Champions in great form heading into big showdown
THE champions have won two from two when it truly matters – and now their decisive showdown awaits.
Skipton backed last week’s victory against Le Mont Saint with an 89-81 repeat performance on Wednesday night, gaining further impetus for their clash against Mayside in five days’ time, where the winner most likely takes the title.
A stellar shooting show from Max Hamon – who fired nine successful three-pointers in an eventual 36-point haul – largely killed this game before half-time.
But after often teetering perilously around the half-score mark, LMS showed real fighting spirit to blunt what could have been a chastening loss.
The opening stages were certainly unlike the bilateral rustiness of last week’s head-to-head.
Skipton joint-coach Matt Sawbridge led the way with an early ‘three’ but Hamon did most of the damage, scoring beyond the arc four times in one five-minute span, some fine Aaron Walden slashes adding extra firepower.
Their tight zone defence largely prevented LMS from capitalising on their turnovers and rebounds – the 29-16 quarter score proving telling.
LMS stars Agris Dulbinskis and Mike Beausire added valuable ‘threes’ after resumption, while Jason Hull continued to slide past their defence, but Skipton still pulled to 54-33 at half-time.
This rift soon widened only for LMS to rally strongly through Dulbinskis and some solid contributions from Pete Beausire. A 31-point quarter certainly lifted the blues’ spirits.
The gap was down to 13 and LMS had a shout – but the deficit proved too much to overcome in a rather messy final quarter.
Despite an individual game high of 24 for island captain Walden and big man Andrejs Vaganovs’ influence, Hamon was clearly the main protagonist in Sawbridge’s view.
‘That first-half performance sealed it for us, and I was just chatting to the guys about teams going on runs against us and how we respond to that,’ said Sawbridge.
‘All-in-all, I think we handled it quite well, and there were times where absolutely we could have self-imploded – but we didn’t.
‘We’re confident [against Mayside] as we’ve got a solid team unit and we’ve got intensity.
‘That plays in our favour for the full 40 minutes and as long as we capitalise on our open looks and our lay-ups, we should be OK.’
That Mayside clash will be the penultimate match of the season for Skipton, who then face Giants but will be firm favourites on form.
The conquered LMS did not end their 2019-2020 campaign overly dispirited.
Following a 30-point performance from ‘Air Latvia’ Dulbinskis, Peter Beausire praised his colleagues for nearly bringing back the game.
‘It’s nice that we made a bit of a comeback from 26 down,’ said Beausire.
‘We had a relaxed warm-up and we just wanted to enjoy our last game of the season. The score did not matter and we wanted to make it competitive – and we did.’
