William Joyce set his Ashburton College side alight, hitting three consecutive three-pointers. Photo supplied.Ashburton College took on Rangiora High School in front of a parochial Rangiora crowd on Tuesday night, and again it was a case of close, but no cigar.

Ashburton started well as they mitigated the zone press easily imposed on them by Rangiora.

They also worked hard on their own man-to-man defence, which had been lacking some cohesion in the last couple of games.

Rangiora exploited a couple of turnovers and looked to be getting on a roll until pressure from College gained turnovers to take them into the second quarter trailing by only five points, 23-18.

The second quarter was a tough battle as Rangiora came hard and the College team had to work hard against the taller Rangiora boys.

However good defence and good boxing out allowed College to break and they finished the quarter strongly taking a 51-44 lead into the second half.

College had a dream start to the second half as William Joyce lit up, hitting three, three-pointers to extend the lead to 18 points.

At 64-46, College were in a great place.

A time-out by Rangiora and some passive College defence on the dangerous Rangiora shooters allowed them to claw back to seven points at 75-68 at third quarter time.

The momentum had definitely turned.

Rangiora came out in the fourth and hit a three-pointer which pulled them closer, only for College to reply twice in kind.

It looked like College had steadied the ship, however Rangiora kept chipping away until they were tied at 87 apiece.

Jamie Reid hit a three-pointer for College and it looked like that would be enough.

However, a foul allowing Rangiora to score from the line and the failure to box out defensively allowed Rangiora to go up by two points.

There was still 11 seconds left to allow College to get the ball up and get a good look at the basket from three point range, only for it to be fractionally short of the mark, with Rangiora taking out a thriller 92-90.

For College, Riley Sa worked tirelessly at both ends of the court, finishing with 26 points.

Thomas Patterson had an excellent all-round game finishing with 23 points and finally William Joyce knocking down 14 points in a third quarter burst.

Kambell Stills claimed a load of rebounds to finish with 9 points, as did Jacob Swan who had a good game.

The College defence was vastly improved from the previous couple of weeks.

The help defence was very effective in minimising Rangiora’s inside game.

However, that can come at a risk if the outside shooters begin to find their range, which Rangiora did, hitting eight three-pointers in a row to begin their fightback in the third.

Some passive defence didn’t help the College boys either though.

Unforced turnovers at key times in the fourth quarter did not help their cause either.

This was a game for the taking, however Rangiora showed a lot of determination in getting their win.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 14 August 2020