London Thunders 50

Warwickshire Bears 55

The Bears came out on top eventually in their first game of 2017 when they travelled to London to play one of the established first division team London Thunder who finished third in last season’s league.  From the tip of the game was a tough physical battle with both teams scoring basket for basket, and no team being unable to take control of the game.  With leading scorer Jacob Robison shooting consistently, the London Thunder used their overwhelming experience to keep within reach by taking numerous offensive rebounds and score from them to keep within touching distance of the Bears, with the half time scores being London Thunder 25 – 28 Bears.  The second half was no different with both teams scoring end to end, and no team able to get any distance between them, which lead to a close nail biting finish, with the Bears constantly changing their line up to try find a combination to see out the game. With only two minutes left, the Bears went into a lead of Five which led to Thunder only able to try foul to reclaim possession, but the Bears were able to hold out and take the win London Thunder 50 – 55 Bears.

After the game coach Masterson said “That was too close for comfort, but a wins a win and hopefully that takes us one step closer to our goal of securing our place in our first season in division one.  We need to learn from these games that we can’t allow other teams to get so many offensive rebounds and we need to control our own backboards.”