HAVING beaten Ribby Hall Jets by a point in their last encounter, West Craven Turbines went down by two in a thrilling return in the Hyndburn League.
West Craven were without starting guard Ben Capps therefore forward Jake Dawson took his place on the starting five, with young guns Zak Boardman and Rob Lonsdale on the bench.
As the game tipped off, it did not take long for the points to add up with forward Dan Widdup getting to the line for two free throws and making one of them to open the scoring.
Ribby Hall would come down the other end to make well-taken jump shots through out the first quarter, which ended nip and tuck, with a 16-15 lead for the Turbines.
The second quarter saw the Turbines step up a gear as they produced some excellent offensive play, with Renko Ireton distributing the ball inside to free-scoring Pete Marshall, who executed plenty of power moves inside, going to the hoop.
And defensively the Turbines again stepped up the play to grab a number of rebounds through Marshall, Dawson and Widdup, allowing for the quick outlet to send Pete Robinson on the fast break a number of times.
With Marshall, Widdup and Robinson scoring consistently, the pressure was on Jets as the Turbines took a nine-point coming up to half-time.
However, another three on the buzzer for the Jets saw the score settle at 39-33 to the Turbines.
The third quarter saw Jets come out fighting with a good offensive set up to get players open for a variety of long scores for Marshall.
However, Jets came back into the game and were down by just two points at the end of the third quarter, 47-45.
The fourth quarter was the deciding period as both teams had evenly matched each other to this point.
Jets preferred their offence to work the ball around and make the defence move, eventually finding them open for well-taken perimeter shots.
Turbines’ offence was well worked with some great ball movement, probably their best of the season so far, accompanied with great moves from forward Marshall and Widdup, finding the open jump shots.
An excellent move from Ireton, driving to the hoop to dump the ball off to the baseline cut from Robinson, would force the Jets to call a time out with just two points in the game.
Jets again came back strong and found themselves just one point down with a minute left to play.
Turbines however, failed to take advantage of the offence they had in possession, which led to a Jets break, where a stumbling rebound would see Jets convert and go one point up.
Turbines had one offence however, but they again failed to score, and with 15 seconds they had to stop the game clock by fouling, which saw the Jets shoot two free throws, taking one with just two seconds on the clock.
A time out was called by Turbines to discuss the game plan and move the ball up the court for the inbound, and Widdup and Robinson were to set off the ball screens to release Marshall for an open three, in an attempt to win the game.
But despite his efforts the shot was not converted and Jets came out winners at 64-62.
Scorers: Widdup 23, Marshall 22, Robinson 10, Ireton 6 and Dawson 1.