Police Edge Cadets in thriller

Thato Kala | Monday August 18, 2014 11:24

Police made it two out of two after beating BDF V 49-46 in their opening match of the season last weekend.

And that their second win is against another team that beat them last season marks one of their best starts to the League. Cadets were in control of the game in the opening quarter and kept the score a

three-point game. Cadets had their opponents playing to their tempo.

The second quarter was no different from the opening one and was kept close. The two teams were just separated by six points at half-time.

A much more solid third quarter saw Police advance and open a 15-point gap. Police often set up their in-form man Tito Oageng who made use of the chances they created.

Police clearly had more depth than their opponents who looked tired and had foul trouble in this quarter.

They made a few changes to their team and brought on new players to face their fatigued opponents. It paid off as they went to the fourth quarter sitting on a comfortable lead.

Seeing they had it in the bag, they started doing cross-overs in the fourth quarter as their pooped opponents could not keep up with the pace anymore.

Oageng took his totally tally for the game to 13 baskets while Kenneth Jimbo top scored for Cadets with 12 baskets.

Police were without Oscar Gobusamang while Mwelwa Sikwila played with a wrist injury. Sikwila said their performance was averaged despite the win and believes if Cadets were more prepared they could have won the match.

“Our performance was average, we could have done a lot better but we allowed ourselves to relax.” Sikwila told Monitor Sport. Cadets’ Kago Mosisi blamed the loss on the wasted free throws and lack of fitness.“I think we were our own worst enemy today because we missed a lot of free throws and lay ups.

 Defensively, we did well considering they had numbers more than us, we did well in middle court but got tired,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Police Ladies-UB Relics game postponed after lights failures last weekend was played midweek and Police won it 56-26.

The game was cancelled in the first quarter with Police ladies leading 15-8. The two teams had to start the replay from the beginning.

Results: 

Dolphins  57-14 Botho Ravens; BDF 76-34 Botho Saints, Cadets 42-57 Police V.