Following on from last week’s comprehensive victory over the Celtics, Sentinels knew they had a chance of winning, not least because the opposition have lost players through injury and key player Pablo Fuertes has left the Island.This caused the veteran Warriors front line of Greg Ruellan and Paul Duckworth problems, but with support from Nick Jewell, they still scored regularly.In defence, however, they were failing to shut Sentinels out, allowing under-rated forward Shaun Maloret to pick up some easy points following his return to the sport.By the end of the first quarter the Sentinels had opened up an impressive 21-9 lead.
A determined Warriors’ team came out fighting in the second quarter, with Duckworth doing his best to pull his team back into the match.
Without some gravity-defying shots from Gerardo Garcia, the Sentinels would have found themselves in trouble although frequent fouls meant the Warriors rightly punished them.
However, late baskets from Maloret and John Small allowed the Sentinels to end the half with a slender 33-26 advantage.Sentinels opened the second half in a more settled manner, allowing their high defensive momentum a platform for the offence to work from.
Warriors used every opportunity they could find to draw themselves back into the game and found a productive source of points when 6 ft 5 in centre Richard Michel was mis-matched against smaller opposition.This allowed the Warriors some room for manoeuvre but again, as fatigue set in, they slackened in defence.
James Walker was exploiting the fast break extremely well and was given support under the boards from Small who began to rack up the points.
Under the guidance of Blakemore, the Sentinels again drew away from the Warriors through contributions from Cieron Cullinan and Glenn Coxon.
