EXETER COLLEGE 74

WEYMOUTH RAIDERS 71

After a long hard campaign, the young Raiders team had battled their way to a cup final and had defeated Tiverton Tigers, Torbay Tigers and Bridport Evolution to make it there.

In the first quarter, the Raiders found it hard to keep up with the pressure from the Exeter College team and were 11-2 down by the fourth minute.

By the fifth minute the Weymouth team had started to find their confidence and Joshua Westlake’s brace of baskets, added to Alex Legg’s two points, had started to reduce the deficit.

Coach Sam Brown called a time-out in the fifth minute after the boys had been drawn into committing their second foul of the quarter.

The time-out had obviously worked as the Raiders picked up the next three baskets with Eoin Goring and Louis Weaver getting their names on the scoresheet and Westlake adding the third.

Weymouth, now only down by four, traded baskets with Exeter, with the last points of the quarter being picked up by Marc Gorman.

Into the second period, Exeter were the quicker out of the blocks, taking the first 10 points before Gorman could add to the Weymouth tally.

Exeter went on to increase their lead to 20 as coach Brown called his second time-out, hoping it would have the same effect as it did in the first.

Again it was a positive move and the Weymouth boys started to reduce Exeter’s lead with more baskets from Gorman, Westlake and Goring, but this came at the expense of fouls being given away at the other end.

The Raiders finished the half being 21 points down with a mountain to climb.

Following the restart, Exeter took the first basket but were then held out for the next three minutes with great defensive work from Stephen Reece and Kyle Houlden.

The Raiders had started the climb back up Exeter’s mountain with more Baskets from Legg and Gorman but another landslide from the opposition kept Weymouth at bay.

The Raiders did not give up though, and a three-point shot from Westlake and layups from Gorman and Goring didn’t allow Exeter to push further ahead.

Two great baskets from Bradley Morgan and Henry Ackerley kept the Raiders in contention and reduced the deficit to 18 at the end of the third.

In the final quarter, Weymouth, behind by 18 and with nothing to lose came out all guns blazing and took the tiring Exeter by surprise to gain eight of the first nine points scored.

Exeter tried to hold off the Raiders, making a quick couple of baskets of their own, but the Weymouth team were on a roll.

With nearly every Weymouth player getting their chance under the basket, the Raiders had reduced Exeter’s lead to an incredible one point and were now only down 72-71.

But a dubious call with only seconds remaining gave Exeter the ball and two free-throws, meaning Weymouth needed a three-pointer to tie the game. Unfortunately for the Weymouth team, this was not to be their day.

Raiders: Marc Gorman 21, Joshua Westlake 18, Eoin Goring 13, Bradley Morgan 7, Alex Legg 6, Louis Weaver 4, Henry Ackerley 2, Kyle Houlden, Stephen Reece

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