2019 #7 Round 5 Recaps - C's turn off the Taps, while A's knock off the Champs

Key Dates

• Intercol – Monday 22^nd of July
• Quiz Night – Saturday 27^th of July – More details to be announced soon
• Players Player – Saturday 24^th of August
• Club Lunch – Saturday 12^th of October

**Housekeeping - captains please send me your game reports by Sunday evening so I don't have to chase up individually ... and feel free to spread the writing duty around your team. Always entertaining to hear different voices! 

SACBA Central Men 3

G’s (Rookie Reds) v King’s Baptist by Noah

This week the Rookie Reds came up against King’s Baptist in a hotly contested matchup. Our opposition again were much older and a little bigger than us, but luckily we had the 6 foot 8 frame of Grant (Noah’s Dad) filling in for our depleted side.

King’s Baptist got off to a quick start, getting up 10-5 early in the first half despite only having 4 players to begin the game. They were able to get inside our zone with their big bodies and get second shots with offensive boards. However, we fought back late (thanks to a few bonus points for our opposition’s late arrival) to be up 21-20 at the half.

The second half began fairly evenly, with Crawf finding the basket with some smooth floaters and nice finishes, Steve driving hard to the rim, and Grant giving away some fouls. However, with 3 minutes to go we found ourselves down by 5. After a short timeout and a few inspirational words we came out firing. Some strong work on the defensive end and really good team basketball in transition saw us go on a 10-0 run to round out the game, leaving us winners 40-35. With this win, the Rookie Reds maintained their position on top of the table making us the team to beat in the competition.

Score: Rookie Reds defeated King’s Baptist 40-35

Points: Crawford 11, Miles Jr 8, Ottanelli 5

SAABL Division 3

F’s v SPOC Saints Gold 3 by Road Train

We knew we were in for another treat when Saints brought two teams, or near enough, to the competition. This was the newly regarded team down from Div 2, where they were winless. We could tell straight away that they were very excited to be there, whereas our pregame discussions centred around the fact that Trev had volunteered to bring post game beers but hadn’t yet turned up!

Luckily for us not long after the game started he turned up, so our post game refreshments were in the bag. From that point on the game became secondary. We didn’t play particularly badly, but 7 ageing guys against 9 or so younger players was always going to be a struggle. Church spec reffing was also the order of the day, despite SAABL promises to the contrary.

We had our moments during the game, but we couldn’t come away with a respectable result, much less a win. It was commented after the game that we could see how they were winless in Div 2, possibly with a full squad and decent warm up we might trouble them more.

Nele the only player out of both teams to remain scoreless. Caldy with 2. G and Hendo with 5 each, both with a 3 point shot each. Trev with 6 from a couple of threes. B-Rad with 7 and RT with 11.

I would take the scoresheet with a fairly big pinch of salt, as I am 100% certain I got 8 or maybe 10 and I would think Brad had more than me. We had a player scorer doing the scoreboard, they had a scorer who admitted it was his first time. As mentioned, post game beers by Trev, chips by RT.

Score: Reds 36 lose to Saints 67

E’s v Saints White 3 by Ollie

Saturday’s game started out with a horrendous score of 0-0 for both sides until 5 minutes into the half where Ollie Fox started us off with a nice floater. Moving on from there it was a basket for basket scenario with Saints narrowly leading for most of the first half. The last two minutes of the first half were stuffed with some timely and-ones from the fill in James. At the half PAC Lead by 6. At the break the team discussed their ball movement and decided to get longer offences to free up space in the paint for people to go to work.

As the second half began we hit the ground running. A couple of timely threes from Ollie and few inside buckets from Tim and James were a big help in the overall outcome of the game. This run continued throughout the second half with us knocking down shots and getting second chance shots. All in all great game by the boys with well-run offences and good presence on the boards. Special mention to Todd Fischer as we set him a target of 20 boards and securing a total of 22 boards. Also his highest scoring game with a massive effort of 2 points.

Score: Reds 47 defeat Saints 36

Points: James 17, Ollie 15, Tim 13

D’s (All Stars) v Top Heavy by Manners

The All Stars came up against Top Heavy, another newcomer to SAABL. The first half was tight, with Madman making a baseline jumper to get proceedings underway, then Lunny hitting Stu with a nice pass for a lay-up. Tight scoring for both teams, the All Stars just weren’t hitting shots, only one of their players doing the scoring. Scores close to even at the half and unfortunately for the Stars, the shooting yips continued second half. 

Top Heavy drew many fouls and their only scorer made the Stars pay from the line. Late second half Stu came alive driving in the keyway and making tough layups. Still, the Stars couldn’t stop #25 Tim Lai from Top Heavy who continued.  The Stars down 2 with 5 seconds to go drew up an inbounds play for Stu, which didn’t come off. Stars go down by 2 in a disappointing loss and one they’d like to have back. Some poor turnovers, allowing second chance points on rebounds the biggest culprits.  

Score: Top Heavy 27 defeat All Stars 25

Points: Stu 14, Manners 4

SAABL Division 2

C's vs Taperoo by Jon Foo

First half: Cs got out to a great start, jumping out to a 22-10 start - Isaac opened the game with a tough reverse layup then scored on the break - Dylan, Dan and Jon all hit early 3s! Morgan scored inside and was causing havoc with steals and deflections - Cam took a great charge and was solid on D getting a block as well. Taperoo gathered and made a run towards the end of the half - Cs up by 9 at the half after a pair of free throws from Dan and a 3 with 4 seconds left in the half from Dylan.

Second half: Taperoo continued to stay in the game with a couple 3s and attacking the paint. Jon got out on the break and scored inside a couple times. With 5 mins to go, Cs were up by 5 - Morgan scored a clutch bucket inside - Dan hit a baseline jumper - Isaac sealed the game with an and-1 with 30 seconds to go. Great bounce back win against the top team after losing 3 straight.

Score: Reds win 49 to 44

Points: Foo’s 27 (Jon 14, Dan 13), Issac 8, Dylan 7

B’s v Coyotes (the artist formerly known as ‘Undecided’) by Baker

Frustrating game for the B’s this weekend. Krantz and Gus were dominant on the glass early and our ball movement was okay - but there was a lid on the basket. We put up 8 points in almost a half of basketball, thank fuck Brandon finished the half with a big three giving us some momentum going into the break ... albeit down 21-11

Half time proved positive - the consensus being we won’t have a worse shooting half for the year and we were only down 10. The second half was a game of runs. Kara had two big buckets to open the half and we ramped up our defense and built momentum, going on a 14-6 run in 4 minutes flat to close the gap to 4.

The Coyotes called a timeout then responded with a 14-0 run of their own on the back of some hot shooting from deep. In the end, they made shots and we didn’t. Our defensive effort and offensive execution improved in the second half, but as Lenny wisely noted from the scorer’s bench -  we needed to stop the game and their decisive run earlier.

Thankfully post game beers and wings at KTH lifted the spirts. Cheers to Gus’s roommate Paddy for filling in and we look forward to Self sorting his life out so he can provide some offensive firepower next weekend.

Score: Coyotes 53 defeat Reds 40

Points: Gus 15, Brandon 11, Baker 6

SAABL Division 1

A’s v The Schitz by Lachy

So SAABl has had to make a few changes to the fixture recently because some teams, well. Some of them just https://youtu.be/otCpCn0l4Wo?t=18. This led to the A's season fixture being changed so that we now have 6 games at PAC instead of zero. That's fine.

BUT WAIT! Classic 2019 A's drama - how many fucking players do we have?? This week’s timeline - even the fill in pulls out on Saturday morning.

With Mike and Lachie reffing at Rostrevor and trying to figure out who to ask to play, the first thought was "hey, how about that high school kid from Trinity?". Twenty phone calls alter, Lachie finally remembers the A grade player who is always keen to play - cue Craig "How is the most handsome guy on the team the less good looking person in the marriage" Garrity lacing up at the eleventh hour** for the Old Reds for the first time this Saturday season.

Prior to the game, Lachie overheard one ref mention to another that 2 of the players for the Schvitz**** are COPS. Oh no, the safety! Lachie called one of them over to confirm the status of the 3rd guy there. The response? "We're ALL cops". Now, I'm not gonna say the younger refs looked intimidated. But I definitely saw one get out a parking ticket.

GAME TIME!!!

Last time we played a regular season game at PAC, Big Phill scored a literal billion* points in the first 13 minutes, completely obliterating Mike Hill's previous scoring record.

This time around, he didn't want to be a Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, or Derrick Rose**, starting with some amazing cuts down the base for good finishes. But cuts without a passer mean nothing, and Brendon "how old is that guy anyway, did he just turn 21 or 22" Francesca started out hot hot HOT

D-Dawggy Dawg for the first 5 points, then 2 assists, then more points. Around about this time, the other team made a bucket. The bastards. Time to get to work, I guess?

The Schvitz won last season for a reason - namely, they're quite good. They started hustling a bit more, and dropping some buckets to close the lead. Meanwhile Reds, with a damaged***** Captain Point Guard, Reds starting racking up a few turnovers

Having learned the lessons of the previous weeks, Reds were smart enough to pull the trigger on early timeouts to stop enemy momentum and have a bit of a rest. A lot of trading back and forth happens over the next 25-30 minutes, but the Reds continued to 

Kerwin Penn (aka Mike Hill's former best friend before Lachlan "Best-Beast" Campbell) continues to be the biggest worry for the Reds, as he's one of the best shooters and is having a good day. To quote him post game "yeah that was a good close out, I couldn't even see the ring" BUT HE STILL MADE IT!!!

Talk from the boys on court has been phenomenal at this point, as we're well aware that we need to overplay Kerwin "Hothand" Penn in addition to Aljosa "Big body, small head Severinski. At this point, most points for the Schvitzy-Schvitz are coming off long rebounds and broken plays.

The Schvitz decide to go to a man defence, which pretty much is what your boy eats up for breakfast. Slop it on a plate and sop it up with a bisket. Having said that, when the best defender on the team swaps onto you and the worst/laziest onto Liam "Alchemist" Golding, you're gonna enjoy just watching your teammate turn bad defence into gold results. Liam taking some sweet drives and a couple of nice finishes. Only problem... some of those great looks aren't dropping. And Kerwin "please go away" Penn is still making tough shots.

While the Reds have some good looks on the push which should have converted, and admittedly the passes were quite good, we looked like we wanted to quit basketball and open a bakery******

The last few minutes were quite tight - Kerwin making a couple more 3's, Phil "more balanced than he looks" Modra getting to the line. Nathan Broadbent hits a trey as well to really break the sweat out on the Reds bench.

Reds clamp down on the turnovers and make good decisions though, B-Dawg getting another field goal to extend the lead to 4. Fouls going down the court and Schvitz want to make a play - Reds calling to not foul but contest clean.

Brendo takes a rebound and BECAUSE HE'S SIMPLY A BAD PLAYER******* he runs on the sideline while dribbling the basketball for the worst turnover in history. Period.

Lachie contests the inbound and Modra also steps on the sideline, giving the ball to the Reds for the last 3 seconds and the win. Reds 49 defeat reigning champs The Schvitz 45!

Many thanks to Craig Garrity for coming out this week, I'm sure we'll have you again!

Likely votes: Brendon, Phill, an immodest myself.

*patently untrue, though Big Phill did have a monster game.
** one and done players. I hope you all got that reference
* he answered the phone around 11.50, fill ins have to be registered by 12. Pretty close, ey!
** don't think I worked up enough that we're playing the reigning champs
*** by himself. He fucking hurt himself while drunk, AGAIN. Someone needs to baby proof the world for this mofo
**** turnovers
*****pretty much the opposite of this

Note from Baker - if you made it to the end of this blog and understood Lachie's 'footnotes' I commend you ... anyway good wins guys!