Nailsea Cruises to Victory over Newport Knights

December 11, 2006 on 6:25 pm | In General

On Friday 8 December, Nailsea Basketball made the trip to the Cwmbran Stadium for their second meeting of the season with the Newport Knights.

Following Nailsea’s dominance in the home game, the visiting team came into the game feeling confident despite being without two of it’s top three scorers. Forward Jon Moore, recovering from injury, took on the role of coach; ensuring that Nailsea had fresh legs on the court throughout the game.

The first quarter saw Nailsea come out looking flat, a number of early turnovers limited offensive production. Luckily the away team were more effective on the defensive end, holding the home side under ten points in the quarter.

Challenged by the coach to score thirty points by the half, Nailsea upped the tempo of the game in the second quarter. Exploiting the younger Newport team with a number of inside drives, Nailsea guards Simon Baker and Jason Boulton racked up points with a combination of layups and free throws. Nailsea’s frontline of Paul Roy and Jonny Taylor dominated the offensive and defensive boards, Taylor scoring the majority of his points from hustle plays. With half time approaching Nailsea held a comfortable lead.

Nailsea’s usual third quarter struggles were banished for once, Simon Baker staying hot throughout and enabling the visitors to extend their lead further. Baker would finish with a team high eighteen points, with a balanced offensive display; layups, inside bank shots and mid range jumpers being worked into the mix. Match MVP Jason Boulton chipped in fifteen points and kept the Knights defense off balance with some crisp assists. Nailsea ran the break with ease, punishing the home side for not establishing defensive position. An active zone defense held Newport to fewer than ten points in the quarter, and a repeat performance of Nailsea’s home rout seemed inevitable.

Newport looked ready to hit the showers after the third quarter but received a lift by putting it’s reserves on the floor to finish the game. Playing with energy and passion, the home team played hard until the end of the game. Newport had no answer for the inside superiority of Nailsea, and with notable contributions from every player the game’s final score was 63-33.