After a tough win on the road at YMCA, we were looking forward to what we thought would be a much easier match-up, on the road at Canute 2.

With forwards Matt Thompson and Adrian Willey ruled out for the night, we brought in Craig Cefferty and Jonny Harter from the U18's team in the hopes of getting them some good minutes.

We started out in a man to man defence as regular starters Adam Smith, James Burns and Anthony Barrand were joined by Ian Brown and Coach Anthony Worthington.

The first quarter was fairly sloppy for us. We missed some easy shots and lacked our usual intensity on the defensive end. Although we had the lead, we had no real sense of urgency. This continued into the second as Canute slowly built an eight point lead.

We started the third still trailing by eight and that quickly became ten. We were just way too lax at times. We took a quick time out, talked it over and emerged from the huddle firing on all cylinders. Typical! We really need to be closing these kind of games out much sooner. We went on a 13-2 run, which included three straight 3-pointers from Adam Smith.

Canute started to pull back in the fourth, though James Burns and Ryan Curley's fast breaks kept us ahead by three. Canute stepped it up another notch in the closing minutes and following a four point play, were within three. Our plan was to hold on to the ball and await the foul without losing possession. Mission accomplished and a six point win for us.

This game was much closer than it should have been. Canute 2 have a good spirited group and a very handy point guard, but with the way we've been playing this season, this should have been a lot easier.