10:30am Tuesday 9th March 2010
By Chris Phillips
ESSEX Pirates head coach Tim Lewis was left bitterly disappointed following his side’s 84-72 defeat against Cheshire Jets on Saturday night.
Pirates beat the Chester-based side back in December when the teams last met.
But this time around the Southend side were seen off by 12 points and that frustrated Lewis.
“I was very disappointed with the way we played,” said Lewis.
“We were sluggish, slow and lazy and just didn’t play well at all.
“I would say we played to about a third of our potential and it’s frustrating because the previous week we had scored more than 100 points against a strong Newcastle Eagles side.
“If we had played like that again we would have won but we couldn’t and were quite poor to be honest.”
Colin O’Reilly opened the game at the Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre with a three-pointer for Jets to spark a 9-4 start for the visitors.
Jets continued to press on and six straight points gave them a nine-point advantage at 17-8.
Pirates hit back with a 10-2 response to close to within a point of the Jets.
But Jets extended the lead to six before a four-point play from Taner Adu was followed by consecutive baskets for Pablo Rodrigo which gave the home side the lead at the end of the first quarter, 26-24.
Chez Marks and Paul Peterson combined to give Cheshire a pivotal 9-2 start to the second quarter.
And a duplicate run, in which O’Reilly scored four points, followed to extend the lead to 10 at 42-32.
O’Reilly then traded a three with Adu but Pirates still trailed by 10 at half time as they went in with the scores at 49-39.
Colin Sing’s two points after a pair of three throws from Walid Mumuni closed the gap to seven before Jets compiled a 15-6 burst to take their lead out to 16 at 66-50.
The run included seven for O’Reilly and six from Peterson.
Rodrigo added a late basket to end the third with Pirates trailing 68-53.
Sam Toluwase led the fight for Pirates in the final quarter scoring five points in an 11-4 start to make it 72-64.
However, they could not get any closer to overhauling the Jets as Marks and Peterson linked together once more to stretch the lead to 12.
Rodrigo and Mumuni reduced their arrears back to eight but four free throws for Shawn Myers closed the game out to secure victory for Jets.
Rodrigo, with 14 points, led the scoring for Pirates with Toluwase adding 13.
Pirates are back in action at the Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre this Saturday as they host Plymouth Raiders, tip-off 7.30pm.
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