Play Lobwick • Free

Every team you meet was made up for Lobwick, and each defends in its own way. The Harbor Owls play steady man-to-man. The Saltmarsh Otters sit in a 2-3 zone, and the Mosswood Elks in a 3-2 zone, so the gaps are in different places. The Copperfield Stags deny every catch, the Lantern Bay Gulls switch on every screen instead of getting caught on it, and the Ironside Foxes send two defenders at the ball after a catch, which always leaves someone open. The Ember Valley Kites press so hard you only get 20 seconds on the shot clock, and the Brightwater Cranes mix it all up with the fastest hands in the league.

You meet them in order, each one a little quicker on the beat than the last. Win five of the eight and the season's title is yours; the season board shows how many titles you've won. Finish the season and a new one starts, where every rival's hands switch faster, give a shorter warning, and score more often on their own possessions.

Your goal in every match is to outscore the rival over four quarters of 90 seconds on the game clock, with a 45-second overtime whenever the score is level at the end. The scoreboard shows your lead or how far behind you are. The game clock runs while the ball is live on your possession, and each of your possessions has a 24-second shot clock.

Between your possessions the rival has the ball, and you see it played on the court: their five, in their colours, attack the same hoop while yours defend. They pass it round two or three times and then shoot, and how often they score depends on how good that team is on offence. It takes about five seconds, and a tap skips straight to the result. Each of your own possessions starts from a new formation, and your teammates run set pieces from it: cuts to the basket, screens, flares to the wing, swaps, post-ups and give-and-go cuts after a pass. A tag marks any teammate who is open.

How much green the release meter gives you depends on the shot you've built. A shot with no pass at all is cold, with a small window; each completed pass opens it up, and shooting within a second of a catch is in rhythm, for a bigger window still. Close to the rim gives the most time, deep shots the least, and a defender nearby takes some away, which the meter shows as a striped stretch in the colour of their hands.

Each of your five has a role, shown by the letter on their badge: a guard, a shooter, a wing, a forward and a center. Shooters are best from deep, centers and forwards near the rim, wings from the middle, and a tag under the ball handler sums up the shot from where they stand: their role, whether it's worth 2 or 3, and whether it's cold, in rhythm, open or guarded. Rise next to a defender whose hands are raised and the shot can be blocked.

When you let go, the meter holds where you released and calls it PERFECT, GOOD, EARLY or LATE. A release in the white core is a swish; the rest of the green goes in; just outside it rattles in or rims out; further out falls short or long, and holding on far too long is an airball.

The close view is a low camera that runs behind the ball and looks up the court at the hoop, so the shooter and the rim are always in shot. The wide view sits high behind your team and shows the whole half court at once. Switch with the VIEW button or the V key at any time during play; phones start in the close view and computers in the wide one, and your choice is remembered.

In the close view some teammates will be off screen. An arrow on the edge of the screen points to each of them with their number and role, turning green when they're open and red when a pass to them would be stopped right now. Tap or flick on the arrow just as you would on the player.

There are no instruction screens. The first possession of your first match is coached on the court: a banner walks you through a chest pass, a bounce pass, a lob and a shot, one at a time, and a glowing ring marks the teammate for whom that pass is safe right now. The banner moves out of the way so it never covers the ball handler or the meter, the shot clock waits until you've finished, and a SKIP button lets you start playing straight away. Choose COACH ME on the title screen to go through it again at any time.

Your season number, the result and score of every game this season, your best score in a single game, how many titles you've won, whether you have been coached, your sound setting and your camera view are saved on Unihfy Games in this browser.

Your score here is the number of points your team scores in a match. Leaving a match from the timeout menu doesn't count as a loss.