Houghton Hand HEAT Tough Defeat

The Hartlepool HEAT Men’s Division 3 team travelled to Houghton and endured one of their toughest lessons in Basketball.

The HEAT more than competed for 3 of the 4 quarters but it was a dreadful fourth quarter where the young Hartlepool side lost all sense of direction.

Houghton opened the scoring and within six minutes held a commanding15-3 lead. A HEAT time-out and switch to man-man pulled HEAT straight back in to the game as they netted 10 unanswered points only for Houghton to nick one back ending the 1st quarter 17-13.

HEAT continued their good form in the second and with a 13-16 quarter had the upper hand with the team playing excellent defence and the fast breaks coming from Paul Robson, Paul Atkinson and Jimi Aramide. HEAT looked to be taking a slight 4-point lead into half time only for Houghton to capitalise on a lapse in concentration and two quick baskets plus one three throw left HEAT deflated and 1- down at half time.

After a good second period the HEAT cooled off very quickly and had it not been for Cameron Battman and Paul Atkinson things could have been a lot worse as Houghton outscored them in the third 25-11 with the Hartlepool side completely out of sync and struggling to score.

In the fourth the experience of Houghton shone through as Paul Carr lead the way and while it wasn’t Houghton’s highest scoring quarter it was HEAT’s lowest as they failed to record a basket against the Houghton defence.

Although losing by such a margin the Hartlepool side didn’t give up and kept fighting till the end although that basket just couldn’t come. The team will now prepare for their last game of 2009 away to Wear Valley Wizards who will provide another stern test for the HEAT.

Scorers: Paul Atkinson 13, Paul Robson 10