SAABL ROUND 5

   DATES

•     Midseason Pub Crawl: October 3rd (Saturday of Long Weekend)
•     Mid-December beach day at Glenelg (Specific date TBA)
•     Player's Player x Club Lunch 14th of November 
•     End of the Month Drinks @ the Stars 29th of August 6pm

SAABL DIVISION 1

A's

ROUND 5 by Liam

Reds vs The Schvitz 55-51 

After vanquishing Peev on the back of the mighty dragon that is Jang last week, the Reds looked to back it up against the Schvitz. Excited to have a win on the board, the Reds looked to repeat the formula by getting out to a big early lead. 

At 2-0 the Reds considered the early phase of the game complete and gave up a few scores to the Schvitz as the unfamiliar zone D and slow down inside play took some time for the Reds to get used to. Down 5 or 6 as the first quarter wound down, the Reds finally got their volume up on D and found the gaps on offence. 

Multiple 3s from Selfy combined with open inside shots for Aaron and Dario off massive improvements in passing flipped the scoreboard to a comfortable Reds lead at the half. Actually, it was only three points, but it felt a lot bigger…

Such was the improvement in hitting the open high post and picking the right option off that spot, the Schvitz changed their D for the second half. The change up slowed the Reds scoring, but the D stood firm and the Schvitz only hit four shots through the third quarter. 

Slowly, the Reds made their offence click back into gear, again finding the open players to hit shots on clean looks, Brendon and Brandon converting well. 

Throughout the game Jang battled hard against the Schvitz’s primary offensive plan, get the ball to the massive guy who’ll try to push through to the basket. To be fair to them, he converted some really tough looks, Jang made it very hard for him and came out ahead on the day. All the more impressive considering his hangover.

Dario continued to control the game down the stretch. While we let it get tight again, and the Schvitz even got a small lead, we kept our heads. We took the lead back converting some good looks on opposite corners from Rens and Liam and Dario iced the game from the line with two foul shots in the last 30 seconds.

A less controlled win than the previous week, but arguably one to be more proud of – challenged, we responded and got it done.

Points: Dario 15, Jono 12. 

SAABL DIVISION 2/3

B's

ROUND 5 By Gus

Reds vs RAVTASS Leprechauns 62-30

 

The Bs were coming off the back of two tough intra-division losses and needed a steadier to hold onto one of the Red Division playoff spots. We were playing a winless RAVSTASS Leprechauns team, so were well placed, to notch up our 3rd win. The team was missing Noah to injury (who very selfishly chose not to jeopardise his elite ivy-league athletics career for a social game of Saturday basketball…)We started the game switched-on and it quickly turned into a blow-out. One hungry Reds player scored the first 11 points of the game before letting someone elsehave a turn. Finishing with 19 points at the half, that player led the team to a 41-10 half-time lead. The boys put the cues in the rack at half-time and didn’t push the lead too much further finishing with a healthy, percentage boosting 32-point win. Sibs cashed in on his jumpers and at the free-throw line and Phill crashedhe boards hard as per usual. A personal highlight was overhearing one of Phil’s lads proudly boasting about his dad’s point total mid-game. In typical fashion, Phill replied: “Son, I don’t care about the points. It’s about getting back, crashing the boards and releasing to ball to my teammates!” You won’t find a more selfless teammate than big Phill and he makes every team he plays on that much better. 

Points: Gus 21, Sibs 13, Phill 11. 

 SAABL DIVISION 4/5

C's

ROUND 5 by Morgan

Reds vs SPOC 22-26 

Let me tell you a story. A fable we all heard when we were young. The Tortoise the Hare and the drunk drunk Count. Red’s with a roster of nine players started the game well. Karamosh scoring the first points of the game with two points followed by Seb, Harry and Andrew with the same almost as if they were taking turns in a training drill. Next Lachlan hit a free throw. Meanwhile Saints still with 0. Reds defence was superb with Andrew swatting balls away as if he was playing the Dubbo under 9’s from the centre and Harry Playing with perfect defensive fundamentals from the top. it was not until after 15 minutes had passed before saints scored with a pair of free throws. Half time scores 15-2. Not long into half time Reds went to sleep and our over sized roster worked against us also. We just stoped scoring. We just could not get into rhythm with so many subs. We stoped paying attention to the score board to. 15-4 turned into 21-8 then something happened it was 22-18 at the eight min point. Back to 22-16 then 22-14 back to 22-19 clearly the count was off. At this point we paid attention with only a few minutes left. Morgan then hit clutch put back with contact had a free throw to go with it that missed. Score should be 24-19. But to our astonishment 22-24. Reds see this and get very upset. Saints then hit a pair of free throws. Offical scores Red’s 22 Saint’s 26. After discussing with team we had far more points so we get the moral win and the lessons of keep pushing even when winning don’t start coasting. Also to keep a proper eye on the scoring so far we have determined we missed out on at least 7 scored points.

Points: Tidmarsh 6 

D's

ROUND 5 by Mark

Reds vs Adelaide Brothers 32-52

The D's looked good in the first couple of minutes with Cam and Damien both getting early buckets. It didn't last for long though with Adelaide Brothers going on a 12-0 run to go up 13-4 mid way through the first half. Adelaide Brothers were accurate from 3 point range, capitalising on the spacing from the D's zone defence. Damien scored 7 points in the last couple of minutes to keep the D's in touch at half time down 39-21. 

In the second half the D's switched to a man defence to attempt to tighten up on their shooters. Adelaide Brothers responded by running isolation plays however committed charging fouls against the quick feet of Reggie and BB as they attempted to get to the basket. With limited open looks the Adelaide Brothers struggled to score only adding 13 for the half. Unfortunately the D's offensive struggles continued and could only manage to add another 11 points.   

In the end Adelaide Brothers had a comfortable win 52-32. Damien finished with an efficient 18 points. Next game is against near bottom of the ladder Punjab Lions - Jimmy has promised to retire if we don't win - so we may be farewelling him at the Seven Stars on Saturday night!  

 

Points: Damien 18, Cam 6 

E's

ROUND 5 by RT

 Reds vs Punjab Lions 40-45 

It is getting hard to come up with reasons as to why we can’t score in the first 10 minutes of a game, but it happened again. Maybe it is the lack of warm up time. Maybe it is the lack of skills. Whatever the reason, it is always going to be very hard to win a game if you don’t score for a quarter of the time available.

B-Rad finally got our scoring underway with a foul shot going in after 9 and a half minutes of play, bringing their 11 point unanswered run to a halt.

Things actually improved a lot from that point onwards (they could hardly have gotten worse!).

Trev nailed a couple of nice threes, Flair got one to drop as well. Lachie worked his way in for a couple of 2 pointers and Caldy managed one as well.

At half time the scores were tied, then scorer points (thanks Ainoa!) gave us a four point lead going into the second.

Nele started our scoring in the second half with a handy 3 followed a few minutes later by 2 points from Caldy.

Things then went awfully quiet for us for about 8 minutes. These long blocks without scoring really need to be addressed if we are going to move upwards as a team this season.

B-Rad started moving inside (and getting hammered) Trev dropped another 3, RT finally managed to make one stick, but in the end we went down by 5.

Once again the real winner was beers in the car park over the road after the game.

Points: B-Rad 11, Tirrell 9s

Round 4: A's get going & C's keep going

  DATES

•     Midseason Pub Crawl: October 3rd (Saturday of Long Weekend)
•     Mid-December beach day at Glenelg (Specific date TBA)
•     Player's Player x Club Lunch 14th of November 
• End of the Month Drinks @ the Stars 29th of August 6pm

 SAABL DIVISION 1

A's

ROUND 3 by Jang

Reds vs SPOC (Peev) 60 - 47

Lights. Camera. Action. And we’re rolling. Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Will ‘Jang’ Schoneveld Show, tonight we’re going through the best plays of Jang and why he was the key reason the team won the game this week, let’s get started.

Jang hit the ground running with a bit of sass; he got under opposing team captain’s skin, A. Peev, by telling the ref Peev had an earring in. Jang also really took over the team’s offence, netting PAOC a huge lead with a few early buckets. Jang knew his team needed to push the tempo because SPOC arrived to the game late, and so he commanded and led his team accordingly. However, J-Foo rolled his ankle and SPOC started to warm up and play their rightful offence: S.Breheny was hitting some near impossible mid-range jumpers over the fully extended hand and impeccable defence of Jang, have to give him some respect. It didn’t change much though, PAOC winning the half 38-21 riding the coattails of Jang.

The second half began with Jang giving SPOC some false sense of security, letting his other team mates run the offence and therefore give SPOC an opportunity to go on a run themselves. Jang quickly replied by taking matters into his own hands and finishing a tough and-1 to swing the momentum back to PAOC. Liam clearly wasn’t happy with Jang being the star player and threw a hissy fit after 2 quick defensive fouls. This would promptly net him his first tech for crying at the refs. But that wasn’t all, Liam elevated his hissy fit to an absolute tanty and kicked a ball into the 17^th row, promptly getting himself ejected from the game. Little did Liam know, however, this would light the fire under Jang but even still, a win for PAOC would prove difficult with Liam and J-Foo both out. With no bench on PAOCs side, SPOC would begin picking up the tempo, running and tiring us. However, Dario and Self would net some easy buckets after Jang orchestrated some wizardry leaving them wide open. It truly came down to PAOC hanging on and eventually slowing down and limiting turnovers to win the game – great team effort in the end, although it was mainly sparked by individual brilliance.

Scorers: Mainly Jang with a clean 9 points, maybe like 12 assists, and upwards of 20 rebounds… also D. Strebl with 16 and J. Self with 19

SAABL DIVISION 2/3

B's 
ROUND 3 by Mike

Reds vs Pace and Space 42-59 

With Sibly a late out, the B’s almost had their full squad for the first time this season. To highlight what went well for the reds this game would be tough. Pace and Space have 1 amazing shooter and 1 streaky volume shooter, with a supporting cast that move the ball well and get high percentage shots where possible. This style doesn’t suit Reds well, who often try to force opponents to shoot bad shots, then team break down the court. Sadly P&S didn’t miss much most of the game. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but communication and a section of selfish basketball could be the largest contributing factors as well as leaving it too late to change the defence.

 The B’s will win the title this season if they do the following.

1. Start the game with the same intensity they play with in the second half.

2. Talk more.

3. Average 2-3 more passes in offences that aren’t fast breaks.

 This week they were simply out played and looked lost.

 2-2 now for the season. But still looking like they’ll be competitive come finals. 

Points: Foc 10, Noah 9

SAABL DIVISION 4/5

C's

ROUND 2 

Reds vs Punjab Lions  49-36

      Points:  Tidmarsh 13, Stewart 10

D's
ROUND 3 by Manners

Reds vs SPOC (Ness) 36-39

Reds lined-up against Saints eager for their first win of the year against a very beatable Saints outfit.  The story of the first half was Jimmy Townsend’s 6 threes, most of

which coming from the left-elbow in one of the best shooting displays this Club has seen, he couldn’t miss, and Reds kept finding him.  Reds going into the half up 21-9 and in control.  The only threat from Saints was outside 3’s.  The second half Saints came

back making 2 more 3’s to get within 6 before another 3 from Jimmy got the lead back to 10 and again, Reds looked in control.  Ryan fouled out on some dubious foul counting leaving Reds with only 4 for the last 10 mins.  Cam, BB, Damien and Jimmy all deserve

a lot of credit for playing out the last 10 hard, but Saints made their comeback and their no. 8 hit consecutive 3’s to give them a 1-point lead with only 30 seconds to go.  First time they had led all game.  A time out with 19 secs left gave Reds the chance to get one last attempt but could not find a shot, free-throws by Saints leading to a 3 point loss in the end.

Points: Jimmy 21, Tuidini & Smith 5

E's

ROUND 3 by RT

Reds vs Adelaide Brothers 39-44

I have checked the stats and with 6 out of the 8 players on the team having a collective 12 kids amongst us, we certainly know how to score! Unfortunately that didn’t translate into scoring points during the game this week, particularly during the first half.

It took more minutes than I care to remember (play by play tells me 6 ½) before anything dropped at all, and once we got to 6 points there was a 7 minute scoring hiatus where once again nothing went in.

Luckily Hendo was getting fired up by then and went on a mini spree ending up with 11 for the half.

B-Rad had a couple of points in the half, going into the break we were down 13-18.

Early socring from B-Rad, Hendo and RT got our noses in front about 4 minutes into the second half and our heads were up.

It was a very tight game until literally the last minute, when some interesting decisions took the game out of our grasp. The final score being a 5 point loss for us, 39-44.

We know we can definitely beat this team, our hopeless inability to finish in the first 1/3 of the game really let the opposition stay in touch. A few rolls in instead of out would have made all the difference.

Hendo had a blinder, top scoring with 18.

B-Rad came alive in the second half adding a further 11 to give 13 for the game.

Lachy and RT with 4 points each, RT 2/4 from the line.

Caldy, Trev, Flair and Nele uncharacteristically scoreless for the game. Caldy being blocked by the ring on a few fast break opportunities.

We will see what next week brings.

Points: Henderson 18, B-Rad 13

PAOCBC ROUND 3

  DATES

•     Midseason Pub Crawl: October 3rd (Saturday of Long Weekend)
•     Mid-December beach day at Glenelg (Specific date TBA)
•     Player's Player x Club Lunch 14th of November 
• End of the Month Drinks @ the Stars 29th of August 6pm

 SAABL DIVISION 1

A's

ROUND 2 by Jang

Reds vs SPOC (Gibbons) 52 - 64

Coming off of two losses and against a known strong Saints’ outfit, we had high hopes and were keen to show ourselves as competitors. We started off well with Dario cutting through whoever Saints put in front of him but there was still trouble running our go-to motion offence. Saints, on the other hand, stuck to their disciplined offence, finding mismatches with their big men and making our help defence work hard as they got to a 31-23 half time lead. Brandon and Jon kept attacking and Dario managed to find his teammates behind the defence, as we cut their lead to just 5. However, that was as close as we would get going down by 12 in the end.

The team discussion after the game may prove pivotal as the new-look team starts to gel; and hopefully, with a full team, we can start beating these tougher opponents. Some individual positive plays on defence, offence, and general hustle just weren’t enough as we hope to build a team-style of basketball as we progress this season.

Points: J Self 21, D Strebl 14

SAABL DIVISION 2/3

B's 
ROUND 2 by Mike

Reds vs Spartans 53-55 

The B’s came out looking fairly small, missing Big Phil and the Sizable Krantz from their regular roster. Stepping up to the plate was Ben Darso, former A grade flag winner returning to wear red after approximately a decade. After about 5 minutes of game play he realised how hesitant he is to compete physically considering the rehab for his foot that took the best part of the last 12 months. He apologised with fries at the pub, which was welcomed by all. Spartans have a fairly long and athletic line-up, making it another struggle for the B’s to consider this week.

The game started slow for the Reds, fairly quiet and not closing out shots led to Spartans taking an early lead despite a few fast break baskets by the young and spritely duo of Noah and Sibly, along with a triple from Dangerous Stu to keep us in contention early. After a tying up the scores at 11 apiece, a fairly ordinary substitution correlated to a 13-point run by the Spartans until Reds had to call a time out to stop the haemorrhaging. Reds began to rally and bring the game back to competitive through Sibly running in 7 points to keep us in striking range at the half 28-18.

Reds continued to build upon their momentum in the second half, With Gussy piling on 8 points and the young fellas hitting the break to bring the game to 31-32. The game then became one of tug-o-war, Spartans never giving up a lead but also not being allowed more than a 2-shot buffer. Spartans had some of the luckiest rolls you could have ever seen, but Reds kept their heads up. Some big makes by Noah brought the game to 49-50. A nice shot inside by Spartans spread the lead until Angus got a cheeky tip in to go 51-52. Another ball jammed against the back of the ring and board, only to then roll in, relying on Noah to make 2 free throws to bring the game to 53-54. The next 21 seconds of game time contained about 6 fouls, a lot of missed free throws and some dubious calls in our favour to leave us with 2 shots, 0.7 seconds on the clock and Noah at the line, Reds down 53-55

Points: Noah 17, Sibly 12, Angus 10

 SAABL DIVISION 4/5

 C's

ROUND 2 by Seb H

Reds vs SPOC White 43-38

Another win on the trot for the mighty C-graders.

From the moment we all saw our Saturday opponents, we knew it was going to be some serious ‘street ball’ style of basketball. From tasty step-backs to ankle shattering cross-overs, the Wu-tang Clan proved to be a formidable force. However, the might C-graders were just too strong on the day to take the ‘W’.

As it was our third game as a team, we were all feeling an ever increasing level on chemistry between one another. In conjunction with their lack of bench, and our extended roster, we maintained a high intensity skillset throughout the game.

From Morgan’s nasty around-the-back passing, to Harry’s impressive defending, the game got off to a good start. Scores were relatively even throughout the game with some Damien Lillard style 3-pointers keeping them in the match.

With performances from Lachy’s brute force under the ring and big Brennan’s winning  of the ‘O’ & ‘D’ boards, we slowly gained a healthy lead. Smooth Captain Sam made sure we ran our offense correctly, and maintained continuous communication on defence.

Nonetheless, despite our opponents top of line Lebron and Kyrie footwear, Pritch made sure to drain down some ice cold triples from the logo to seal the deal and cement our second win in a row.

Congrats fellas, let’s make it 3 this week!.           

  

      Points:  Lachie 8, Seb 7, Morgan 7

 D's
ROUND 2 by Mark

Reds vs SPOC 35-50

This week the D's had their full team available for the first time. It was also Jimmy Townsend's first game for the season and he immediately demonstrated some of the scoring firepower we had been missing, starting off the game with 2 consecutive 3 pointers. Saints soon pulled away to an 8 point lead by mid way through the half until the D's put on a run of their own to get within a point with a couple of minutes left in the half.

The second half was back and forth, Jimmy and Damien both hitting 3 pointers. Connor was playing well making some good cuts to the basket and fighting for rebounds. The D's were within a shot of the lead with 7 minutes to go. A couple of soft fouls and poor judgement allowed Saints to all of a sudden get out to a 9 point lead and suddenly the game was out of reach.

Promising signs for the D's with our most competitive and enjoyable game so far. In the end Saints won 50-35. Jimmy had 12 points and Damien with 6. 

Points: Jimmy 12, Tuidini  6, Cam 5

E's 

     ROUND 2 by RT

Reds vs SPOC 30-42

Darkness was almost upon us as the game kicked off at Saints, vs Saints. The 5pm timeslot just about being past our ageing bodies bedtime might be a reason why our successes during the game were few.

It was another low scoring affair. I will be generous and say that both teams showed a very strong defence, rather than having sub par shooting!

We had the full squad of 8 for the first time this season and we knew Hendo was definitely back when he earned a tech foul about 30 minutes into his season.

He also managed a handy 6 points.

B-Rad high scored for us with 7 points, mostly moving around the top of the key and cutting inside.

RT with 5 points, 1/2 from the line and a couple of inside moves.

Caldy also with 5, a nice three pointer adding to his tally.

Lachy with 4, although it could easily have been a few more. He is starting to look comfortable on this team, particularly after the game when the beers are flowing.

Trev with just the one three this week, but we know there are plenty more in the tank.

Nele and Flair not adding a great deal to the score sheet, but as always contributing more on the court than the stats would show.

Thanks to G for coming out and scoring, also a few tips from Sean at half time.

The final foul count of 9-16 tells something of a story in it’s own right. The story is not about the way we played or conducted ourselves. 

Points: B-Rad 7, Henderson 6, RT 5

SAABL Round 2

KEY DATES

•     Midseason Pub Crawl: October 3rd (Saturday of Long Weekend)
•     Mid-December beach day at Glenelg (Specific date TBA)
•     Player's Player x Club Lunch 14th of November 

 SAABL DIVISION 1

A's


 SAABL DIVISION 2/3

B's 
ROUND 2 by Oliver
 Reds vs Titans 61-47 


       This Saturday the B team came up against the Titans. Coming into the game we could see that our opponents were much taller overall than our team especially without big Phil. We knew we would have to work hard on the boards to get plenty of good shots up. The game started out basket for basket with the scores being within only 5 points going into the half. At the break we told Tim and Noah to leak out as soon as we secure the ball as they were much faster than the boys on the Titans. This tactic resulted in around 20 combined points all from layups. Ollie then came in with a few quick threes to put us up by a comfortable margin and Gus finished them off with some great movement and contested layups. The win has left us undefeated and second on the ladder to SHOC by 5%. Player of the game goes to Angus Crawford for picking up countless loose balls and securing a nice total of 21 points in the process.
     
Points:  Crawf 15, Noah 11


 SAABL DIVISION 4/5

 C's

ROUND 2 by Seb

Reds vs SPOC White 45-40

A true display of robust teamwork was evident during the PAC Cs game against Saints this past Saturday.
After only week of playing together, there was strong synergy between players. Passing was strong and communication was effective. This is what allowed for a consistent offensive edge giving PAC dominance in the first half.
An unselfish and skilled performance from Jimmy Pritchard was opening up a lot of opportunities as well as great shooting from the 3 point line.
Lachy was on big man ting, proving to be truly formidable directly under the basket.
Harry played a very strong assist game complimenting our lead.

Look out, the Cs have some things coming.

  

      Points:  Lachie 13, Seb 7, Pritch 7

 D's
ROUND 2 by Mark
     
     Port Blazers vs Reds 32-23

       The D’s were up against the Port Blazers this week at Saints. The game started off slowly for the Reds going down 0-4 in the opening minutes until Damien Tudini put in a pair of free throws and then followed this with a 3. Cam made a strong move to the basket to score, and then Manners hit a pair of free throws on the next possession. Reds didn’t score in the last 9 minutes of the first half while the Blazers went on a 13 point streak, with scores 9-20 at the half. The Reds had opportunities in the second half to close the gap but were let down by their poor shooting, finally putting on a run of 9 points in the final 4 minutes.  Damien led the scoring with 9 points, while Max and Manners added 5 points each.  Thanks to Sam Kara for starting things off at the scorer’s table. 
     

     Points: Damien 9, Manners 5, Max 5

 E's 

ROUND 2 by Simon 

   SPOC vs Reds 34-19 

This week the E’s came up against an enthusiastic SPOC. We started slowly allowing Saints to open up a 0-8 lead, however to our credit we tightened our defence and managed to keep them to 16 at half time. The problem being, that we only had 8 points, although I did manage 3 fouls in the first 6 minutes of the game which I believe must be a personal record for me!

Coming into the second half the scoring continued slowly for both sides with everyone chipping in a few points. It would have been easy to let Saints blow the game open with their large bench but I’d like to think even though our shots weren’t falling our defence remained strong. Each team had 13 fouls which may have contributed to slowing the game down to our pace. Final scores 19-34 with Jon and Brad both having 6, Simon with 4 and Lachy with 3. Flair had 4 fouls and Daniele failed to trouble the score bench however as always contributed numerous 1%er’s.