The Ashburton College A Basketball side were unable to convert their tag of favourite into a winning result as they suffered another defeat in the Thomson Trophy on Tuesday night.

Playing against a physically bigger Hillmorton side, the College lads were beaten 73-64 in match which featured twists and turns aplenty throughout the four quarters.

AshColl headed into the match favoured to win, based largely on two crushing defeats that Hillmorton had been handed to start their competition, but it was quickly established that the form lines meant for nothing as the match got going, with the physicality and man-to-man defence offered by Hillmorton troubling the young hoops.

Despite that Ashburton ended the first quarter with a 16-14 lead.

Easy points offered up in the second quarter turned the match on it’s head though and some missed opportunities and forced shooting left College chasing the match down by five at the half-time break.

A stronger third quarter, particularly in defence, put Ashburton back into the game and they went into the final quarter down by one point – 48-49.

A poor start in the final quarter didn’t help things as Hillmorton extended that one point lead to 11 quickly, but College fought back to close the gap only for their rivals to drain three, three-pointers to counter that before running out comfortable winners, 73-64.

Quinn Ritchie (11 points) and Sam Pearce (12 points) were solid on defence and Ben Jackson (11 points)  all had strong games for the AshColl side.

Coach Brian Kerr said that their rivals’ aggressive defence really rattled his side, which had a big impact on their offensive structures.

“Again we played a team that was physically bigger than we were and they made use of that especially when they crashed the boards.

“We got ourselves into foul trouble in 3 of the 4 quarters.

“It also tended to happen early on in the piece, which allowed Hillmorton time on the line,” he said.

While clearly disappointed with the defeat, Kerr said he was proud of the way they fought back in the third quarter and the result showed just how tough the competition can be.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 23 May 2019