THE U12 Shoalhaven Tiger men did not have to travel far for round two of the Southern Junior League competition, playing at their home courts in the Tigers Den.
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With three games scheduled for the weekend, the playing group was quietly confident of some good results for the weekend, hopefully keeping them in the race for the finals series.
Game one saw the Tigers take on our neighbours from up the road in the Illawarra Hawks.
The Tigers got off to a flying start and were never really challenged by their opponents, running out 32-14 winners.
Game two saw them up against one of the three Canberra sides in the competition. Playing against Canberra Gunners Blue, the game was a real see-sawing affair. The Tigers got out to an early lead before the Gunners pegged them back, and this was pretty much how the whole game was played.
Holding a 15 point lead at half-time, some early second half foul trouble saw the Tigers let the Gunners back into the game.
Plenty of player rotations saw all players contribute great things to the side and the Tigers were able to hold on, eventually winning 54-43.
Sunday morning came and game three saw Shoalhaven take on the might of Canberra Gunners Gold, a talented side that are undefeated throughout the competition. Once again the home boys were right in the thick of things early, trailing narrowly by two points at quarter-time.
Canberra then stepped up their game plan, playing a solid defensive game on the Tigers that at times saw them struggling to penetrate out of the back half. Although outplayed by an extremely well drilled and skilled side, Shoalhaven never gave up, battling all the way to the final whistle, eventually going down to the Gunners number one side 67-21.
It was a successful weekend for the boys, and their results have them sitting in equal third position on the ladder with one round remaining before the finals. Every player on the team should be proud of the efforts that they put in over the weekend, and being at their home stadium, there were plenty of pleased and happy family members watching on.