Woking Thunder B 55 – Aztecs 30
(15-4; 27-12[12-8]; 41-22 [14-10]; 55-30 [14-8])
Leading scorers:
Tim Tostevin/Dan Sinclair 8; Becky Wellington/Russ Coulson 4
Match summary:
A team comprising of Falcons, Lemmings, debutants and the returning Dan Sinclair combined to give the Woking Thunder opposition in a pre-season friendly at Woking College. The Aztecs got off to a characteristically slow start, conceding 9 points in the first five minutes before Becky Wellington got a brace of foul shots to record the first points for the Aztecs. Sadly the game was not the pre-season friendly run-out the Aztecs had been expecting, as they encountered some fairly physical play and aggressive, determined defending.
Key stats:
Having started the game with just eight players the Aztecs finished with six as first Dan Sinclair and then Ban Roberts took to the bench after finding themselves on the receiving end of some robust challenges.
Foul shooting continues to be an Achilles heel with just four of 11 shots dropping (36%) and scoring was difficult, but the Aztecs did get a good number of good looks at the basket but did not execute well, especially from close range. Rebounding was good, with Gareth Hill, Becky Wellington and Tim Tostevin being well supported by Ben Roberts and Mike Church in particular.
Coach Walker’s assessment:
Despite the physical nature of the game, and the lack of team cohesion early on due to the ad-hoc nature of player availability, there were a number of positives the Aztecs took away from this game. Tim Tostevin confirmed his reliability from mid-range, Dan Sinclair showed why his pace is going to be of great use to the Falcons this year, Russ Coulson was a very accomplished player despite being very new to the club, and Mike Church enjoyed his first run-out in a game situation for a couple of years. Also, in such a physical encounter, Tony Upfold had a long run on the court and finished up with just three fouls! With only a few key training sessions before their season openers the Falcons and Lemmings have much work to do to prepare their squads for the 2019/2020 competitions.
Next Aztecs games:
Falcons vs Farnborough Phantoms 2 on 1st October at 7.30pm at Wellington College
Lemmings vs London Patriots 2 on 1st October at 9.10pm at Wellington College
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