Nov 05: Westside lose narrowly away to Hackney

On Sunday, Westside travelled to East London to take on rivals Hackney White Heat in an explosive encounter.

Westside started off well, running their motion offense to great effect to lead by 7 points early but Hackney hit back with a 5 point run at the end of the first quarter to cut the lead to 2. In the second quarter, Westside lost control of their defensive backboards as Hackney literally jumped all over the visitors to get second and third opportunities and they used this to good effect to open up a 10 point lead at halftime.

At halftime, Coach Frank Lamptey implored his team to play with composure and rebound the ball and at the start of the third quarter, Westside's defence kicked in as they played smothering defence to reduce the deficit to 1. Hackney hit back with with a three pointer to take the lead up to 4 and crucially, drew a fourth foul on leading rebounder, Patrick Omigie to send him to the bench and at the end of the third, the lead was 7 points. At the start of the fourth, Westside rallied again to close within one but some dubious decisions went against them and with two minutes remaining the visitors were still in with a chance of pulling out the game. Westside hit a three, to reduce the gap to 7 with a minute remaining and then stole the ball and got fouled shooting another three to reduce the deficit to four. With time not on their side, Westside resorted to intentionally fouling Hackney and the tactic paid dividends as Hackney missed 5 out of 6 foul shots whilst Westside hit another 3 to reduce the gap to 2. With 3.6 seconds on the clock, Westside fouled again to put Hackney on the line and they missed both giving Westside guard, Daniel Worku, an opportunity to win the game at the buzzer but it fell short as the game ended 82 - 80. The games leading scorers were Ola Ogidan with 24 points and Daniel Worku with 15 points.

Westside Coach Frank Lamptey commented "The story of the game was all about our rebounding and turnovers. We failed to do a good job in these areas and ultimately it cost us the game." Westside hope to bounce back on Saturday with a home fixture against London Towers 2.

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