Chargers stage a thrilling Friday night fightback
CHARGERS overcame a 22-point deficit sustained inside the first seven minutes of the match to beat Le Mont Saint for the first time this season to throw open Division One with just four games remaining.
It was a most unlikely result after another chaotic start from the Chargers, who seemed even not to know which end of the court they were defending when Peter Beausire was given yards of space to open the scoring within the first five seconds from the tip-off.
It got worse for them as LMS scored seemingly at will and took great joy from a number of simple errors committed by the Chargers, passes going out of play or attacks beaten by the shot clock leading to howls of derision from their opponents.
Both Beausire brothers, Dan Marriott and Max Hamon helped themselves to frees, two and threes while the Chargers made next to no impact on the board, and with less than three minutes remaining of the first quarter held a 26-4 lead.
It looked a long night for the Chargers, despite having Sam Simon among their number for his first appearance of the season.
Then Saul Falla hit a rare three, Martin Yabsley made another, and between the super vet and the young prospect they clawed the score back to 26-18 by the quarter’s end.
Ciaran Hamilton shone for the blues in the second quarter, keeping them ahead, but a burst of two three-pointers apiece from Sam Norris and young Harry Gent blew the lead away just before half-time and from there it was nip and tuck all the way to the final hooter.
Chargers held a single-point lead at the break and the biggest the gap got was just five points throughout the third quarter, as what had been a free-scoring romp suddenly tightened up.
Marriott, who also finished with 13 points, was immense in defence for LMS, blocking any number of jump shots and demonstrating precise timing for repeated steals, but Simon’s presence, particularly under his own basket, made a huge difference for the Chargers who were less reliant defensively on Yabsley than usual, and used Shek Sesay intermittently.
Throughout the final quarter there was never more than three points between the teams, until, in the dying seconds, dogged Chargers defence saw Hamon have to attempt three points from distance.
Simon swallowed up the rebound and as the shot clock went, and Le Mont Saint defenders stopped, Gent picked up his long pass and laid up an unchallenged, simple but crucial two to stretch the lead to five with little more than 40 seconds on the clock.
LMS went down the other end and this time Hamon made his shot for three, and Pete Beausire immediately wrestled Norris to the floor to concede two throws from the line.
Norris made one of them to leave a three-point game, but this time Chargers were ready for Hamon and claimed the rebound as his shot bounced out.
Yabsley quickly drew the foul, removing Beausire from the fray in the process, and notched both free throws to take his night’s personal haul to 32 and to close out the victory 78-73.
