Hoop Addict
Years ago
Sabres down Tigers
The Sabres tonight have recorded two victories at St Peters College against the Southern Tigers.
The girls game started evenly, with the Sabres taking a narrow lead into quarter time. Sturt blew the game apart in the 2nd quarter though, the scoreline reading 47-28 at the main break. The momentum shifted in the 3rd, as Sturt shot a woeful 1/19 (5.26%) en route to 3 points for the entire term. This allowed the Tigers to cut the lead to single digits, as Beatty & Cooper started to find some form. From there the Sabres settled, with some nice mid range jump shots from Hannah Bowley & tough defence in the last quarter, they managed to pull out a relatively comfortable 73-56 victory.
Sturt benefitted from Hannah Bowley's 18 points off the bench, while Marino (14 points) & Brigid Bowley (13 points) contributed solidly. Desite Monique Bowley's shooting touch was off (2/12 FGs) she still managed a double-double with 12 points (6/6 FTs) and 13 rebounds, and did her best to negate Beatty (19 points & 12 boards).
The mens game was sluggish, with both teams missing key personnel (Sturt without coaches Bauer & D. Smyth, as well as Gower & Tigers missing Gerlach & Alexander). The first quarter was fairly even, Southern holding a 25-24 advantage at the quarter time break. Braithwaite proved a livewire, getting to the basket & hitting some nice jumpshots, while Matt Clarke was making some crisp assists. Ng started well, scoring 7 of Sturts first 9 points, but cooled off for the remainder of the quarter, due to some presure D from Clarke. The 2nd and 3rd quarters were low-scoring & fairly evenly matched. The Tigers appeared to be playing with more desire & executing much more efficiently, but Sturt were always within striking distance. Dave Bowley was a machine on the boards until he picked up his 4th foul towards the end of the 2nd quarter, while Ben Hodges kept the scoreboard ticking over.
Going into the final term the Tigers lead 58-55. From there, it was the Darren Ng show. While Southern still appeared to be the better side, they simply had no answer for Ng. Within the first 3 minutes of the final term, Darren had amassed 9 points, and Sturt had taken back the lead. After that, anytime Southern challenged, Darren found an answer. He finished the 4th term with 22 points (out of Sturts 29) & his tally for the game was 43 (32 in the 2nd half). Ng shot 18/33 Fgs (4/10 3s), which is quite impressive considering the amount of jumpshots in that total.
Sturts other 2 main offensive targets were sub-par. Smylie just couldn't get anything going, finishing with 6 points on 3/15 FGs, having blown a lot of relatively easy inside shots. He did toil hard on the boards though, collecting 13. Forman also pulled down 13 boards, and hit a couple of key shots but overall didn't have a great impact on the game. As usual, Palmer & Hakkendorf did a lot of the dirty work for the Sabres, with Palmer hauling in 9 rebounds in 18 minutes, while Hakkendorf had 6 boards & 7 assists.
For the Tigers, it was a vintage Ben Hodges game. Back to his best with a variety of crafty inside moves, mid range jumpers & just knowing how to be in the right spot at the right time. To everyones amazement - he even knocked a 3! Braithwaite started well, and finished with 22 points, but needed 25 shots to get it & appeared to force some shots early in the offence. Lalic & Bowley were both very solid, pulling down 14 boards apiece & finishing off when required. Goodenough was uninspiring in his 19 minutes while Clarke made some flashy passes on his way to 10 assists.
You have to admire the Tigers heart & hussle, but ultimately, they couldn't contain Ng when it mattered most.
