Hey guys,
Really sorry that I haven't been updating regularly, I've been struggling to find the time to get it all done properly. You know what they say – time really flies when you take two depression naps a day! And are also an alcoholic.
Anyway, I have many reports to share! Please enjoy in no particular order!
Having said no particular order, these are shamelessly ripped from @Ben Palk's weekly SAABL reports. Gee, it's too bad he doesn't do this one, it might be a little better!
SAABL Week 9
07/07
B's
A's
PAOCBC Red
continue their winning ways beating Forestville Blue. The Reds are
top of the league with stifling D - I am not sure how a team can be
top yet be sort of flying below the radar, they only have 1 player in
the top 20 scorers in the competition. Brendon Francesca had
22 for Reds.
C's
In Division 2 -
PAOCBC Red had a 40 point win against the young A-Town lads. A-Town
played great in the first half - there are some great kids on this
team. They have great competitive spirit even talking a bit of trash
to Palk, who would've deserved I mean we've all trashed on Palk,
right?
D's
PAOCBC White had
a great win against SPOC White - it was a close game with PAOCBC
getting a 4 point win. Ollie Fox had a big game for PAOCBC
with 18.
SAABL
Week 10
14/07
B's
Tyler "One Dad" Hosie was keeping the lead from getting too far out of reach for PAOCBC but Jacob Cassar was on fire for the Schvtz draining 5 threes and Matthew Schar (11 points) was too much down low for the undersized Reds (Whites). The Schvitz by 19 - 54-35.
A's
In a tantalizing clash between the two Reds - PAOCBC Reds (Red) (see; Red Square) and A-Town Warriors (Red).
A-Town were missing their 2 leading scorers so the scoring was left to the exciting Isaac Atuer. PAOCBC jumped early with Jonathan Foo hitting some short jumpers and getting to the rim, Phil Harford running the show and draining some 3's and Jono Selfgetting out on the break.
PAOCBC play great together, their D can be stifling and their ball movement is excellent. Isaac (18 points) was keeping the Warriors in the game with his penetrartion and great shooting but PAOCBC were too much for them, Harford (18 points) and Foo (20 points) had their best games of the season and Warriors struggle to keep Phill Farrer and Lachlan Campbell off the glass.
PAOCBC ended up winning comfortably 72-45. The win means PAOCBC Red are the first team to qualify for Division 1 finals but final ladder positions still very much up for grabs.
D's
PICK N POP FOR
THE WIN! PNP have been around the mark all season but have not
managed to close out some close games, losing 4 games by 8 or
less. Peter Willsmoreore (8 points) and Jon Bartsch (10
points) lead the way for Pick N Pop all season. PAOCBC White were
down 10 with 7 minutes left and made a spirited come back, cutting
the lead to 3 with a minute to go.Julian Urlings made a huge 3 to extend the lead to 6 and Reds (White) missed their shots in the closing stages and PNP got their 2nd win for the season.
Ollie Fox continues his good play of late finsihing with 15 for PAOCBC.
C's
PAOCBC Red had a comfortable win against Saints White. The lead got out early but Saints settled and started to get some steals and get out on the break through Josiah Whittaker (8 points) and Lane Whittaker. Reds were a little too balanced with Brandon Reynolds (12 points), Mitch Kirkham (10 points) and Darcy "Mr Knitwear" Lord (9 points) all getting to the basket and draining jumpers ... and some bespectacled old man had a couple of fancy passes and 13 points too
=) With the 57-29 win and the Saints loss - that moves PAOCBC Red into 4th, 2 games clear. Reds have a tough run home with the 3 teams above them and Saints Blue in the next 6 weeks.
Week 11
21/07
B's
PAOCBC White took care of Hit Squad pretty easily - winning by 28. Angus Crawford has bounced back after a tough start to the season, with 13 points.
A's
The two top teams from Conference Red - PAOCBC Red and Conference Blue - Saints Blue faced off in what should have been a great contest ... but PAOCBC Red were way too strong winning by 39. The two Phils - Harford and Farrer tore in a new one. Phill Farrer scored the first 13 points for Reds and then Phil Harford scored 14 in the rest of the half. They had their fill.
(see later report written by Mike)
C's
Pick N Pop had a great win against PAOCBC Red - Tim Moors had a cracker and Jon Bartsch was too much down low. PNP are really on the improve - they still have a chance to make a late run to possible squeak into the finals.
D's
Ravens and PAOCBC White played out a tough contest. PAOCBC were down a couple of players but they played super hard, working on the glass and down low.
PAOCBC White took care of Hit Squad pretty easily - winning by 28. Angus Crawford has bounced back after a tough start to the season, with 13 points.
A's
The two top teams from Conference Red - PAOCBC Red and Conference Blue - Saints Blue faced off in what should have been a great contest ... but PAOCBC Red were way too strong winning by 39. The two Phils - Harford and Farrer tore in a new one. Phill Farrer scored the first 13 points for Reds and then Phil Harford scored 14 in the rest of the half. They had their fill.
(see later report written by Mike)
C's
Pick N Pop had a great win against PAOCBC Red - Tim Moors had a cracker and Jon Bartsch was too much down low. PNP are really on the improve - they still have a chance to make a late run to possible squeak into the finals.
D's
Ravens and PAOCBC White played out a tough contest. PAOCBC were down a couple of players but they played super hard, working on the glass and down low.
Ngor
Daniel and Matt Topouzakis hit four 3's each and got
the lead out enough to keep PAOCBC at bay - winning by 8 and keeping
them at the top of Div 2.
7/7/18
7/7/18
PAOCBC
Gold
vs
Big
Sunday A
Despite the scoresheet showing a date of 7/7/87, we turned up on time and in the right place for a top of the ladder clash with Big Sunday A.
A run of losses in the middle of the first half of the season has held us back from the top place on the ladder, although we had worked our way back into second.
Missing from our lineup this week was Flair, some feeble excuse having been made with regards to a new family member… Huge congratulations to Flair and Jordy!
Mike Evans was also missing in action, as was his keg…
The first half was a game of defence, with the Gold team coming out on top, having held Big Sunday to 10 points while managing 18 of our own.
The second half was more of the same, with our lead extending to a margin of 14. Final score being 37 – 23 in our favour. In the end a solid birthday win to help Caldy celebrate.
Another solid game from B-Rad with 17 points, the rest of the total shared pretty evenly, with the exception of Troy who was too busy coaching us to the win to bother the scorers.
3 fouls to Hendo and 5 to RT, the last in the final seconds of the game, were also a stand out. To be fair, RT really only got 2 or 3 fouls, the balance being “interesting” calls at best, including a block from behind that even the blocked player said was clean.
Car park beers provided by Nele, shiny meat and chips by RT.
Thanks to Ainoa for scoring.
Checking the ladder shows this was enough for us to take the top spot. Now all we have to do is carry this form though to the end.
26/05
SACBA
Round 7
PAOCBC
Red (4th)
defeated
Christies
beach Baptist A (6th)
45-28
In our 4th game in Central 1 the Reds were yet to register a win – we’d had a close loss, a loss by a few, and a bigger loss last week. There’s some good teams - but we feel that we can compete – and as the highest div now we’re calling it the new Church A Grade.
From a squad of 8 we were down a few – Hahnz was unavailable, BB’s ankle needed another week, and Josh was recovering from a minor medical procedure * – inside word is that he’ll be playing as Jocelyn for the Lady Reds next season. The call went out and Mike Tye’s stepson Mak came in for his 2nd game for us – it was the Return of the Mak.
Christies Beach played the 1st couple of minutes with 4 and (as everyone else is in the league) looked younger and more athletic than us. But they seemed a bit lethargic and we were happy to take it up to them.
Reggie was aggressive on the drive early (something missing from his earlier games) and was rewarded with 3 trips to the line in the 1st half along with a long J. Cam made a nice cut down the guts, JT with a bomb, Mak, Mike & Max all finishing well to have a good spread and open an early lead.
Defensively CB didn’t have a lot of inside presence and were happy to shoot from long range, we closed out fairly well and went into the half with a 27-19 lead.
With our first half -aggression we’d also forced CB into the bonus, giving them some foul trouble for the 2ndhalf. Having switched to a 3-2 we forced CB to take their 3s earlier and from further out.
With a soft charge (borderline flop) by Reggie, their big guy fouled out and we only had 4 to contend with. At the same time we ran the break a bit, particularly JT and Mak. Max hit a nice ‘and-1’, Cam worked hard on the glass and dropped a couple himself and Mike kept forcing the issue by taking it at the D and giving us good looks.
We outscored CB 18-9 in the second for a solid 45-28 win, our first in Central 1.
A good spread of scorers - Reggie with 9, Cam & Jimmy with 7. Bringing our Central 2 results, we are 2nd on the ladder – but there’s only 2 points between 1st & 5th
Special thanks to Kellie for stepping into score – apparently her last time because she has to concentrate too much & can’t bag us from the sideline.
noting serious, a couple of stitches, but that doesn’t make for a good story now does it?!?!
SAABL
Week 11 21/07
Reds Red
Reds Red
vs
Saints
Blue.
This looked to be a tough game, reds were missing both Jons, and saints had but up big numbers in recent weeks sporting some new talent.
That being said, the Phils didn’t get the memo, Big Phil scoring reds first 7 points before a saints time out at 7-3. They adjusted and it paid off... Phil only scored the next 6 points for reds before subbing off at 13-5 because he’d been playing an amazing Philsical game.
Then Harford decided to light up like a Phil-ament at one point scoring, then ripping the ball out of hands off the inbound and then hitting triple... A quick aside from his father, “I really should have taught him mercy when I raised him.”
Reds went into Half time up 40-16. Second half wasn’t as flawless as the first was, with a few lapses of concentration based on fatigue only running 6. But reds rallied Phil-ing the gaps in defence and crashing the boards as a team.
Not to be stopped, the Philanthropist kept the cash coming, going 7/8 for the day. The philnomenon continued, “why are all these big guys not rebounding?” Said moments before he and Lachlan get back to back offensive rebounds for 2 points.
Brendon then Philandered on defence and with the team rebounding got him some easy points on the break. Saints could never manage to revive themselves from the Philactory and reds went up 80-40.
16/6
SACBA
Round 9
PAOCBC
Gold (2nd)
defeated
Our
Saviour Hubtitans G (6th)
64-38
There was a squad of four, with one spectator, as the worst of the afternoon was upon us. Dedicated individuals working as a team in near impossible conditions. Luckily the heavy rain passed pretty quickly and the keg emerged unscathed.
Everyone bar Hendo (family responsibilities) had been participating in the Mike provided beers, but when the rain got too heavy the lightweights bailed. Luckily a few more hardy souls kept the party going.
Some time prior to that we had a full team present on Court 3 at Wayville. Flair was in attendance, but not suited up after waking up with a dodgy knee. He took Caldy’s advice and tried rubbing it out (post game conversation told us that he rubbed twice, but got nowhere near the knee either time…), but decided discretion was the better part of valour and spent his game on the score bench.
I don’t know at this point who was in charge of the scoresheet, or the addition at then end of the game, but suffice to say Nele’s stats have improved somewhat this week…
If memory serves me, we last played this team at Unley High. Basketball (and the Gold Team) was not the winner that week. I did mention that with anything approaching a full team we would walk over those guys. Luckily my predictions came true.
In a birthday points feast B-Rad got 15 points. Most weeks this would guarantee the highest score for our team. But not this week.
Hendo turned on a blinder, with 19 for the game, 13 coming in the second half, including a sweet 3.
Nele shows 10 on the score sheet, although with 0 in the first and 2 in the second one would be forgiven for thinking that whoever was doing the post game addition might have confused his uniform number for a points scored tally (see earlier comment regarding stats).
Caldy and RT both with 8, both with 4 in each half to keep things balanced.
Trev and Mike both had 6, although Trot got his with two 3’s, while Mike had three 2’s.
The opposition had 6 players, 2 of whom didn’t trouble the scorers. 27 of their 38 points came from two players. Their very tall number 2 got 15 points, none of which came from inside. He was handy on defense, getting quite a few blocks until we learned to fake and wrong foot him inside.
In summary, it was our best game of the season so far. Our intensity was great. We had almost a full squad. We shot pretty well, rebounded well, played strong defence and generally didn’t do too much wrong. A good birthday game for B-Rad, who barely looked any older than he did two weeks ago.
Thanks to Flair for coming out to score, even in the light of his sleepiness induced by two rounds of self help massage.
2/06
SAABL
Round 5
PAOCBC
Reds (White) 2 (7th)
defeated
by
SPOC
Saints 2 (Blue) (5th)
52-56
Reds line up against a very beatable Saints team, and unfortunately lose Alex for almost the game after a heavy knock to the knee inside the first 2 minutes. He battles on bravely and gives time for super sub Darcy Lord to come in. Reds defended well all game aside from giving-up up a couple of fast breaks-gave nothing easy and boxed out hard.
Late in the second reds get down 10 with just over 5 mins to go and with 3 bad foul calls lose Morgan who, together with Stu and Darcy had carved-up Saints zone with some nice inside play.
On the back of 2 massive 3’s and a mid-range from Ollie, and Alex running baseline and hitting the cutting Stu who was finishing well, together with some nice inside finishing in heavy traffic from Darcy manage to peg it back to within 2 with 2 mins to go – Saints rattled call a time out.
Reds continue to rally and level it with Stu going 2 from 2 at the line with only a minute to go, but Saints make 2 buckets over outstretched hands in the final minute. Reds lose by 4 in a gutsy effort from all. All of them showed tremendous fight all the way through and to come back from 10 so late in the game.
Scorers Ollie 14, Stu 21, Darcy 9
PAOCBC
Red (Red Conferance, 1st)
defeated
Brooks
Basketball Hit Squad
(Red
Conferance, 6th)
79-47
In truly great sporting seasons, there is often a moment. I like to call it the Disney moment where a rag-tag bunch of underdogs take their team, a team beset by troubles, and find that one common bond that unifies them, galvanises them, and thrusts them forward to greatness. This was not that match. We are neither rag-tag nor underdogs. For a decade we have been a title winning machine of near German levels of efficiency. Die mannschaft if you will.
Though we had a hiccup last week against The Schvitz, the KB school of Ball was on the receiving end of the correction. The Reds went into the game chock full of confidence.
Probably more than would be expected considering the performance the previous week, but no less than is reasonable considering the previous decade. Talk of heavy scoring dominated the build-up and was delivered upon.
Though The Hit Squad opened the scoring, Phil responded with 3 seconds later and the Reds were never again headed. Fill dropped and-one early (37 to go) and Phill got his own and-one seconds later.
Noise, intensity, movement and finishing were all evident as the Reds attempted to atone. 11-0 and 17-0 runs filled the half as good shots in the half court combined with excellent running of the floor to spread the scoring throughout the team.
Phil was shooting well from deep, Jon and Jono particularly were getting on the break, we were getting stops from steals and, importantly, much stronger defensive rebounding underpinned an excellent first half.
Fill pointed out that Chad JR’d an offensive rebound off a foul shot, but we’re better than Cleveland – we scored of the play. 10 points in 90 seconds finished the half and a comfortable lead was secured: 46 – 17.
The Reds committed to trying other defences in the second half and these showed us some places to tidy up, but underlined that we have options we can try when we need to change it up.
Our offence continued to click along – Phil hit back to back threes then Jono copied minutes later, Frangers continued to run hard and find open midrange looks. Fill and Phill worked the man D hard inside and stopped The Hit Squad getting a foothold.
It always felt in control, but on reflection the second half was 33-30. A little bit sloppy on turnovers trying to keep the tempo up. Something to work on for the next blow out – keeping control while keeping the pedal down. Reds win 79-47.
Though this wasn’t a game to bring us all together, it was a strong and positive response that propped up our percentage in a conference where that is likely to matter. If my team mates are looking for a moment to crystallise our ambitions, I suggest looking no further than one of my favourite films of all time – Major League. I would endorse any attempts to unify any team by Lou Brown’s methods.
9/06
SAABL
Round 6
PAOCBC
Reds (White) 2 (7th)
defeated
by
Adelaide
University Blacks (1st)
D’s lined up against top side Adel Uni. Roughie got us off the mark with a nice finish on a break finishing the pass from Stu. First half a low scoring tussle, Morgan, Stu and Ned all crashing the D boards - with Reds going into the half down 2.
In the second half Uni got going with reds 2-3 zone breaking down leading to some easy inside scoring by no. 40, reds found themselves down 8 and called time out to settle.
Reds fought back with some inside scoring from Morgan, the usual crafty finishing by Stu and some good D, and Ollie drains a massive 3 to give us the lead for the first time.
From then reds gave up a couple more easy 2’s inside and got down 5, until Ollie scored a huge and-one lay up and made the bonus free throw. Teams traded buckets from there with Morgan and Stu continuing to score inside.
Uni up one with 30 secs remaining make one of two from the line, making it a 2 point game – Reds Time out and decide to run clock. Uni come out in a man for the last possession and reds pass the ball well and late in the clock Ned takes on his man and makes an awesome scoop right hand lay up (no glass) and the game is tied with 6 seconds to go.
Ensuing Uni possession Reds wisely foul to burn some clock, Uni throws up a bad 3 and its overtime.
In overtime Uni came out with their best player making 2 free-throws, Morgan finishes inside again and reds down 2. Ryan gives up an unsportsman-like trying to stop a breakaway.
Next possession Reds turn it over and that’s the game. Reds showing tremendous fight to come back and force OT and are unlucky not to come away with the W.
Scorers Stu 17, Morgan 14, Ollie 10
16/6
SAABL
Round 6
A's
defeat
B's
50-47
Db got lots of blocks
Billy hit 3s
Phil hit 3s
B’s hit Phil (no call)
Phil asked a question
Phil got tech foul
Phil hit more 3s
Michael missed free throws
Tyler missed the game entirely
A’s crashes boards
A’s crashed the party
A’s made the party good.
A’s win
