Riley Sa. Photo supplied.A tough night at the office is probably the only way that the Ashburton College boys’ basketball team could describe their trip to Rangiora High School on Tuesday night.

After managing to pip the Rangiora side in overtime in front of a home crowd earlier in the season, the Ashcoll boys headed to North Canterbury full of hope, but came up against a passionate side who had everything to play for in front of a large fan base.

Ultimately, foul troubles, which sent a number of key players to the bench, led to the side falling to a heavy 95-60 defeat.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though with College setting all the early pace in the match through man-to-man defence working well, with the Ashburton boys taking a 19-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Those problematic fouls meant that the side had to go to the bench earlier than they would have liked and it impacted on the cohesion of the College side at both ends of the court.

That, coupled with a hungry Rangiora side who really got into their work inside the second quarter, went into the halfway break down by eight, 32-40.

The third quarter offered up more of the same and adding insult to injury, Rangiora started to find their rhythm from outside the three point line.

That led to them extending their lead to 67-46 at the end of the third.

Try as they might, College were unable to bridge the gap and with three of their starting line-up on the bench, it was always going to be a case of too hard and Rangiora ran away comfortable winners.

Coach Brian Kerr said a number of factors led to his side’s demise.

“There are a lot of things which certainly didn’t help our cause especially when Fotu Hala spent much of his time on the bench after picking up early fouls,” Kerr said.

“We were also hindered by some injury niggles before and during the game (Quinn Ritchie and Sam Pearce) which limited their time on the court”.

A 20-8 foul count played a big impact on the match as well.

“It was just one of those games were we didn’t get much going our way.”

Will Joyce led the scoring for College with 11 points, including two from beyond the three-point line.

Riley Sa contributed 10 points and Mitch Ruffell shot well for his 10 points.

Kerr said that while the loss was disappointing, being able to get everyone good minutes on the court and toughing it out against a good side did have its benefits.

“They never dropped their heads and kept battling away,” he said.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 2 August 2019