Trail of the Lion King

Last Friday I thought I’d go to the basketball. SK Knights were at home to KT Sonic Boom and as they play right next to the Sports Complex subway stop, it’s only about ten minutes away from me. I got there at a quarter to seven and it was quite busy outside. I queued for a while longer than necessary at the ticket office due to the people in front of me all seeming to wait until they reached the counter before wondering where they might like to sit.

Outside beforehand.

My choice for this game was a seat behind one of the baskets, in the upper tier. It’s not one of the better views but I thought that it would be fairly empty and I’d be able to get some decent photos of the action when it was at the other end.

What I hadn’t considered was the noise from the speakers. The MC was spewing out his inanities at top volume long before tip-off and I could actually feel the sound waves. I moved to the back row so that the speakers were pointing away from me and covered my ears with my hands. Meanwhile, small children nearby were having paper tissues poked into their lugs by their parents. I kept wishing that I’d brought some of the left-over earplugs from when Mogwai were in town. I’ll certainly take some next time.

It was louder than it looked.

SK Knights went into the game in second place in the table and with a 12-4 record. KT Sonic Boom were mid-table having won eight and lost nine of their games so far. With those stats in mind I backed SK to win by at least five points.

As for the players, Sonic Boom had an American centre, Jasper Johnson, who had previously turned out for SK. He had a decent game, notching eleven points. Despite him being on court for over half the game I didn’t manage to get a single useable photo of him. Perhaps that’s what happens when you sit behind the basket in the back row.

So here’s one of the cheerleaders instead. Sorry Jasper.

The other American for Sonic Boom was a 6’9“ forward, Bryan Davis. I’m not sure what happened with him. He looked to have picked up a technical foul in the third quarter, but then went straight to the bench as if sent off. There’s nothing I can see in the stats though so maybe he just sat the rest of the game out in a huff.

Bryan Davis – KT Sonic Boom

The difference between the teams was Aaron Haynes of the SK Knights. He had another excellent game contributing thirty-three points and ten rebounds.

Slam dunk from Aaron Haynes.

Haynes was so influential that his team-mate Chris Alexander only got two minutes on court. He didn’t make much of a mark in that time, conceding a foul without scoring a point.

The other fella.

At half-time SK were three points up and going into the final couple of minutes they held a ten point lead. KT put my bet in danger though with a late rally and with a few seconds left they had a final attack whilst five points down. Fortunately they ballsed it up and I was able to collect my winnings.

Well done, lads.

The 69-64 win for the home side moved them up to joint top whilst the visitors slipped to eighth place.

This entry was posted on November 30, 2012 at 8:29 am and is filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.