Ipswich went into this game looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the season, whilst their opponents, Eastside Eagles, were looking to get their season finally started, after two losses in their opening two games.
Ipswich were fully prepared for the game with a full squad, whilst Eastside made their difficult task even harder by only bringing six players with them.
The first quarter started off with both teams being quite edgy with each other, and with nearly six minutes gone the score was still only 4-0 to Ipswich.
The home side were getting the stops defensively, but just weren’t quite executing on offence.
However, Luke Mascall-Wright was introduced into the fray and he injected energy and pace into the Ipswich team instantly, and after a burst of scoring, Ipswich lead 22-7 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter began the same as the first for Ipswich.
They were slightly slower out of the blocks than their opponents, who initially were outscoring Ipswich 10-4, but once again the introduction of Mascall-Wright proved to be the catalyst the team needed and following a big dunk from him, Ipswich were ignited and restored their advantage, finishing the half 39-25 up.
The third quarter began with Ipswich continuing to dominate the boards, particularly with captain Tom Sadler and star centre Leigh Greenan, but on offence both teams seemed to be struggling a little.
Halfway through the quarter only 12 points had been scored between both teams, but Ipswich were maintaining their advantage, and starting to pull away gradually.
Eastside had an opportunity to grasp the momentum of the game, with an intentional foul being called in their favour, but they missed both foul shots and Ipswich came straight back at them to extend their lead to 20 points.
The quarter continued to see-saw back and forth, with Eastside coming back with a 6-0 run, but Sadler hit a big shot to stop Eastside’s streak, and once again Mascall-Wright helped to spark another surge, including a big alley-oop play, as Ipswich put on a 7-0 burst to end the quarter 58-39 ahead.
The final quarter followed the pattern of the rest of the game, with Eastside starting better, putting on a 5-0 run, but Sadler and Greenan steadied the ship, working in tandem on offence to push Ipswich’s advantage back up to 20 points.
New guard Josh Johnson continued to dish out assists – he would finish the game with 12 – and late in the quarter Ipswich switched to a full court press, which caused Eastside all sorts of problems and effectively ended the game as any sort of contest.
The clock wound down with Ipswich running out comfortable winners, 72-54.
Other club results: Ipswich U16 boys 56 Bucks Hornets 74, Ipswich U13 boys 44 London Pioneers 58
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