Still smarting from their narrow defeat to Thornleigh the week before, Raptors took on a young and fit Nets team at All Saints H.S. Raptors started well with some good passing leading to several inside scores whilst their man-to-man defence initially phased the Fleetwood team. Despite several sets of free-throws it took the away team over 5 minutes before they scored from the field. Nets gradually came to terms with Raptors defence whilst Raptors failed to score for 4 minutes and st the end of the quarter the home team had a narrow lead of 14 – 13.

Switching to a zone defence at the start of the next quarter Raptors allowed their opponents to go on an 8 point run thanks to consecutive three pointers from the Nets’ shortest player. Fortunately good baskets from Jones and a three from Turner helped to turn the tide and with Jones scoring another six in the quarter and another three from Turner the Raptors arrived at Half-Time with a 4 point lead. 36 – 32. Within two minutes of the restart Nets had levelled but key baskets from Watts and Jones and two baskets from Fry saw Raptors back into a lead they would not relinquish. The third quarter finished with Raptors realising that the way to win was to continue to put pressure on the opposition and not allow them to settle. Good defence by Morris and Osman on Nets’ best player was helped by good support from others and although Raptors only scored nine points in the final quarter they restricted their opponents to the same and for the most part controlled possession in the last few minutes to run out deserved winners by four points. Captain Watts deserves praise for playing despite being under the weather. There is still a long way to go but there are signs that the “help” defence is beginning to appear and good scoring opportunities are being created from the team’s offence.