HEAT 95 Wear Valley Wizards 85
HEAT just Magical to clinch title from Wizards!
It was winner takes all when Hartlepool HEAT Men’s 2nd team hosted Wear Valley Wizards on Wednesday evening. The Durham League Division Three came to an exciting climax in a winner takes all final game of the season. The visitors made it clear from the start that they were going to pressure HEAT all game and with their full court man – man press they stormed into a commanding lead. After what seemed like a long two minutes Anthony Reed broke the deadlock for HEAT with a breakaway lay-up igniting the rest of the team and within the next four minutes HEAT had reversed the lead in their favour 15-8 with baskets from Nick Donnison and Andrew Ray. With the visitors starting to trail Morgan, with a few tricks up his sleeve began scoring at will including a 3-pointer on the buzzer ending the first quarter 28-26.
Another high scoring quarter followed but HEAT were clearly the stronger team throughout this period. The young Lewis Fisher was outstanding and added four points to his game high of 23 personal points in the opening 5 minutes. Wear Valley responded through Morgan again but this time he found support from Elliott who was becoming a handful for HEAT to mark. This quarter would have been much closer had Wizards made their free throws however they didn’t and at half time HEAT had a 13-point cushion and led 56-43.
The Wizards knowing they had a mountain to climb to get back in the game continued with their press and forced numerous errors from the Hartlepool outfit. Fisher on the offence and Donnison on the defensive boards stood out for HEAT but Wizards had pulled the lead down to 9-points by the end of the third and they could sense an upset. Two quick steals and baskets from Frater brought the Wizards within 5-points of HEAT but a Stephen Purdy and Eddie Campbell combination of defence and baskets including 4 for 4 at the free throw line for the cool Campbell pushed the HEAT further ahead with an 11-point lead. A 3-pointer from Reed in the ninth minute pretty much sealed the game even though there was time left for both teams to score twice more. The deficit was too much for the Wizards to conjure up any magic and HEAT used their offence to run down the clock to become worthy Durham League Division 3 Champions. Lewis Fisher was chosen for MVP and is certainly a star of the future to watch out for, but the key to HEAT’s success was down to the role of the team.