WINDSOR WARRIORS 77          WOKING BLACKHAWKS 62

As the league stood this was a top of the table clash at Windsor Boys School. Woking are clear favourites to win the league this year, but Warriors have a decent record against them (as the mayor can testify).

The game began with hot shooting on both sides, in particular from Windsor’s Ricky Sharma and Sandro Mosquera (Mascara), who combined for 17 points in the first quarter, giving Warriors a 5 point advantage going into the break. Windsor were moving the ball really well and taking the right shots, resulting in a great shooting percentage from downtown.

Warriors found it tougher to score in the second, but Captain Marc Harris was starting to take charge, drawing fouls with a series of strong drives to the hole. Windsor took full advantage from the line, making 10 from 12 to increase the lead to 8 at the halfway point. Harris hit a 20 footer right on the buzzer off a long inbound pass, for Warriors to finish on a real high.

Woking came out strong in the third, but Warriors D was up to the challenge and no Blackhawk player was able to get hot. Another strong period for Harris, every time Warriors ran out of ideas he took over and made something happen. Centre Mark Budge was having a great game too, so far in the match only one missed free throw marred a 100% record from both the paint and the stripe. 18 points apiece at the end of the period.

Crunch time. Woking had to do something special to get back in the game but it never materialised. They were held to just 14 more points whilst Windsor dropped 21 on them at the other end, led by Budge with 7. Mosquera, Harris and Sharma were still getting theirs too. This was another example of how crucial free throws are, Warriors made 15 from 16 in the endgame. Windsor closed out the match by 15 points against the top team in the league, and were never behind after the first minute.

So to the MVP award. A few candidates here; Ricky shot the lights out early on, Marc ran the show and took control when it got tough and Sandro was, well, Sandro. But it’s going to Mark Budge, who really raised his game with a tremendous performance at both ends of the floor. Woking’s 7-foot monster has been dominating teams all season, but he was pretty anonymous on this occasion with just 2 (yes 2) points, largely due to our own big man.

Sandro 22

Marc     20

Ricky    14

Budge  14

Cod      4

Oke      2

G          1

A great performance all round. Credit also due to Joe Edwards and Ben Rodgers, sacrificing their court time to run the bench, every time the team wobbled they steadied things up. Warriors are likely to drop down to fourth place by the end of the season when the teams around them have played their games in hand, but this result leaves us thinking about what might have been but for our January blip. With this result and probable league runners-up Farnborough still to play us, Windsor will as usual have a say in who wins the title. And with the Cup in front of us the season is far from over…