Lions B encountered their second defeat of the season at home to Redcar Mariners. Mariners brought a strong squad with 8 of their 9 players marking the score sheet, a credit to the depth of talent they have this season. Lions were missing several players including key centre; Matthew Norman. Miles Sayer recovered from an ankle injury to start the game and played well during his first real outing for the Lions. The inexperience of the young Lions showed with only 5 of their 12 players scoring.

 

The first quarter was a good start from the Lions perspective as Michael Peddie made two fast breaks for a 4-0 lead. Redcar replied in the second minute through Gordon Barnes with Thomson taking the scores to 6-2 before Matthew Insall and Barnes again scored to tie the game. Thomson then hit a 3 pointer and by the seventh minute Lions were doing well with a 3 point lead, 13-10. From the seventh minute onwards however Mariners stepped up a gear to hit 8 points without reply. Good work from Craig O'Malley, Paul Neesam and Insall's eighth point gave the Mariners a 13-18 lead by the end of the first.

 

The second quarter brought out the best from Miles Sayer as he weaved his way through the Redcar defence. With Matthew Brown off target the pressure was on Peddie to find the net, but the physical presence of the Mariners big men was at times too difficult to penetrate leading to turn overs and missed shots for the visitors to capitalise on. Lee Budd entered the game in this quarter and made an immediate impact hitting his first two shots and finishing with 8 in the quarter. Insall was again a threat from anywhere inside the key with a consistent jump shot. There were good defensive plays in small doses for the Lions with Marshall Patterson playing well at the back of a zone defence and Katie Dodgson coming off the bench to put pressure on the guards, but unfortunately the Mariners were beginning to pull away and Lions didn't have enough of an answer. By the end of the half the score was 27-40 in favour of the seasiders.

 

The third quarter was the nail in the coffin for Lions hopes of a come back. The Lions had switched to a man to man defence and were looking to force some Redcar errors, but their plan backfired as the Mariners scored 22 points while Lions only managed to hit one basket in the whole quarter. This basket came from Sayer in the seventh minute. As soon as Steven Jones hit the first shot of the third for Redcar, everything went their way with O'Malley in splendid form, making drive after drive for 9 points in the quarter including a well executed And 1 move. The damage seemed too much for the Lions with the score reading 29-62.

 

In the fourth quarter, Lions again struggled to find the target. In the second minute Matthew Brown made a lay up to break the dry spell, but was undergoing one of his worst shooting displays as nothing seemed to drop. Two minutes later saw brother Dan Brown score his first basket of the season with a base line jump shot from 10 feet. O'Malley and Insall continued where they left off in the third however, combining well to add 12 points including three And 1 plays although only 1 of 3 free throws were converted. In the fifth minute a Time Out was called by Lions with a shout for "Pride" being sought. A determined final five minutes brought just this as the Lions produced a brave 17-5 run to tie the fourth quarter scores at 21-21. The final score, indicating 50-83 represented a well deserved win for Mariners and their game MVP; Matthew Insall who also top scored with 27.