Credit: Catriona Connelly Photography
Renfrew, Scotland | Renfrew Rocks returned home to Scottish Basketball Championship action in Renfrew Leisure Centre after a week off following a 3 game road trip. The league home opener saw Edinburgh Lions travel from the capital as the home side looked to continue winning ways after a close win in Cumbernauld last time out.
Rocks were full of energy right from the tip with Scottish guard Milo Lockhart pairing with Canadian Vlad Pierimarchi to generate some early turnovers, but struggles with converting easy layups frustrated the entire squad as they struggled to pull away during their early domination. A loud and brash environment from an ruckus Renfrew crowd fed into the team energy that kept them motivated despite some early scoring stutters. Early rotations allowed new signing Shay Graham to make his Renfrew debut and he opened his account early on with a 3 off a great kick out from US Guard, Kris Carroll. The 6'5 Kiwi got right to work helping the rotation of bigs in Jonny Pettit and Shiloh Wakazadi on the boards as Renfrew dominated the defensive end early on.
Edinburgh grew in the game as they cut the lead down during the 2nd quarter as a lid would be placed firmly on the basket as Renfrew struggled to convert on wide open looks from all over the floor, even at the freethrow line. A quick Lions lead was cut from a sublime transition bucket from young Scot Matthew Keegan that kept the Renfrew board ticking over just enough as a big 3 from Liam Stevenson sent the game 29-28 in the away side favour.
The second half would not change as Renfrew continued to struggle offensively, missing looks normally converted in previous matches. Foul trouble on the front court duo gave Lions an interior advantage as they built up a 6 point lead over the course of the 3rd quarter. A frustrated Renfrew side would have to dig deep to turn things around and coaching adjustments would see alternative scoring options hit the floor namely with Scottish Junior Internationalist, Callum Brand converting on a huge And-1 that galvanized the home side into loud eruption.
A game that featured suffocating defence from the home side but lackluster offence on the opposite end would remain interesting until the very end. For this games standard, a 'quick' 4-0 run from Lions would put the visitors up 10 that many would say is insurmountable considering the scoring difficulties at hand for Rocks, both at the charity stripe and from down town. A Renfrew timeout put the pressure on the Lions squad, getting their squad into foul trouble midway through the final period, as captain Marcus Doyle drew 2 consecutive offensive fouls, once again garnering a roar from the Renfrew loyal. A second big 3 from Stevenson continued the energetic response from the squad, lifting everyone in the hall to their feet as the come back was on. The 4-0 run of Lions would be their only points of the quarter as Rocks smothered them on the defensive end and shots started falling during a 15-0 run seeing featuring big conversions across the squad. Renfrew would grind out 58-48 winners.
Speaking post match, Head Coach Johnathan MacLeod commented;
"We certainly didn't make things easy on ourselves today that's for sure, but the boys responded well. I tasked them pre-game to control the game, especially the start, which I think we have not done so far this season and they did. The scoreline didn't do us justice, missing easy layups we generated off turnovers and great ball movement certainly keeps Edinburgh in the game, something we will look to rectify moving forward. We adjusted well, missing two starters in Calum and Jack are two big roles to fill on both ends of the floor, but this was a whole team effort for sure. We have great chemistry in the group, Vlad and Shay have built a good relationship early doors and congratulations goes out to Shay on his debut. The stats won't tell the full story, but big defensive effort from Martin in the last few minutes were crucial to us with his floor spacing ability, someone who has worked his way into the game day squad and up the rotation, he has done incredibly well to perform in the minutes he has had so far. It wasn't pretty, but we'll take it, 2-2 on to the next one."
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