New Year, New Start for Guildford Heat

The Heat served up a much needed New Year's tonic with a 99-67 blow-out of the visiting Durham Wildcats.

In front of a large and noisy New Year Day crowd and behind a season-high 30 points from Martelle McLemore, who attacked the basket and picked his spots for his three-point shot, the Heat dominated the game. After the Wildcats scored the first basket of the New Year, Mike Martin levelled the scores at 2-2, the start of a 13-0 Heat run. After the Wildcats briefly threatened to get back into the game with a 7-2 run to make it 15-9, the Heat went on a 16-6 run in the last five minutes of the quarter to make it 31-15.

The Wildcats hung around in the second quarter, the Heat leading 50-38 at half-time, but they came out on fire in the second half, an 11-5 run establishing a commanding lead. After the Wildcats cut the lead to 16, at 64-45, the Heat blitzed them with a 14-0 run which saw the Heat score on six consecutive possessions and featured eight points from Martelle. At one point he scored 12 straight points for the Heat. This run pushed the lead out to 30 at 75-45 with three minutes to play in the third. The Heat led by 28, 80-52, going into the fourth and the result was never in doubt, the Heat running out 99-67 winners.

Martelle led the way with 30 points, shooting 12-16 from the field, including five of six from three-point range, easily his best outing for the season. By attacking the basket, it opened up the three point line for Martelle. Tayo continued his strong form with 21 points, including some thunderous dunks. He also added eight rebounds. Mike Martin had another strong game with 17 points, JJ adding 14 and Shaun adding 10 points and eight rebounds.

For the Wildcats, DJ Galvin top-scored with 19 points, with Mario Flaherty recording a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Ralph Bucci had 10 points. The Heat return to the Surrey Sports Park on Sunday, 29th January when they host the Milton Keynes Lions.