Everyone ‘on notice’

OFFENCE VERSUS DEFENCE: Green Up’s Holden Wilson takes the ball towards the basket as Raiders’ Willie Brown tries to make things difficult for him. Green Up play SE Systems tonight; the Raiders play the Massive Marauders. Picture by Paul Rickard

BASKETBALL

City Lights captain Scott Muncaster is — in the best competitive sense of the word — an angry man.

“We feel a little overlooked and so we’re out to put everyone on notice,” he said.

“We’re going to keep playing our type of basketball — make them pay on offence, play great defence.

“We played horrible against the Raiders, pretty well since.”

Muncaster’s outfit beat the Massive Marauders 71-42, the Lights skipper leading all scorers (with 15 points) for a team who had five men in double-figures.

CL will this evening go at it in Game 1 at the YMCA with the David Glendenning-coached Gisborne Boys’ High School, who beat SE Systems by default last Tuesday.

Seb Wilson has led the GBHS scorers with 23 and 19. Luka Russell, Rikki Noble and captain Daley Riri have also put up double-figures in the past month.

Riri wants his promising, athletic team to get out, run and play with more intensity.

The Raiders and the Massive Marauders are teams that put their opponents through the mill.

Willie Brown’s Raiders don’t give away easy baskets, they don’t allow anyone an uncontested lay-up and they take the ball to the hoop — hard.

Since May 11, Brown has set a sterling example for his team in every facet of play and he began the season in bumper form with 22 points.

Doug Jones does a different type of job for the Massive Marauders: he talks constantly on defence, dives, rebounds. It is Doug Jones’s on-court hustle as much as skipper Stefan Pishief’s giant frame in the key or guard Luke Bradley’s subtlety that could make a difference for the MMs.

The late game tonight promises a lot of tough work under the basket. The team getting the edge and converting more opportunities there will likely win the game.