SAABL ROUND 8

    DATES

•     Midseason Pub Crawl: BOOKED FOR THE 4TH of OCTOBER  (Sunday 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 26th of Sept 6pm

SAABL DIVISION 1

A's

ROUND 8 by Brandon

Reds vs SPOC 50-54 

It was a tidier performance from the A's this week with much better ball movement and team play. We started the game off well jumping out to a 7 point lead. Selfy was attacking the ring with Dario and B hitting their mid-range jumpers to keep Saints at bay. Liam 'the wise' Golding spoke before the game about simply going out there and enjoying ourselves after a couple of bad performances by the team and it worked. The key for the Reds is sustaining a 2-half effort and not letting it get away from us if things start to go the other way. Seriously, every single team in this division is so even every single week is a tight game. We maintained our lead for most of the 2nd half but Saints grabbed the lead off a couple offensive rebounds whch turned into a 3. Pretty typical if you ask me - 75% of those guys have the potential to be complete hacks who throw bull shit at the ring and cross their fingers for an O board. Now that my little whinge is over - we pulled back the lead but Saints were able to hit a couple more timely 3s after a couple of Dario iso buckets to get them across the line. It's as simple as that in this div, it's make or miss and the games suddenly over. It was as much better performance this nevertheless - and hopefully we can carry this type of basketball into our next couple of games.

 

Points: Dario 17, Jono 13

         

SAABL DIVISION 2/3

B's

ROUND 6 By Mike

Reds vs RAVTASS 36-46

The B’s have hit a bit of a slump this season and the game wasn’t great. But I watched Star Wars in the morning so I will intertwine the two. We are of course the evil empire and far more interesting than the rebel opposition.

The empire is attacking the rebel fleet as Darth Vader captures the princess and almost thwarts any chance of the rebellion has by capturing the plans beamed out at the end of rogue 1. Reds hit an early lead through fast breaks and Noah being strong with the force.

Luke barely knew his parents, growing up with his aunt and uncle in a desert helping his uncle’s farm until a chance encounter with 2 droids at the markets leads him to meet Ben Kanobe (Obi Wan), who would lead him through an adventure and lead to Obi wan sacrificing himself and granting his power to Luke. The Ravens continued to change defences but they were unsuccessful at stopping the Reds as there were a lot of mismatches. Eventually a few players from Ravtass forfeited their court time to better match up against the Reds and play a man. The reds hadn’t really played against a man before, and with storm trooper like accuracy, didn’t have much luck hitting anything from anywhere.

Luke Meets Yoda, doesn’t listen properly, falls for a trap and loses a hand and finds out Darth Vader is his father. The centre of The Ravtass defence was high and long jumping Luke, despite having to sacrifice his offensive game which was abysmal, he summed up 9 or so blocks for the game, really keeping the reds out of the paint where they score the best. Tim, Mike and Noah managed to find some baskets here and there, but we otherwise struggled to finish off the rebel alliance.

Despite Hahn Solo being captured most of the game by our defence, we forgot occasionally to close out on Princess Leia who befriended the Ewok’s and ran amok in the forest of not paying attention defence.

The emperor had some solid ideas but sadly they struggled to follow through as he fouled out of the game when trying to do a little too much too late rather than spreading the workload across the trilogy of the game.  

Reds down by 10 in a game they’d rather forget, much like Episode 1,2 &3.

Points: Tim 11, Noah 10  

 SAABL DIVISION 4/5

C's

ROUND 6

Reds vs Top Heavy 49-43

Big match-up for Team Red against Top Heavy – a mob that had scored 74 the week before (a blistering score for the lockdown defence of Division 4/5).

We came out early with some nice ball movement getting easy scores for John, Morgan and Sam K. Lachy C and Sam H came off the bench, made some nice cuts and the team went on a rapid 12-0 run. This was capped off by the Reds collecting a number of charges against the beefcake on Top Heavy. Some poor defence to finish the half allowed Top Heavy to get back into the game – only down 2 at the break.

The second half was similar to the first with Morgan and Sam H finding holes in the sieve that was the Top Heavy defence. The boys continued with the soft touch of a St Peters Reverend around the rim and put this one beyond reach with one of our best performances of the year. Reds win 49-43 with even contributions across the scoreboard.

Points: Morgan 10, Crawf 9

SAABL ROUND 6 & 7

   DATES

•     Midseason Pub Crawl: BOOKED FOR THE 4TH of OCTOBER  (Sunday 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 26th of Sept 6pm

SAABL DIVISION 1

A's

ROUND 6 by B

Reds vs Kings Park 32-50 

The A’s started out strong with Dario finding Aaron on the baseline who was subsequently fouled, Jang & Dario started crashing the offensive glass giving us second shot opportunities. Dario, Selfy & Frangers scoring off well timed cuts to the basket, Aaron started to get free on the baseline for jump shots & Rens hitting midrange pull ups. The second half started off with Selfy & Frangers crashing the offensive glass & Aaron walling off an opponent for an easy block, A’s down 23-25 at half time. In the second half things started to head south with untimely turnovers plus a drop in defensive intensity & focus ultimately leading to easy scoring opportunities for the Royals. A’s 32 Royals 50

 

Points: Dario 9, Jono 7 B's

         

ROUND 7 By Foo

          Reds vs Franchise 47-58

After coming off a disappointing loss last week, the As were looking to bounce back against the Franchise. The first half was tightly contested, Brendon got the scoring going early with a putback after grabbing the oboard and Liam hit an early 3. Number 10 for the franchise started hot and made several tough midrange jumpers in the first half. Self and Dario scored inside and Brandon hit a couple floaters in the paint. At the half the game was tied 28 a piece.

In the second, the franchise started to mix up their D jumping between a zone and man. Self, foo and Brendan scored early in the half and the score was 44-44 with 7 minutes to go. Franchise pulled away in at the end of the game scoring the next 6 points. Jang scored a 3 to keep the As within reach, but some later turnovers hurt us at the end of the game.

         

Points: Jono 12, B 9 B's 

 

SAABL DIVISION 2/3

B's

ROUND 6 By Mike

Reds vs Campbelltown 69-72 

 

After a cruisy win the week before, the reds were looking to back themselves against the ever high-scoring Archers. A fitting team for a name that prefers to do damage from range, the Reds Swordsmen knew they’d have to score 3 baskets to every two of Campbelltown if they were going to be in with a shot. They were an interesting uniform, sporting 4 different sets of also red, but fortunately reds looked shiny clear in red and gold. (no uniform points were offered, and uniforms are supposedly very important to the integrity of the league). Reds could see that a young headstrong team would need to play from the front, and if reds could get enough of a lead, Campbelltown would drop their heads and/or implode.

The game started well for reds, finding some open looks down low, punishing some lazy team defence. Campbelltown made a few long baskets, Perry Twins combining for a lot of successful 2v5 basketball. Reds couldn’t quite get enough ahead at any point to dishearten the young fellas, leading at the break 38-36.

The second half was a battle, Reds trying 3 different defences but none of them stopped the bleeding of points as the twins mismatched from the arc and in the lane and all points. The lead blew out to 7 midway through the half and whilst reds were able to close the gap, they never quite got the lead back. An amazing man on man defensive effort allowed them a shot to draw it, but unsuccessful.

Game highlight was Noah taking off from the centre circle, catching the ball in the air, taking his two steps and board tapping a lay-up, “I knew if I bounced it I’d have stuffed it up”.

Reds down 72-69. Lol 69!

         

Points: Gus 23, Phil 11  

 ROUND 7 By Mike 

           Reds vs Eagles 55-63

After a tough loss to almost 20 threes the week before, the B’s new they had to step up this week to bring home the bacon. Coming up against Forestville Eagles and a former red, they knew they had their work cut out for them. Unfortunately Forestville and former red Brad Haydon didn’t look like missing this particular Saturday, finishing with a whopping 31. Yet again, Reds ended up conceding 10 shots from the arc. Whilst they got everyone involved and chipping in to scoring, only Ollie Fox had double digits. Reds Offense is looking largely fine, but they will need to concede less points for the rest of the season if they are to win. 6/8 turned up at the pub afterward.

 Points: Foc 11, Mike 9

 SAABL DIVISION 4/5

C's

ROUND 6

Cs vs Es 27-36

 This was a key game for the C’s coming off a couple of wins in a row and looking to move into one of the top spots on the ladder. 

The Gold team came firing in this with Brad scoring inside early and Troy hitting a couple of threes. Meanwhile, Red team was struggling and couldn’t buy a basket. Morgan managed to get us going inside with some slow steps throwing off the defence. Some hot shooting from John and Pritch towards the end of the half got us to within striking distance at the break. 

Gold were great at controlling the tempo of the game in the second half and Lachie C was in his groove running point. In what was a foul-heavy second half, Reds never really got going. We struggled against the size of Train and Brad inside and they limited our easy baskets. Gold too good in the end, taking this one 36-27.  

Points: Stewart 7, Pritch 7

ROUND 7 

 Cs vs Ds 49-29

After a poor showing against one PAC team, we were keen to get back onto the winners list against another. This game was a scrappy affair with some dubious calls going both ways. John and Sam H got us off to a reasonable start with some good shooting before Lachy ran the break and found Pritch under the ring for a layup about three plays in a row – taking us into the break with a handy 12 point buffer. 

We pulled away a bit in the second half with John continuing to cook, finishing with 14 for the game including 4 threes. BB was getting to the rim and Manners and Reggie were hitting some mid-range shots to stem the bleeding but the damage was done. Reds run away with this game 49-29. 

 Points: Stewart 14, Pritch 8 

D's

ROUND 6 by Mark

Reds vs Punjabi Lioms 40-35 

The Lions got out to a quick start going up 7-0 in the first 2 minutes. Damien responded with 6 straight points of his own including a 3 pointer, followed by another 3 from Jimmy. The Lions were keeping in touch with a number of uncontested shots, so the D’s responded by switching to a man defence. The D’s were looking good attacking the basket and pushed out to a 28-21 lead by half time. 

The second half was more of a grind with the Lions hustling hard on defence, racking up their 7^th team foul with more than 12 minutes to go. Meanwhile, BB put his body on the line to draw 2 big charging fouls. The D’s free throw shooting was mixed, allowing the Lions to stay in the game until Connor hit the dagger with a strong move inside to put the D’s up by 7 with 2 mins to go. The D’s were winners in the end 40-35. 

 

Points: Cam 10, BB and Damo 7

ROUND 7

Ds vs Cs 29-49

Points: Wong 10, Damo 8 

E's

ROUND 6 by RT

 Es vs Cs 36-27 

There was something in the wind on Saturday afternoon, the wind of change. With a Reds vs Reds clash, pride was on the line (plus a chance to score the first win of the season!).

Maybe it was the warm weather, maybe it was the capacity crowd (allow me some artistic license), whatever the reason for once the Gold team was ready to play when the game started. It made a refreshing change from previous weeks where it took a good 10 minutes to find some rhythm.

By halfway through the first half it was looking like a possible blowout game, Gold up 12-2.

B-Rad moving freely inside, and Trev knocking down back to back threes helping to break the spirit of the mostly younger opposition.

The second quarter saw more even scoring from both teams, the long break seeing Gold up 22-15. RT and Nele managing a single point each, Lachie knocking down a mid range jumper and a sweet 3.

After a few words from the Ref regarding back chat (actually shouting, we all looked at Hendo…) the second half got underway.

5 quick points from the Reds Red team saw them well back in the game with only a four point margin. It was time for the old Gold team to pull it together and work hard to maintain and build the lead. B-Rad and RT worked hard inside for points, Lachie and Hendo had back to back threes and all of a sudden the score was back out to 34-22 in our favour. A couple of quick fouls from RT to assert dominance saw another 2 points from inside and we had enough margin to start a bit of old man keepy-offy to run the clock in the dying minutes of the game.

Final scores showed Gold the clear winners, 39-28. And what a pleasure it is to write a winning report for the first time this season.

The scoresheet showed Lachie and B-Rad tied up with 8 points each at the final buzzer.

Trev’s pair of threes netted him 6 points for the game. The Red team must have seen him as a real threat, because they did start to play a lot harder D on him when he was on the perimeter, which ultimately opened up the inside for more scoring options.

RT with 5, although he thinks a vicious headbutt (chin actually) to his arm in the act of shooting was a foul call which should have gone the other way. The shot dropped so there was a robbery of two easy points and a possible “and one”.

Hendo, Nele and Caldy all with three points each. Uncharacteristically quiet for Hendo, some cheap niggling from the opposition possibly having a negative effect. Both Nele and Caldy ran hard and contributed unselfishly, points scored not a true reflection of input.

Thanks to Cam and G for scoring half the game each and Auraelia (RT’s eldest) for scoring the entire game.

Points: B-Rad 8, Campbell 8

ROUND 7 by RT

Reds vs SPOC 39-28  

I wouldn’t want to make assumptions about breeding, privilege and onomastics, but I was struck by the names of some of the opposition players this week.

I could be wrong, but if you took a random sampling of 4 non Saints men you would be unlikely to come up with Benedict, Jackson, Hugh and Harrison. Or maybe I am showing some different upbringing bias. If so, I apologise.

This week breeding and privilege took a back seat to gritty determination and a desire to succeed. For the second week in a row the Gold team finished on top at the end of the 40 minute tussle.

Saints fired first with a 2 pointer that was immediately answered by a three from Lachie. A couple more twos by Saints gave them the lead again, but then Hendo stepped in with a three of his own, evening things up.

We then went on an 11-0 run, uncharacteristically (for this season at least) giving us a nice early buffer. They scored a few in the last few minutes of the half, but we took a handy 11 point lead into the long break, 28-17.

The second half saw us continuing to score at a reasonable rate, which coupled with a steady defense allowed us to finish the game with the same 11 point margin as the half time break. I guess you could argue that the second half was a tied game, but we never panicked or lost control of the game. Scoring from the get go certainly has made a positive difference for us for the last two weeks, hopefully we can keep this form going.

B-Rad topped scored for us, 13 points in total, 5 from the line showing the typical Saints hack and slash defense.

Hendo with 10 points. 3x3 point shots showing great form from outside.

Only a single point difference between RT and Caldy. 6 and 5 respectively.

Lachie with his early 3 being his only scoring shot, but still looking dangerous and certainly running plays with authority.

Flair’s season is going from strength to strength. Another two points this week, in typical Flair fashion, spinning off the top of the backboard to drop in.

Flair also scoring points in the carpark by providing post game beers.

Thanks to G for scoring and possibly giving some half time hints and tips, but who on our team really listens?... 

Points: B-Rad 13, Hendo 10