Halloween is traditionally a night of frights and the Hornets looked set to leave the high flying visitors with egg on their face at one stage before the Tropics showed their class to get through to the next round of the Cup.

Q1 was straight out of the Coach's handbook for the Hornets. Wonderful tight defence and patient offence combined with an Andy Dudgeon shooting Masterclass to leave the Hornets 7 points up after 7 minutes and the Tropics having to work exceptionally hard to bring the quarter back to a two point lead for the Hornets at the end of the quarter.

Sam Bithell and John Whelan opened up quickly in Q2 to stretch the lead before the Tropics responded with some fine outside shooting. The Hornets defence was magnificent at this stage Sam Barnard, Jon Print and Guy Johnson all put their club before their body with some excellent rebounding and Gary Masson showed he still had spring to claim 2 "ring high" checks!. Andy popped 2 huge 3 point shots in a row to leave the Hornets up by 7 after 7 minutes of this quarter and the Tropics having scored only 23 points after 17 minutes of Basketball. Was the shock of the night on?

The Tropics now showed why there are unbeaten this year though and forced some errors from the Hornets, scoring quick baskets to leave the Hornets down by 1 at the break. The Hornets have a never say die attitude these days though and decided the comeback would now come by driving at the basket with Barney, John and James Howard all sinking baskets and free throws to again pull back the lead for the Hornets. But with 3 minutes of the quarter remaining the Tropics pulled out a Basketball Master Class of National League ability to score a 15 point unanswered spree against a tiring Hornets team.

The Hornets battled gamely in Q4 with Barney showing he can score from the outside as well as close in and Danny Wareham weaving some magic with his close control but the Tropics had grabbed the match and guarded their lead well.

Ultimately their had been no tricks on the night, but the match had been a treat!

http://www.holmeschapelbasketball.co.uk/match_reports/Tropics_31-10-2007.php