Ridge coach Wilson urges calm despite heavy defeat

Ridge boss Francis Wilson is refusing to press the panic button despite their humiliating defeat in their opening group A game in the ongoing 2012 Indomie Community Dunks.

Ridge, playing in their fourth Community Dunks, were outclassed and outscored by an aggressive looking Burma camp side 43-20 in their opening encounter at the CYCC basketball court last Saturday.

The petite looking Ridge side were made to chase shadows on the court right from blast of jump ball as coach Wilson looked on dejected and frustrated with no answers to the onslaught from his opposite number.

Burma camp led 20-7 at the half, and shortly after coach Wilson’s’ boys used some pace and alacrity to cut the deficit at the start of the third quarter to 30-15.

But having re-established a double-digit lead, Burma camp held on to it and stretched it the rest of the way to win by an emphatic 43-20 victory.

There are many who believe Ridge will be the whipping boys of this year’s competition but coach Wilson, nicknamed ‘Soweto’  insists there is no need for the fans to despair.

“We lost against a very strong side and so I believe we shouldn’t panic at all,” Wilson told BASKETBALLghana.com

“As you saw, they were physically bigger than my boys and so they found them difficult to contain,”

“This is the first time most of them are playing in such a high-profile competition and so definitely the stage fright was there,”

“However we will go back to the drawing board and correct our mistakes and come back stronger this Saturday,”

“We are not going to give up at all.”

Ridge will take on rivals Cantonment in a must win encounter at the same venue  knowing anything short of victory could kill off their ambitions of earning a semi-final berth.

Their last group game will be against Nima-Maamobi on August 18.