Pirates Shipwrecked by Rocks
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By Chris Deacon
Essex Pirates 51 (10, 21, 34)
Glasgow Rocks 77 (21, 39, 63)
Essex Pirates are still in search of their first win of the season after losing out to Glasgow Rocks in their first home game of 2011.
Pirates Head Coach, Tim Lewis was really frustrated after the game saying “It was a disappointing performance, especially after the way we’ve played in the last couple of games; we started out well against Guildford, played well against Sheffield but tonight was lacklustre.”
The young Essex side has been condemned for a lack of experience this season but Lewis said it was the level performance that let the side down on this occasion; “Nobody was accountable for what they did and you have to be at this level.” The Pirates have been inconsistent particularly at home but the Head Coach thought they had had a chance against the northerners to improve that, “The Rocks are a good team but they’re not a great team and we made them look better than they were.”
Some of the players from UEL, Colin Sing and Myles Hesson, were disappointed after the game. Sing said “Today was poor and we never looked like we wanted it enough”. Hesson, who is currently on the way back from injury, was looking forward to his return saying “It’ll be good to be back.”
As has been the norm in Southend this year, the Pirates’ opponents got off to the better start; a 9-1 burst forced Essex to rethink their tactics after a matter of minutes. A good offensive run saw them edge back into contention but by the interval Moses Mubarak’s points had given the Rocks an 11-point lead.
The second period became a battle of two determined men from either side. Glasgow’s Bruce Fantazia popped up with six points but Sam Toluwase bettered him with seven of his own. By half time the deficit had increased to 18 points and Essex were looking tired and uninterested.
Glasgow came out and dominated the third quarter with their big man Michael Kingma putting in an outstanding rebounding performance. He was great defensively but also came up with seven points in open play.
The final quarter was much better from the Pirates but far too little too late. Thanks to the efforts of Toluwase and Walid Mumuni, they won the fourth period by 3 points. At the buzzer, Glasgow had outplayed Essex and notched up their tenth win taking them to third in the BBL Championship.
Mubarak snatched MVP with his 14, closely followed by teammate Nicholas Livas who achieved 13 points. Pirates’ captain Sam Toluwase also took 13 on the night, his leadership was very professional but his team’s rebounding wasn’t at all up to scratch.
Essex have a further three home games to improve on this abysmal run of form as they now play host to Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders on 22nd January.
Chris Deacon is a Sports Journalism student at the University of East London
Sports Programmes
- BSc Sport and Exercise Science
- BSc Sports Coaching
- BSc Sports Development
- BSc Fitness and Health
- PGCert Sports Rehabilitation
- MSc Exercise Science and Health
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- MA Sports Media
- MSc Sports Media
