Encouraging basketball clash for Wairarapa College

Wairarapa College were beaten but not disgraced when they played competition leaders Feilding Agricultural College in the latest series of matches in the Manawatu secondary schoolboys premier basketball league.
In fact despite the 47-71 defeat coach Jane Thackray believed the Wairarapa College squad had played their best basketball of the season during the first half and overall had competed strongly against a bigger and more experienced line-up.
Wairarapa College started well by playing a tough man to man defence and FAC struggled to master it.
On the other hand Wairarapa College's offensive play was impressive, led as it was Jacob Carson, who opened the scoring, with good support from Peter Beech, Scott Topham and Lachie McFadzean.
Beech picked up two quick fouls with some sloppy defence and was retired to the bench with Joel Ryland entering the fray and scoring on what was almost his first possession.
Corey McFadzean also took the limelight with some good steals on defence and at the end of the first quarter Wairarapa College only trailed by the one goal, 10 to 11.
The second quarter saw much of the same with Wairarapa College continuing to impress with their attacking play and FAC struggling to make headway against their defence.
Beech came back into the game. when Lachie McFadzean retired to the bench after receiving a painful injury, having been poked in the eye by an opposition player, and made an immediate impact with his defensive rebounds.
There was some strong play too under the basket from Andrew Cameron while Stephen Ashby and Joe beech also took their chances well.
However, the Wairarapa College effort did fade slighty towards the end of the quarter and at halftime they trailed by seven points. The start of the third quarter saw FAC change their tactics.
Unable to cope with the controlled offence of Wairarapa College they played a zone defence and took the initiative away from the visitors.
With her side struggling to cope with this new tactic
Thackray made tactical changes of her own with a zone press being utilised to see if Wairarapa College could steal possession and set up fast break options.
This was a gamble against the experienced FAC side whose guards had a high skill level but it worked to a large degree, thanks to the input of players like Zane Hopman and Corey McFadzean ,and Wairarapa College were still well in the game going into the last quarter,FAC leading by 12.
The loss of Peter Beech with his fifth foul was a blow to Wairarapa College in the closing stanzas and as he retired to the bench FAC took advantage of a tiriing opposition and ran in some easy fast break baskets.
Once again a time out to encourage the Wairarapa College players to dig deep did have a positive effect for a couple of minutes with Joe Beech scoring with an open shot but they were unable to stem the flow and the floodgates opened with FAC adding 10 points to their total in a matter of minutes.
Moving to a zone defence themselves did , however, enable Wairarapa College to keep the FAC scoring to within reasonable bounds in the final minutes and they finished strongly with Corey McFadzean converting a couple of steals into scores and Stephen Ashby ending the game with a three pointer on the buzzer.
A 24-point loss may not seem anything special on paper but for a Wairarapa College side meeting such formidable opposition it was an encouraging performance, and an indication of the excellent progress they have made since entering the Manawatu premier league for the first time ever.
Scorers were: Peter Beech 10, Jacob Carson 9, Corey McFadzean 8, Zane Hopman 4, Lachie McFadzean 4, Joe Beech 4, Stephen Ashby 4, Joel Ryland 2, Scott Topham 2 and Andy Cameron 2.