With a team ravaged by Covid and injury, and with both Head Coach Dan Pearson ( Covid) and his assistant Dan Lloyd (compassionate grounds) missing, Rockets still travelled to the Midlands with hope as Director of Coaching and ex G B U 20’s Head Coach Matt Johnson took primary responsibility with Josh Thorne , ex Men’s Assistant H C and ex Rockets Ladies H C, coming on board as Matt’s assistant. However within the opening minutes, Rockets top scorer and rebounder Tyler Cartaino pulled up with a hamstring injury adding to Rockets woes and causing the ‘new’ coaching team to re-evaluate their game plans.
An ex Rocket who’s recently joined Warriors ( Lewis Diankulu ) caused Rockets many issues in the first period as he scored 6 points and took down 9 rebounds as Rockets still recovered from the loss of Cartaino. Warriors also hit a brace of trebles to take an early lead of 17-8 as Rockets just struggled with their offense and long range shooting.
A Reis Pinnock score off the glass coupled to Lewis Champion taking a charge stirred Rockets but Meshack Lufile then had to leave the court for some treatment before returning to make a three point play bringing Rockets to within 2 scores of Warriors at 19-25. Pinnock scored again and then took down a key defensive rebound but another Warriors treble saw them take a double digit advantage 31-21 to the dressing room with both their new American signings scoring a total or 25 points from the teams 31 at the interval though both teams were close on total rebounds.
The half time break gave Rockets time to re-focus on the job in hand and despite getting a tough call right from the first possession which saw Warriors hit a pair of free throws, Pinnock was back on his defensive duties with gusto and Lufile imposed himself more in the paint as he too hit a pair of free throws and scored inside. Ben Dixon threw a length of the court pass for Sam Toluwase to easily finish but Rockets thorn in the flesh, Van Turner continued draining trebles from all round the key as Warriors kept their 10 point lead at 41-31 midway through the second quarter. A Champion assist to Jaz Bains saw Rockets hit their first treble of the game and then Bains made a steal and scored . Rockets were now firing on all cylinders and floor hustle saw Rockets re-gaining possession from which Lufile scored and closed the deficit to 38-41 as Rockets hit a 7-0 run. However another Warriors treble coupled to a three point play by the hosts extended their lead again but Champion hit a buzzer beating treble to see Rockets 42 – 49 down at the end of the third period. Rockets had scored as many points in this period as in the first half and were more upbeat.
A Rockets treble effort rimmed out and Warriors scored before Toluwase was called for his fourth foul so had to sit out. Excellent Rockets defence caused Warriors to have a 24 second penalty but any luck that was going wasn’t going Rockets way as Champion hit another treble but was called for having his foot on the side line. None the less Champion was successful with another effort and despite another 24 sec violation by Warriors, Rockets found themselves 45-56 adrift midway through the final quarter and in team foul trouble. Another Bains steal and score coupled to a Champion drive just couldn’t get closer than 10 points with 1 min 36 secs on the clock. A Rockets time out followed by a Bains treble reduced the deficit and then Toluwase and Champion scored leaving Rockets 5 down with 43 seconds remaining. Another tough call on Lufile gave Warriors two free throw which they converted. A huge down town treble effort rimmed out for Rockets but Lufile made a dunk and with 20 seconds on the clock the score was 60-66. Rockets had to foul to try and regain possession but Warriors hit one from two from the line moments before a buzzer beating score by Rockets though Warriors took the spoils 67-62.
Meshack Lufile ended up with 17 points and 13 rebounds as both Lewis Champion and Jaz Bains also hit double figures with 13 and 12 points respectively but Van Turner hit 36 of Warriors 67 points in their win.