(BOYS) Close game sees Mulgrave top Dover Bay in evening matchup at Collingwood
Dover Bay Dolphins v Mulgrave Titans
Written by Jeff McCutcheon
Last matchup of the night at Collingwood has the hometown Mulgrave Titans facing the travelling Dover Bay Dolphins from the Island.
At the tip off it’s tough not to notice a couple of drop dead gorgeous mullets on the Dover Bay squad. #11 Callum Walker and #22 Jack Benjamin both sporting flow Larry Bird would be jealous of. The Dolphins, like Brentwood College have travelled thin to the mainland for this tournament. Having only 3 players on the bench we’ll see if this turns into a story like it did in the Brentwood vs Collingwood contest. Out of the gate the travelling team opened up a bit of a lead with the Titans finding themselves in a bit of early foul trouble. They looked to calm down a bit as this game continued. At the end of the 1st quarter the Island team was up 17-11.
Mulgraves big man 6’10” #33 Hunter Thompson started the second quarter off with a big block followed up by some nice inside work and a bucket. He’s definitely got a height advantage out there and they looked to exploit that. Gaining a bit of momentum his team went on an 8-0 run and suddenly were up in the early parts of the quarter. As the game went along it was clear that it was going to be a tight one down to the end. Both teams want this bad.
Halftime : the Titans are up 38-33
Mulgrave guard #1 Kaiden Talid has been solid for the Titans all night. Pushing the ball when there’s an opportunity and creating a number of high percentage shots for himself. He managed to go on a big run in the 3rd quarter increasing his teams lead to 13 with 5 minutes left in the quarter. I’m not sure what was said at halftime but the Titans continued to dominate, they played extremely well and had really heated up on offense. This quarter they put up 33 points alone and found themselves with a massive 73-50 lead.
Credit goes to this team from the Island. They refused to quit and were going to make the Titans earn the ‘W’. With a short bench they continued a very pressing in- your- face zone defence which started to pay off for them. Their hard work caused multiple turnovers to start the final quarter and if the Titans weren’t able to hold onto the ball there’d be a tight finish. With 7 minutes left it was 75-59 Mulgrave. Mulgrave’s coach had seen enough and called a timeout. The Dolphins continued to work their tails off (pun intended) and made it an 11-point game with 2 minutes left. Had they been a bit more fortunate with bounces around the rim this game could have gone the other way. In the end they have fallen 92-81to the Mulgrave Titans. Big shout out to Dover Bay for making the trip and never giving up. Congrats to the hometown Titans.
Goodluck to both teams the rest of the tournament!
No regrets