High Peak made their first visit of the season to us and we were feeling pretty confident going into our last game before the Christmas break.

We were without starters James Burns & Matt Thompson, so we had to get 25 points, hustle and fast breaks from elsewhere.

Adam Smith & Ryan Curley started in the backcourt, joined by Ian Brown, Ant Barrand and Adrian Willey.

We got off to a reasonably good start and we knew we'd have to play some very disciplined defence, knowing that we only had seven senior players for the night.

High Peak sat in a 2-1-2 all game and this ordinarily can suit us down to the ground. Our perimeter game has been excellent these past few games and Adam Smith's long range efforts continued against High Peak as he hit back to back threes, followed by Anthony Worthington's bomb on the buzzer to end the opening quarter. The first half was dominated by three-pointers and I must admit that the open invitation to keep on shooting was quite a surprise.

Our shooting however slowed down at times and we were very inconsistent in the second half. Although we never forced any shots and all had excellent looks at the basket, shots would just not drop.

We stayed in our typically tough man to man defence throughout the game and although our perimeter defence was shaky at times, we were solid on the inside. Ant Barrand had a good eight blocks on High Peaks shot and lay-up attempts. Although Ant has been consistently strong on the defensive end for us all season, we really needed him to step up and do more with us being a starting forward down. Adrian Willey was also a big pressence on the defensive end, but picked it up offensively too as he had a season high with 10 points.

We lead most of the way by four or five points at a time, but on the back of some fast breaks and free throws, we went up by 10 before High Peak started their comeback.

We made a few careless turnovers in the fourth and this opened the door for High Peak to come right back and tie the game up. With High Peak having to foul with time running out, they were unlucky to pick up an unsportsmanlike foul and send us to the line for two and possession. They then turned the ball over with a backcourt violation in the dying seconds and we were able to hold on to a three point win.

Ryan Curley lead the way for us with 26 and hit some clutch free-throws to secure the win towards the end. Stuart Wilson put in some excellent minutes for us and is getting better with every game he plays -- his reverse lay-up and big foul (that went uncalled) was the play of the game!