Heat scare off TopCats

The Guildford Heat were too hot for the visiting LSBU Brixton Topcats on Sunday afternoon.

The visitors from EBL Division 1 put up a strong performance but were undone by a 17-2 burst from the Heat which turned a close 14-13 game into a potential blow out, the Heat leading 31-15 at the end of the first quarter. They did their damage in just five minutes, with all three newcomers on court. Shaun Durant, a veteran of three games, got things going with an offensive rebound and putback, while adding another putback later on, to make it 25-15. In all, Shaun had nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Next up was Mike Copeland, who had joined the team on Monday. He opened his account with an inside basket for the first points of the game. He scored five points of the burst, three from the foul line and another putback on his way to seven first quarter points. He also collected a poke in the eye with 50 seconds to go, but came back in the second half to finish with 14 points and 10 rebounds, five on the offensive end.

Finally, there was Drew Lasker, signed on Thursday, trained Thursday night and played on Sunday. He logged a game-high 26 minutes and scored a team-high 17 points, two of them in the decisive run. He also provided the assist that led to Mike Martin draining a three at the end of the quarter to cap the run.

The Topcats played hard all game, but could never really get back into it. The Heat led 50-29 at half-time, but the Topcats kept going, taking the third 26-20 before cutting the lead to just 10 points in the final quarter, 72-62, with eight minutes to go. Any hopes they had of a comeback were snuffed out by the Heat who immediately pushed the lead back out to 14 and pretty much kept it there for the rest of the game, running out winners, 91-77.