And it was an alpha male who ultimately made the difference as Shek Sesay took the game away from Skipton in the third quarter, whereupon his teammates, not without the odd alarm, did just enough to repel Skipton’s fightback in the final 10 minutes.
The game was played in hotly contested atmosphere, and it was no surprise when match official Adam Farish called the two coaches together before half-time for a few stern words.
Skipton started the better of the two, with Island captain Aaron Walden, somewhat surprisingly, to the fore when it came to notching up the points.
But Savills, seen by some as the Island side in another guise this season, inched their way back into the game and were a point ahead by the interval.
Then Sesay took over. Rarely seen in the top flight since the 2023 Island Games, he showed a real appetite both in attack and defence, as Savills to a man were strong in their own D, restricting their opponents to a measly 10 points across the 10 minutes.
Sesay himself claimed 13 points at the other end of the court, including a run of nine, topped off with a big three-pointer, that pushed Savills’ lead out to 14 points by the end of the quarter.
The game should have been home and hosed, but Skipton, with only six players available on the evening, dug deep. Harry Gent reeled off two baskets from distance, which looked more like compensation than game-changing when Jason Hooper responded with a three of his own, but when Dan Marriott also hit a three-pointer suddenly the gap was only seven points with plenty of time left and Savills by now on team fouls.
But Skipton missed several chances from the line and with four minutes remaining and just five points between the sides, suddenly the scoring stopped.
With a minute to go, and the lead still five, Savills twice contrived to cough up cheap possession in their own half but they were not punished for it, and when they finally held on to the ball they sucked up enough time left on the clock, even though they failed to get a shot off, that a shot from Paul Wilkes on the buzzer could only close the gap to two.
Sesay finished with a game-high 25 points, with Gent on 24 and Hooper on 19.
Both coaches said that they were enjoying the early nights of a season which they thought would prove to be a close-run thing.
‘We’ve been nicknamed the “Super Team” and we do have a strong team on paper,’ said Savills’ Matt Sawbridge.
‘It’s really nice to see some of the island guys playing together at club level too. But all three teams are going to be important. Gravity are going to be strong when they are at full strength.’
He paid tribute to Sesay’s MVP performance.
‘It’s great to have him coming back. He was brilliant at both ends, defensively he’s such a presence,’ he said.
Kerry Smyth from Skipton said that there was still a long way to go. ‘Until we get past the Christmas break and it starts to come together, at the moment it’s anybody’s. But yeah, they’re a great team, and we did well to come back in the fourth – we just ran out of gas at the end.’
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