Bury St. Edmunds Bulldogs travelled to Cambridge Cougars looking to avenge a home defeat in the Cambridge League’s earlier stages.
With Glenn Collins and David Wise among a host of unavailable players for the Suffolk side, Ashley MacDonald stepped-in as Coach for the evening.
In a Back-and-Forth first quarter, Bulldogs rotated their bench to keep players fresh - but couldn’t pull away as the two sides traded runs.
The Bulldogs found their range in the second quarter though, with five of the side connecting from deep as the game progressed.
In a tight game, the Cougars’ desire to control the glass was telling, as the home side came away with multiple extra possessions in a 74-66 win.
”I was disappointed by our defensive rebounding” said Ashley MacDonald.
”It’d be easy to say the rims were a bit bouncy, or point to the home team’s familiarity with them as an advantage - but they simply wanted it more. They probably had 15-20 points on offensive rebounds, it cost us a win.”
”We worked hard, and at the other end we had moments of great ball movement creating easy scores - but we lacked consistency.”
MacDonald also led the way offensively, with 17 points, while Jason Sykes and Sam Howard added 15 & 9, respectively.
MacDonald named Andrew Borkett as the Player of the Game, saying “Andrew didn’t play a lot, but he really demonstrated the right character and behaviours. He was enthusiastic and encouraging for every moment when he was on the bench, and having that kind of support from your team-mates is priceless, his belief in us kept us in the game in stretches.”
Up next for the Cambs team is Cambridge Cats on Sunday 24th February at 4:15pm at Skyliner
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