to show off why they are now second, they went on a 14-0 run through a series of fast breaks. The quarter ended off with a score line of 28-11.
The second quarter started off with Pulse committing to several drives to our basket with them scoring 4 consecutive baskets. Hawks then started to step up to the game finding a new rhythm with players such as Josh Haddow and Jack Aylott ploughing through the oppositions defence to gain vital free throws for the team that they could not put away but it was a sign of the game turning around. As well as this, Josh Haddow showed no respect to the opposition after dunking over the top of their number 9!The half ended 51-23, reducing Pulse’s score by 6 and improving ours by 8 making the game 14 points closer than the first game which was a positive to look to.
After the half time break the players had time to refresh and talk tactics with the coach and went out with an attitude to play good basketball but also have fun. This quarter the competition was fierce. Josh scored 10 of the Hawks 16 points, 6 of them being 3 pointers, with Jack, Jakub and Mubbasher picking up the other 6. The quarter closed 20-16 making the game score 71-39.
The final quarter ended 22-17 with shots from Karim, Jacob, Jakub and Josh (further proving that he can be a big man shooting threes). In an unfortunate loss the Hawks tried their hardest to turn things around but did not succeed, however the morale of the team was high especially as they all enjoyed playing in this game and will take this attitude to the next against NASSA.
Written By: Jacob Juniper
