Mossman sees good things for his Razzle
UPBEAT Razzle coach Paul Mossman insists he has seen progress despite overseeing the Darwin League Men side’s 14th loss in succession at Marrar Stadium on Friday night.
This was no ordinary game for the men in green, with a hailstorm of threes twice giving them fourth-quarter leads – and by as many as five points – before losing 106-99 to the Uni Rebels.
“To be honest, I’m not flat at all. I’m actually really proud of how my guys went – that’s almost a victory for us, if you think about it,” Mossman told the Sunday Territorian.
“That’s the highest points we’ve scored all season, that’s our best defensive effort all season and we pushed those guys right to the end.
“There were a couple of easy shots we missed that came back and hurt us, but that’s part of rebuilding a side and you’re going to take the good with the bad.”
The sideline scenes were chaotic as Razzle fans tried to urge their on-court soldiers to the finish line, only to fall agonisingly short.
Reed Ridder (36 points) and Nathan Radonich (16) combined for nine three-pointers, while Brendan Dell chipped in 22 points.
But Razzle fell too in love with the three-ball at times.
“Our outside game, when it’s on fire, we get lots of points from it,” Mossman said.
“When we start missing, we get very frustrated.
“We have to have that game maturity to know if we start missing our outside shots we have to start driving to the basket and looking for the fouls, the And-1 plays.”
Ex-NBA D-League star Jerrell Sanders (41) went cold in the last term as Razzle rallied, but his back-to-back baskets – the second with barely a minute to go – gave the Rebels the lead for good.
Sanders’ teammate Chad Bewley had 32, while Jake Kirby’s 18 came from six triples.
Mossman said his club had “a great future”, with the likes of 15-year-old Kayden Malseed, as well as Josh Smith and Jeremy Baden providing great hope.
American Ridder has been one of the best players in the competition, averaging 30.69 points.