Having gone on at some length last time discussing how  our defensive intensity was winning us games and was a major factor in our unbeaten start to the league season – last Sunday’s game was a complete contradiction! 

We managed to top the century in points scored, as the offense finally clicked – but, uncharacteristically for this group of players, we also gave up a century for the first time! We have been back in the gym working on tightening the defence up to our previous levels – but I will be delighted if the points keep pouring in at the other end as they were on Sunday.

One of the most pleasing aspects of the performance was the continuing evidence that the players are really starting to work as a team and to use their collective basketball intelligence to find ways to score and to win! 

An example of this was the way in which all the players on court realised that on Sunday that skipper Colin O’Reilly had “ hot hands” – that is to say every time he put up a shot it seemed to finish up in the bucket – including one which seemed to come from somewhere in the Northgate carpark!!  Without needing to be told, the others devised ways of getting the ball to him in good positions and  running screens to get him a series of open looks at the basket -  and his final tally of 25 points was his best performance of the season. 

Often players  in this league could be accused of chasing points to pad out their own statistics – but that most certainly did not apply to the Jets last weekend.

It was also great to see that three members of the team made it into the the BBL’s “Team of the Week” – the first time that this feat has been achieved this season – further evidence that our present success is firmly based on the virtues of team work. 

Along with Colin’s thoroughly deserved position, two others, one a BBL Rookie and the other our longest serving “veteran” made the cut!  It’s difficult to argue with Jeremy Bell’s  inclusion with his game-high 33 points personal against the Riders to add to his 27 against the Sharks the previous weekend marking him out as one of the [ if not the most outstanding] outstanding point guards in the league. 

But from a personal point of view, the most pleasing was to see Calvin Davis deservedly grabbing a slot!  His 15 points and 14 rebounds brought to mind the Calvin of the Jetwash area, and it was great to see him crashing the boards at both ends, and couple of his drives to the basket in the face of some aggressive defense by the opposition really rolled back to the years! 

Calvin is a typical of this team’s determination to achieve success:  he is well aware that due to a series of injuries he has not been firing on all cylinders over the last couple of years – but all through the summer break and the early season he has been putting in extra gym sessions and working on his core fitness and agility – with some pretty impressive results.

We will need all the determination that the team can muster over the next few games:  We start this weekend with a re-match against the Sharks at their court [ a game which will be the “as-live” game on Sky next week – and one this is absolutely certain, they will be out to gain revenge for their defeat at our hands less than a fortnight ago. 

We then defend our “Fortress Northgate” unbeaten record against the Worthing Thunder who gave us a run for our money before earlier in the season – and then there’s  the little matter of the two legged semi-final match-up against  those Sharks again to take us into December. It promises to be an interesting few weeks!