Myerscough will get the chance to defend their EABL title as they battled past Itchen College on Wednesday afternoon, grabbing a 74 – 58 win over the South Coast team.
Zion Tordoff and Kyle Carey had 17 points each for Myerscough, who used a 28 – 8 second quarter to blow the tie wide open. Despite a 16 point outing from Dan Hemingway, Itchen were unable to overcome a 21 point half time deficit.
“I think as a team we rose to the occasion, we came out from the tip with a lot of energy which really set the tone,” said Tordoff.
After a nip and tuck first quarter, Myerscough came out firing in the second knocking down 5 triples to hold a 48 – 27 lead going into the break.
“It was the best basketball I’ve seen from us all season, we capitalised on great defence and really found some rhythm on the offensive end,” said Myerscough head coach Neal Hopkins when asked about Myerscough’s second quarter.
“Matt Guymon has done a great job at Itchen, he’s an incredible coach and has his guys playing intelligent, high level basketball – I knew it would take something special to beat them.”
Itchen, who were visibly tired fought back in the third, a Theo King three followed by some smart inside play from Hemmingway narrowed the score to 14 points but the home side responded with a 6 point run to end the quarter, opening the gap to 20.
It was a lead that Myerscough would not relinquish. “We were locked in over the course of the game, we followed the scout and played well as a unit,” said Kyle Carey.
“It feels great to be in this position (on the way to the finals) this was the goal, we have to stay hungry and get the job done next week”.
Ayo Nuwe and Raheem Idris joined Carey and Tordoff in double digit scoring for Myerscough, with 12 and 10 respectively whilst Jahred Joseph added to Hemingway’s 16 with 13 points
for Itchen, Selby Hind-Wills finished with 10.
Myerscough will now await the result of tomorrow’s other semi-final between COLA and Charnwood.