Mountaineers crush Seahawks at St Mary’s
BASKETBALL: The Toowoomba Mountaineers claimed a decisive 114-89 victory over the North Gold Coast Seahawks at St Mary’s College on Tuesday night in a QBL pre-season match.
The Mountaineers were clinical in their first hit-out since a narrow defeat to the Cameroon national team, leading at every change on their way to a big win.
An explosive first-half saw the Mountaineers burst out of the gates and put a gap on their rivals early, as they raced to a 34-20 lead after the first quarter, on the back of 13 points from Tito Kwajakwan.
New import Damon Bozeman controlled the second quarter, piling on 10 points as the Mountaineers impact on the fast break proved too much for the Seahawks to handle, opening up a 66-39 lead at the main break.
While the second half was a more even contest, import forward Harold Ridgeway showed the incredible hops he possesses in the fourth, jamming home an alley-oop from Kwajakwan.
In an impressive showing of the scoring depth of the Mountaineers, six players finished the match in double figures for the Mountaineers, led by Kwajakwan (18), Bozeman (17) and Ridgeway (14).
Coach Danny Morseu said he was most pleased with his side’s energy off the bench, as well as their offensive pressure.
“Our bench players came on and gave the starting five a lift. That is crucial for us to win games in the QBL this season, and the bench stepped up,” Morseu said.
“We played good defence as a team and communicated well on the floor. Pushing the ball down the floor is part of our gameplan.
“It didn’t happen against Cameroon when there were a bit of nerves, but when we did run it twice against them, we scored. We did it a lot last night which was good to see.”
Their next pre-season match will take place on Saturday against the Southern Districts Spartans in Carina. Sean Teuma