SACBA Week 3

The Reds were playing two derbies this weekend - the A's and B's and the E's and F's. Derbies are never fun ... but guess they are part of being awesome. Only 2 teams now are undefeated - the A's and the D's.

Next week I promise I will return to the sweet links that I have added in previous years. It has been a rush this year to get these reports up. If you ever have any funny links just email them through.

The stats are updated here ... including the ridiculous 62 points by Mike Hill. We have all heard the story, we will hear about it for the rest of our lives ... let's pretend it never happened.

To the reports: 

A’s (3-0) v B’s (2-1) - Time once again for the “Dance With Your Sister” Derby - it is quite a one sided competition - from my quick calculations we would have played each other 20 times - the A’s winning 18-2. The A’s had their familiar line-up (minus Tauny) and the B’s had their full team for the first time this year with Lachy back from his back injury, Manners in for his first game and Kartik back in the line up. 

The A’s jumped out to a 7-0 start - Phil hit a 3 and Orks scored inside for a couple of baskets. The B’s shot a bevy of free throws but only scored one field goal in the first half. Jack hit a 3, Phil hit another and Orks, Hobbs and Foo kept scoring inside. A’s up 21-10 at half time. The B’s went to a man in the 2nd half - Lachy scored inside and Big Phill hit a jumper for the B’s but the A’s kept getting to the line and kept the lead in double figures. As the B’s put in one last effort to come back Jack stole the ball and scored on the break and then hit a short jumper. Jono and Mike scored some late baskets but the A’s defence was too much and the B’s lack of chemistry was all too much. A’s win 42-26 - Orks had 12, Jack 10 and Phil 9 for the A’s, Jono had 9, Angus, Lachy and Kartik 4. Captain 62 had 2. 

C’s (2-1) v Hope A - Written by G - Round 3 we were up against Hope A. Hope was pretty much all they had, because they didn’t bring a lot of basketball. We started well, getting many open shots but not a lot was dropping. Goody and Nick were cleaning up on the offensive glass all game. With 3 bigs on Hendo had to play the 3 role and did a good job, hitting a nice jumper from the foul line. Half time we were up 24-5. Second half was more of the same, with the refs feeling like they were left out of the first half calling 15 fouls to 7 in the first half. Once again our shooting from the line let us down (4/14 in the second half, 29%). We won 43-15. Top scorers were G with 12, Goody with 11, Nick with 8.

D’s (3-0) v St Casmir A - Written by Sime - The D's faced up against the green machine of St Casimir (the team with Vytis on the singlet - am guessing there's some religious context - sounds like a job for Orks or Palk *).  From seeing them at the court last week, they looked a decent size with a couple of athletic looking types.  We started in a 2-3 zone given it had been working - it continued to work.  We moved well to close out on shooters, intercepted some passes and then got running - always helps with the Road Train pulling the big boards and giving outlet passes.  We opened up a handy buffer of perhaps 15 points before we let Vytis get on the board, Ned doing some damage in the first half with 8 cutting points**.  With 3's in the 1st half to Reg, Stu, Brendan and Palk, Vytis came out to anything on range, further opening up the key and allowing Ned that space along with Brendon and Josh to get some good looks.  

We went into the break up 24-8, and as we've done so far this year, backed it up in the second.  We only allowed 3 players to score each half, #35 the most dangerous - but after drawing a charge & then a couple of cheap fouls under the ring, he was fouled off to leave Vytis with just 4 to finish the last couple of minutes.  But the damage was done by then - Brendon continuing to be the Everywhere Man - getting good positions for put-backs, on the break or working that southpaw of his for an 8 pt half & 11 point game.  Reg hit a couple of nice passes on the break, Ned finishing a great running game with 10 points (but only 2 from 7 at the stripe - much to Palk's amusement - and was the first time I'd heard him called Edward).  Nice to have Palk coming off the bench for some shooting power, he & Josh had 6 each. Another solid win - 44-17.  Only downside was our foul shooting - just 6 from 18 as a team.

Thanks to Udit for doing the heavy lifting of the pen for our game - I like that rather than signing the Scorer section of the scoresheet he just wrote 'UDIT'.

* Saint Casimir is the patron saint of Lithuania - Vytis (the White Knight) is the state emblem of Lithuania
** both a joke and a comment about him slicing to the bucket - see what I did there?

E’s (2-1) v F’s (1-1) - Written by Max - Up until Wednesday night the E's thought they had the week off with a bye, but with a late regrading of Taperoo, were suddenly facing a derby with the F's. Neither team was to be at full strength with the E's without a holidaying Bubs, and Tye still out injured. The F's were down on numbers as well, though they recruited well last minute picking up G-man from the C’s. The game started off super intense with the umpires seemingly happy to allow a physical style of play. The E's looked good rotating the ball well to find a wide open Max for a long jumpshot and a pair of 3 pointers. Rough Justice was leading the fast breaks and everyone running hard to provide support. For the F's Orken was proving difficult to handle with his athleticism around the hoop. The F's kept racking up the fouls though too, sending the E's into the bonus and to the line. The start of the second half was a grind, with more fouls than points. The E's only managed 1 point in the first twelve minutes, allowing the F's to creep closer. When G-man started to string together some points, and Hanzalik slashed through the lane for a layup, it looked like they were building momentum. However a 3-pointer from Foo and converted 3-point play by Cam kept the E's nose in front, controlling the final minutes to keep a safe lead. With only 6 teams left in the league this was the first of many derbys this season. Brad and Max had 8 points each for the E's, and G-man had 9 points and Hanzalik 6 points for the F's.

F's written by Phil - A few schedule and venue changes later and the Fs were up against our interclub rivals in the Es. The disappointment of not playing against Taperoo was soon replaced with some extensive preplanning on how to take out Bubs and nullify the influence of B-Rad down low. The morning of the game saw us with 5 players and the recruiters went into overdrive with Palky snaring club champ G and Tone ringing in the handy Nico for a very reluctant run. After asking everyone to be there early, Phil was late (buying beer and driving round the block after missing the driveway. Twice.) so the pregame chat was replaced with uniform swaps and lots of bloke in undies on the sidelines. E’s Max hit a three on their first offence but after that it settled into a bit of a grind as both teams focused down low without causing the scorers too much trouble. Meanwhile our fouls were racking up sending E’s to the line in the later stages of the half. 21-15 at halftime, Jon and Nico both having 4 on the board.
Our D in the opening stanza of part 2 was pretty damn good. We held the E’s to a single point in the first 10 min while Jon and Toma finished awesome drives and closing the gap to 20-22. A few fortuitous baskets back to back to the E’s as well as a 3 from Dan Foo pushed them ahead and although G stepped up his scoring to keep us in touch, we were never able to bridge the gap. Again our ball control let us down a bit and while we focused our D on their inside game and did really well holding them at bay, the 3x3pointers from Max and Foo stretched us too far in the end. Final score 34-26. Jon and Toma both with 5 and G with 9.

Play of the Day
Anyone who has seen Hansolo at his best knows it’s a pretty awesome sight. His drive on Saturday started well beyond the foul line and finished inches from the ring with a trademark figure roll. It’ll be tough move to beat for play of the year.

The Bjork Report.
Points required: 38, Points this week: 0, Points required for average: 58

Bjork had a tough game this week with nothing rolling his way, including his own common sense. The stakes have now been raised with additional bets made on a 25+game. Bjork is banking on us doing a Mike-esk loaded match but what he doesn’t realize is we already pass him the ball on every offense!

Quote of the week: “How about a 68? Its like a 69 but I’ll owe you one”. Reggie Miller
 

G’s (0-2) v Knightsbridge A - Written by Hitman - After a week’s hiatus, G-Force returned to the court, this week in the familiar surrounds of Cedar College.  As a change from our repeated contests against SPOC, our opponents were the unfamiliar Knightsbridge, a team that had come down from the grade above in the off-season.  They appeared to be a team long on youth but short on inches, and a scouting report suggested they hadn’t met a shot they wouldn’t take.  As the game commenced the Redmen moved the ball well around the perimeter and got good open looks, while at the other end the White Knights considered a two-pass offence to be overuse of the ball.  Neither side were causing any significant wear on the nets, though, but a surprise time-out from the Whites (they must’ve needed to rest their shooting arms) gave the Reds an opportunity to regroup and change to a more balanced inside-outside offence – the Whites were as unfamiliar with the concept of ‘second pass’ on D as they were on O.  When play resumed the scoring really began, and although the Reds looked the better team, the Whites’ volume shooting started to pay dividends for them and the score remained close.  The Reds went into the break leading 17-16, but came out 17-18 down; an officious twit in stripes decided that Phil standing up to speak to us before adding up the scores on the sheet was sufficient excuse to show us how important he was by awarding the opposition 2 points for “no scorer”.  The second half began with a traditional Reds scoring drought and a White scoring binge as they got out to a multi-basket lead.  A time-out and regroup staunched the bleeding momentarily, but then their point guard decided a one-pass offence was one pass too many and started taking crazy off-balance shots.  Demonstrating this really is Church ball, his prayers were repeatedly answered.  Down by double-figures, the Reds started a late come-back but the combined efforts of the opposition and the phantom no-scorer were too much to overcome, the final score 40(+2) to 39.  Dillon led the way with 16 points in a superb performance, and Reid gave him strong support with 8.

Lady Reds (2-1) v St Casmir A - Two Lady Reds came out on fire - Tracey and Alicia couldn’t miss - the Reds had 22 points at half time and those two had all 22 points. Alicia was bombing from long and Tracey was getting inside and hitting runners. Up 14 at half time the 2nd half was more of a grind with the St Casmir girls hitting lots of jumpers. Tomo’s sister Claire joined the Reds this week and scored 8 points in the 2nd half. Wans scored her first basket for the year and cheered with her Wans-esque enthusiasm. Alicia hit another 3 and the Reds won by 14 - 39-25. Alicia had 17, Tracey and Claire had 8 each.   

Palky’s Top 3 Players of the Week

3rd - Dillon Haydon/Josh Orken

2nd - Alicia Woodrow

1st - Jack Harford 

Game Times - Week 4:

I will need to send an update during the week - the schedule is still not available. 

Subs: 

This is the last week to pay your subs or make arrangements to pay.