Lavery rues missed opportunities

MK Lions ended up being the Grinches that stole Christmas for Cheshire Jets, taking the spoils 75-86 at the Northgate Arena in what was the home side’s final game before the festive break.

After a slow start by both sides in the first quarter, it was the Jets who strode out to a ten point lead at one stage (21-11), mainly thanks to the impressive shooting from captain Colin O’Reilly and guard Adam Brown. Lions made an impact from the free throw line, taking seven points from eight, to help bring the scores at the end of the period to 25-21.

Coming out for the second quarter, Mike New’s side picked up from where they left off, and tied for the lead. It swung to both teams, until midway through the quarter when Lions began to stake a claim to the game.

A 16-4 run effectively helped give control to the visitors, and Cheshire’s only response came from the presence of Bill Cole, who was able to reduce the deficit down to four (39-43), but four late points from Howard Crawford meant Lions went into the locker room in a strong position.

Back out on court for the third stanza, points were traded between two teams early on, with Milton Keynes picking up fouls all over the court in the process. With 4:30 remaining in the quarter, and 51-58 on the scoreboard, it looked as though Cheshire were in the position to dominate, as their opponents were in foul trouble. However, it could not be capitalised upon, as Demarius Bolds, and Crawford again, were on hand to reply to any progress the Jets wanted to make, with the game going into the final period, 57-64.

An explosion by the home side early on, including two big threes from Brown and Cole, helped draw the game to just a single basket (67-69), however, tiredness was again a key factor for the Jets as Lions pulled away with an 8-0 run. With the visitors being in such control at this point, there was a sense of closure in the air as the game came to a natural end, but still pushing the score on to at one point to a 13 point lead, Bill Cole’s last efforts seemed in vain for Cheshire as the score finished 75-86.

Bolds and Cole were joint top scorers, but Bolds edged it with his four extra rebounds, but both sides had players in the mid-to-high 20s.

Being the final game before Christmas, ending the year so far on a losing note meant a dejected side in the dressing room.

Asked how the feeling was within the team straight after the game, Coach Lavery said: “Not very good, obviously getting a loss, no-one likes to lose. I just think we got out-bullied and some of my guys didn’t turn up to play.

“The guys give what they could, but some have just got to make sure that every time they turn up and put a jersey on, they’ve got to turn up and play.

“We’ve just tried to leave it on a positive note, try to keep fit, but it’s always tough without a centre. Losing the boards by 22, significant as we lost the game by 11 – we were in the game with five minutes to go, we were still in the game, however a few disappointing things happened during the game, but it all boils down to what I’ve said before.”

As a majority of the players will be travelling home now for the holiday period, it is seen somewhat as the midpoint to the season, and Lavery gave his opinion on how the campaign has gone for his side so far: “It’s been disappointing – we’ve only picked up three wins, you look at tonight’s game, Mersey Tigers away, Newcastle here, Durham away, four games that in my eyes, we should have won. You look at that side of things, if we’d got wins in those games, it could be a different season.

“We’re just taking every game as it comes. We’ve got to get everyone fit and healthy, that’s our main aim, if we do that we can look at different things. We haven’t had a full team this season up to now, so we need to get everyone fit and healthy, and we can run then a bit more of our rotation better, and compete in the close games where at the moment we’re losing too many of them.”

Cheshire Jets – 25, 39, 57, 75

MK Lions – 21, 47, 64, 86

Jets – Cole (29), Brown (25), O’Reilly (12)

Lions – Bolds (29), Crawford (27), Northern (9)