SACBA Week 6 results

MILESTONE: On Saturday – after 17 seasons of takings stats – Troy Tirrell finally played his 200^th. Troy (AKA Trev) has one record that no one will ever beat – he is the only player to play every season for the Old Reds Basketball Club … he has played all 23 seasons since the club was started in 1993.

Troy joined the club out of school and has been with us ever since. This is only his 200^th game in the stat keeping era but he was an integral member in the 6 years stats weren’t kept – playing in and running the Wednesday and Thursday teams as well as the Saturday B’s. He was one of the early leaders of the club and helped solidify its future as we were growing. Historically he is one of our most important members.

Trev has won 2 titles in his time in the club – one with the all-conquering D’s in 2005 (a team that had a 30 point per game winning margin) and the G’s in 2013 that had a great finals run. He was also a key member of the 2009 E’s that had a great run all season only to come up short in the Grand Final – Troy top scored. He was a key player/coach/organiser for the B’s in the 90s and early 2000s and he now lends his veteran savvy to the younger squads in the club.

He has won 2 team MVPs – one in the B’s in 1997 and in the E’s in 2009 and Best Team Man for Wednesday in 1994. He was the Club’s first Life Members (along with Sean Heylen) and he was the first player to play 20 years and he will likely be the first player to play 25 years.

He becomes the 20^th player to play 200 games … took him a while.

Well done.

A’s (5-1) v Oakden A – Written by Lachie - Coming into the game, down Corey and Parry, the A's knew they would have to step it up after last week. With LeBron wanting a man defence and Jack saying no, the A's started in the customary 2-3 zone. Big boxing out from Mike and LeBron let Liam go for double figure rebounds in the first half, with Fast Break Foo and Down Hill Jack getting out for easy fastbreaks. Garfoot started turning it up and making some tough contested shots, but aggressive defense from the guards soon brought this to an end. In the half court offensive quick movement inside got easy cutting layups for Foo and Liam, and big post moves for LeBron. Why doesn't he do that every week? When the defense started getting sucked in Mike and Liam made it rain. LeBron getting double boxed out meant Jack started racking up offensive boards and a few sweet tip ins. Oakden tried to make a late run in the second, but momentum was stopped by a wily timeout after back to back threes. PAC 65 - 28 Oakden. Jack 18, LeBron 14, Foo 12, Mike 12, Liam 11. Free throws 12/16. Much improved.

*Palky edit - this a crazy report ... I'm not sure what of these things did or did not happen - they actually won by 1 – 44-43 when Liam hit a game winner on the buzzer. Jack 18, Mike 8, Foo 7. I'm guessing Lachie is LeBron.

B’s BYE

C’s/White (3-1-2) v Influencers A – Written by Palky – The C’s would need to use their speed and nous to beat the young, athletic and unorthodox Influencers who surprisingly beat the E’s two weeks ago. By using their speed and nous, the C’s/White easily took care of business against the young, athletic and unorthodox Influencers. Just so everyone knows – don’t play man against the C’s – they love it! Their guards can beat their player of the dribble and BB, Tim and Dillon are all willing passers and Goody, Bubs and Hendo are too strong around the hoop to stop. The C’s set up their dominance early – establishing Goody in the low block. Defensively they were able to stay in front of the Influencers and make them take contested jumpers, they gobbled the boards and then ran and ran and ran with Moops and Bubs* getting on the end of the break (Moops had some amazing layups). The C’s won easily 50-22 and they are now starting to get it together as a team – I think they might be the team to beat. Bubs** had 20, Tim with 17 and Dillon 7.

*Worst name for an 80’s Cop Show ever.

**Palky’s Player of the Week

D's/Reds (3-3) v E's/Yellow (5-1) - Written by Palky - Yet another installment of Reds v Reds but in this case one of the Reds are the Yellows ... but they were wearing white. Reds in Red were missing Road Train so Morgan filled in in his place (can we call him Road Train Junior or Freight Train or Convoy). Yellow started well against the Reds' zone – hopefully I am not letting the cat out of the bag here … you don’t play zone against Yellow – they will kill you, too good at passing, too good at shooting. Palk, Mad, Stu and Future all hit 3’s and long jumpers, that spread the middle to allow Thommo to score inside. Marine was scoring for the D’s – but only a bit – and Yellow went in up 25-9 at half time. The 2^nd half Reds did what they should have done from the start and played man … and it was a grind. It was a mission in free throw futility, put nicely, when Thommo is the best free throw shooter on the court you know it isn’t pretty. Ned (AKA Tan Chino*) was getting to the line but airballed not one but two free throws. Big A and Thommo were too big inside, Stu and Foo a bit too crafty for Yellow. Simon hit some late baskets – a nice runner and a couple of jumpers for Red. Yellow win 33-17. Yellow – Stu had 10, Thommo 8, Future 6 – Red – Sime 6, Marine 5, Tan Chino 4.

*Because he wears Tan Chinos

F’s v Cherry Saints A – Written by Max - The F’s had a big win against a depleted Cherry Saints team earlier in the year, but this time the F’s had only 5 (with Brad still recovering from the flu) and Cherry Saints had a full roster. The F’s applied early pressure with a man defence but dropped back to a zone after 6 minutes to better protect the keyway. The F’s looked good on transition with Josh finishing strongly on a fast break. Darcy was controlling the play and shot a nice 3 pointer. Lots of sloppy passing hurt the F’s though and they held onto a 9-8 lead at half time. In the second half Cam was mega on the boards at both ends of the court, scoring on a couple of put backs and a nice drive. Brad also started to find his touch inside. The F’s used all of their timeouts to catch their breath and drain the clock. With time running down and the F’s sitting on a small lead, Cherry Saints ran a full court trap on the tiring F’s. This caused a couple of turnovers but also left them exposed with a couple of lob passes over the defence resulting in easy buckets for the F’s. End result the F’s ran out winners 34-26. Brad had 10 points, Cam and Darcy had 6 points each. Big thanks to Lenny for scoring for us.

G’s v Golden Grove A – NO REPORT. Won 15 – 42-27. Morgan 16, Hanzolo 8, Charlie 7.

H’s v Saint Peters A -  Written by Hitman - After a month-long hiatus caused by a combination of a bye, a balls-up and a birthday, the H-Bombs returned to the hardwood against St Peters Not Old Collegians - finally, a game against another team in the lower half of the E/F grade.  The opposition were quick to concede the two points for not having a scorer even before tip-off, and equally generous in conceding points soon after tip-off.  However, after the initial scoring burst, the game never reached any great heights due to the creative refereeing, calling an early foul on Kara when there was clearly no contact – a fact conceded by the opponent - but later in the game, they allowed other contact of Taperooesque proportions to go unwhistled.  After a half with few highlights beyond the early scoring flurry, the Redmen went into the break leading 11-5 (including the 2 points for no scorer).  The second half again began with an outburst of scoring, with Troy nailing his second triple for the game before it again turned into a grind, although with more scoring than the first stanza.  The Redmen did enough to maintain their lead, a couple of times SPNOC drew within a couple of buckets, only for Rhys to get a steal and a weaving coast-to-coast bucket to push the margin out again. The final siren was a welcome end to a frustrating forty minutes, the scoreboard reading 28-21 for a wire-to-wire maiden victory to the Redmen.  Rhys led the scoring with 8, Reid and Troy with 6 apiece.  Thanks to Mike for earning us 2 points by picking up the pen.*

* No, you don’t get to add them to your stats. 

Lady Reds (5-1) v Adelaide A (6-0) - Written by Palky – Another chapter to the Lady Reds v Adelaide battles … it has pretty much been a one sided battle with the Reds only beating them the once in 4 years. Both teams were undefeated going into the game and they are clearly the best 2 sides. The Reds started well with Alicia hitting an early 3, Megan and Rachel scoring on the break and Georgie scoring inside. Tied at 10 – Adelaide went on a 12-0 run and went into halftime up 22-12. The 2^nd half – the girls got down 18 and decided to matched up. This threw Adelaide off their game and they started to comeback – Megan and Alicia hit 3s, Rachel scored inside and hit a couple of free throws and Claire and Georgie both scored inside. Adelaide only stayed in it because they hit their free throws – going 9 of 10 in the second half and the Reds lost 28-35. Rachel 8, Georgie and Alicia 6.