SACBA Week 8 Results - Ejected!

Saturday July 13 we have a bye - so we are organising a social event. We are planning on doing a "Beer Appreciation Tour" in the Adelaide Hills. This would involve us getting on a bus at Midday at The Seven Stars and hitting a few venues in the Adelaide Hills. There will be a cost for us to hire the bus, so we will be asking people to chip in (about $20-$25) - we are still in negotiation. We will be emailing this week with specific details re: Start Times, Cost, Venues etc. We will need RSVPs so we can get the right sized bus.

Milestones: Matt "Rough Justice" Just played his 100th game for the club this week. Roughie joined the club in 1999. He won a title in 2003 with the C’s in Southern 3 (the game where Max hit 2 FTs after the buzzer to win). It was in that game that I saw him play for the first time and thought “why am I not playing with this guy – he is awesome”. The next year in 2003 he joined the B’s – with me, Max, Brad and BB. We had a funny year – won the last game to beat the 4^th placed team and squeaked into the finals. We won the Elimination Final, won in a blowout in the Qualifying Final and then made the GF. In the Grand Final, Matt played his best game of the season hitting two 3s (which I note cos Matt can’t shoot 3’s). Roughie has amazing hands defensively – he is one of the best on-ball defenders ever to play for our club – he would have had multiple games that season with over 10 steals. After that season, Matt went away for work but was never far away from the club – he is one of the great social members of the basketball club. Now he is back in Adelaide after almost 10 years away it is great to have him back and he is playing good basketball for the E’s and the Thursday team. Congrats Matt.

Name	Year	Games	Pts Tot	Pts Avg	FTA	FTM	FT%	3s	Fouls	Hi
Just	1999	12	66	5.5	10	3	30.0%	4	11	14
Just	2000	2	15	7.5	2	2	100.0%	1	0	9
Just	2002	12	94	7.8	41	15	36.6%	1	35	13
Just	2003	17	123	7.2	41	11	26.8%	5	38	14
Just	2004	38	187	4.9	60	23	38.3%	4	63	12
Just	2005	2	6	3.0	0	0	~	0	6	4
Just	2007	5	16	3.2	5	1	20.0%	1	8	7
Just	2008	1	6	6.0	0	0	~	0	0	6
Just	Total	89	513	5.8	159	55	34.6%	16	161	14

Goody also played his 100^th on Saturday (I wrote a piece for him last week). His family celebrated in style.

 

The stats are up-to-date here.  With the stats and blog – does someone want to help me out in August and September by collecting the A Grade scoresheets and get all the Reds sheets, entering them into the website and also putting together the blog? I will be away for a few weeks so if you could help out that would be appreciated. There is beer in it for you. Just shoot me an email/FB message. I can show you what you need to do - all pretty easy.

To the reports:

A’s (5-2) v Gateway A (7-1) – Gateway are top of the ladder and it was the first time this year they had their 3 best guards (Jo Vujecic, Cal McKinnon and Kerwin Penn). Gateway jumped early with Jo making tough layups on the break and short jumpers. The A’s stayed close in the first half with Orks and Corey getting scores inside and Jack hitting a couple of 3’s. Jo had 19 in the 1^st half and the Reds down 7 (21-28). The Reds hung around with 3’s – Jack and Hobbs hit 1 and Phil hit 2. The refs took the game away and called it a bit one sided, the Reds got frustrated and got 4 techs called - they converted 6 of 8 FTs. Kerwin got a late steal and hit a massive 3 to ice the game. Reds lost 42-52. Orks had 10, Jack 9 and Corey 8. For the record – Liam picked up 2 techs and was ejected, increasing his lead as the most ejected player in Old Reds history – his 5^th that I can remember – no crazy legs involved.

B’s (5-3) v Brighton A – Brighton were missing 2 of their 3 best players and the B’s were too big and too skilled. The B’s defence is their best attribute and they shut down Brighton’s shooters and Goody did a great job on their big guy. Ned and Darcy were scoring on the break and the Reds up 19-10 at halftime – should have been more but they had 10+ turnovers in the 1^st half. The 2^nd half, Ned got hot from 3, Davey was scoring inside – it was a pretty nothing game with Brighton keeping it closer than it should have been by using all 4 timeouts and it became a grind. Reds win 42-23 – Ned had 15, Darcy 8 and Davey 6.  

The B’s move into 3^rd and the A’s go to 4^th (they have a game in hand and will play Happy Valley twice on August 3).

SACBA A/B Grade
Team	Played	Wins	Draw	Loss	Points
SPOC A	8	7	0	1	22
Gateway A	8	7	0	1	22
PAOC B	8	5	0	3	18
PAOC A	7	5	0	2	17
Corner B	8	4	0	4	16
Happy Valley A	7	4	0	3	15
Knightsbridge A	8	3	0	5	14
Brighton A	8	1	0	7	10

A Grade Player of the Month – July

James Smith – Gateway A

C’s (8-0) v The Corner B – As you probably know, The Corner beat the then D’s in the Grand Final last year – so there is a lot of feeling from the Reds. The Corner’s best player is #9 – Manners did a great job staying in his pocket in the first game they played them, so he would be guarding him again this game. G hit a 3 on the first possession – The Corner dribbled the ball up the court and off the ball #9 shoved Manners after an innocuous bump … unsportsmanlike. Manners missed the FTs, on the inbound G hit another 3. Corner dribbled the ball up, Manners playing close D on #9 40 feet from the basket … he didn’t like it and shoved him again … another unsportsmanlike … that’s two and he was ejected! G hit a couple more 3’s, Madman made some jumpers and Phill was scoring inside. To Corner’s credit they were making shots and kept it closer than it should have been. Thommo was absolutely ferocious (as Wans likes to say) on the glass and scored 3 baskets and went 2 of 4 from the line. C’s up 30-16 at halftime. The 2^nd half was still high tempo, high energy with the Reds not easing off – G hit a couple more 3’s, Manners got an O board and put back, Kobe scored inside and Madman continued his great season making a long j. Thommo carried on crashing the boards with the fervour of a fat kid attacking an all you can eat buffet – scoring 11 for the half (hitting 5 of 10 FTs for the game). Reds win 51-27 – Thommo had 19, G had 18 and Madman 6. This will go down as one of my favourite games ever.

D’s (5-3) v Taperoo A (1-1-6) – Written by Reggie - So the 1st rematch for the season saw us take on the Taperoo Angry Birds again*. After swapping a couple of early baskets due to our turnovers & poor ball handling, the D’s started to get their run on, Crawf & Jono getting busy around the key and Reggie hitting a 3 to open up a buffer. Kirkham came on dropped a bomb as well, while Crawf continued to get on the end of everything with a 9 point half. Jono was riding the bumps, heading to the line 3 times to tally 6 in the half (the team’s 9 from 20 for the game needs improvement though). The man-D was working well, Lunny particularly impressive down low with a couple of blocks & steals, to the point they were very hesitant to feed the post. The D restricted Taperoo to just 6 for the half, while we had 21 of our own. At the half we talked about looking after the ball and running them – and to be prepared for them to come out firing (or fiery?) in the 2nd - and to just suck it up if there were bad calls. We knew that the Birds didn’t have the skills to hurt us in a one-on-one game, except for their #24 who is big, aggressive and can carry the ball well. Which is exactly what their game plan was for the 2nd half -#24 taking it to the rack every time to draw fouls & go the line. He went 6 from 11 & scored 8 for the half, & while they had a little run to give them some confidence, we continued to try & play our game down the other end and had a good spread of scorers – Pritch & Jono hitting 3s, Wildy driving well & getting to the line, while Krantz & Lunny battled well on the glass. We weathered the storm and adjusted ok to them switching to man**, and while just outscored in the 2nd, we held on to a comfortable margin until the inevitable tech foul came against TAB. Ironically it was made AFTER they had been given the foul call they were looking for, #24 refusing to take his second foul shot after the tech & instead hurled the ball at the backboard in the dying seconds. Final score was 35-23, Crawf was best & bagged 11, Jono 9, Kirkham 5.

 

Epilogue- We all know how hungry Jono can be for the ball & to shoot (I’m told his favourite game as a kid was Hungry Hungry Hippos and that he’s always wanted to visit Budapest), but starting the 2nd half took this to a whole new level, when Jono got an DEFENSIVE rebound on a foul shot and put the ball back up. While it missed, there had already been a whistle so he saved himself the embarrassment of scoring for the Birds. Even still, playing with close mates can have its disadvantages and I don’t know he’ll live that down for a while…

 

* not their official name but I think it works

** as Richard III once yelled - a screen, a screen, my kingdom for a screen off the ball!

 

E's (3-5) V Knightsbridge B (2-1-5) – Win 43-32. REPORT TO COME

F’s (8-0) v Golden Grove A (4-4) – Written by Downtown - The F's came up against our toughest opposition, Golden Grove A, for the second time on Saturday. We only beat them by one point at the start of the season and we knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park this time around. They racked up a lot of fouls early and Jay thought "nah I'm not 'avin that rough play" and proceeded to lay a bloke about seven times his size flat on his back. This fella took not only one but two dives during the game, spending as much time laying on the floor as he was putting up terrible shots. Anyway, Golden Grove are the only team in the league that are stronger on the boards than we are. They're tall and can jump really really high, so we didn't get too many second chances in offence off missed shots.  We were three points up at the half, but tightened up our D in the second while getting more hungry in offence. Stu had a cracker and dropped a very timely triple to push us ahead and finish as our top scorer on 7. It was a tough and at times not very pretty game, but it was good for us to come up against some serious opposition to really test our team game. We got up in the second thanks to some hard defence and excellent and patient ball movement in offence. Brad got 4/5 from the line for the game, but the rest of us managed to contribute 0/8 free throws. We got up in a scrappy game against our likely Grand Final opponents 27-20. Stu had 7 and Brad had 6.

G’s (4-4) v Spicer A (1-7) – Written by Hitman - Once again the youth of G-Force faced the youth of Spicer.  As in the Week 1 match-up, G-Force brought more intensity to the “contest” (term used under advisement).  Brendan had obviously consumed a chocolate milk pre-game (and forgotten to wipe his top lip), and this must have fuelled his dominance of the contest from the opening tip, as he scoured the glass, terrorized the opposition guards bringing the ball up, ran the floor, and scored at will.  The rest of G-Force followed his example, hustling on D, forcing turnovers, grabbing almost all the boards that Brendan missed, running the lanes on the break and controlling the ball in the half-court.  When the fast break wasn’t an option, unselfish play and quick ball movement in the half-court resulted in good looks at the basket and kept the scoreboard ticking over.  By contrast the only route to the basket for Spicer was their tall kid, who managed to grab a couple of offensive boards that came right to him to score garbage buckets.  At the half G-Force led 19-6, Brendan with 12.  The second half saw a continuation of the first-half intensity from the entire team and even more dominance from Brendan, in one sequence he grabbed the defensive board, triggered the break, ran the floor and was the one to finish with the bucket.  The final score was 44-20, a just reward for a great team effort.  A pleasing aspect of the game was the return from the line – we went 8-12, they went 0-6.  Brendan amassed 23 points to beat the opposition by himself, as well as grabbing numerous rebounds and being everywhere on defence. Reid added 12, which included some crafty lay-ups on the break. 
 

Lady Reds (5-1-2) v Adelaide A – The Reds were missing Jordy, Loz and Emma and bought in one of Alicia’s work colleagues “Pratty”. They were playing Adelaide who the Reds have not beaten in 3 seasons and are the best team in the league. I am writing this report having not seen the game – just what I cobbled together from conversations with the girls. Before the game the Reds talked about how handsome their coach “Palky” is and how his sweet red/brown/grey beard makes him look like a young Clooney/Connery hybrid. The Reds were down 10-19 in the 1^st half  - kept close with Tracey and Alicia getting 2 baskets. The 2^nd half the refs called the game close and Adelaide struggled to adjust (they usually get away with physical play). Alicia was on fire hitting 2 threes and a long jumper. The Reds D was great and they were stifling Adelaide and Georgie and Wans were controlling the glass. The Reds made a lot of FTs (Pratty 3 of 4, Megan 2 of 2, Georgie 1 of 2 and Wans 1 of 2). Reds were up 1 (on the scoreboard – 3 on the scoresheet) with 25 seconds left. Adelaide had the ball and threw it long – Megan stole the ball and passed it ahead … with 10 seconds left Alicia took a 3 from the corner (not a shot she should have taken) … BANK and in! Reds win 28-22. Alicia had 16 in her best shooting game for the Lady Reds. The team is now putting it together after a poor first 4 weeks (tying a game they definitely should have won and losing a game against an ok team but not a great team). The Lady Reds have now shown themselves that they can beat anyone and they should be looking to win the whole league – it is their defence, effort and intensity is where they have shown they are better than anyone in the league.

Palky’s Super Top Trio – Week 8

This is a special week – a week where Brendon in the G’s would have normally finished first. Huge shout out to Alicia in the Lady Reds who had a cracker and has improved out of sight from last season and Neddles in the B’s who had his best game and is proving very valuable.

3^rd – Nathan Graham – C’s

2^nd – Thommo Oliphant - C’s
1^st  - Ryan Williams – C’s

This Week: Week 9

NOTE – A’s, B’s, C’s and Lady Reds are at SAINTS this week.

Date	Team	Opposition	Time	Stadium	Court
July 6	A	Brighton A	2.40	Saints	2
July 6	B	Gateway A	1.50	Saints	1
July 6	C	Unley Park A	1.00	Saints	2
July 6	D	Dunn A	1.00	Cedar	1
July 6	E	Saints C	2.40	Cedar	1
July 6	F	East All Stars A	1.50	Cedar	2
July 6	G	Saints E	3.30	Cedar	2
July 6	LR	Trinity A	3.30	Saints	2