2021 - Week 4

Another down week for the Reds going 1-4 with the only win in a ‘dance with your sister’...cya all at training!

A’s vs. Can’t Touch This

Can’t Touch This 90 defeat Reds 50.

No report … I wouldn’t write one either if I got done by 40 ...

B’s vs. C’s by Morgan

B’s turned up all on time with a plan and all seven players. C’s well we turned up randomly wondering if we were on the wrong court because the B’s were already there. With Matt and Damien of whom are our best ball handlers and shooters out planning becomes simple, get it in the paint any way we can and put it in the hole. There was talk of a man defence but with only five players for the start a fatty like Morgan would have died. Zone prevailed. 

C’s played a high risk high gain way not text book at all but to our strengths. Our most productive scoring was having Lachlan sprint to our offensive end the second the B’s had put up a shot. When we took the rebound we heaved it to a cherry picking Lachlan. Six unanswered points were scored this way. The only spectacular turned coach James was furious hanging over the handrail telling Brendan not to let him do that. Over all the B’s stayed in control of the game and scored a few more points each quarter to comfortably win with great shooting spacing and ball handling. C’s were happy to with great defence and passing keeping us competitive.

B’s: R.Kirkpatrick 20, Gus 16, B 12.

C’s: Lachlan 17, Morgan 11, Sam Higham 8.

B’s 64 defeat C’s 46.

D’s vs. Pick ‘n’ Pop

We really were the ‘Dads and Lads’ team this week with Lunny Jnr joining with Lunny Snr for the first time to help fill a depleted roster. Also Sean Heylen briefly came out of retirement to join in on this special occasion.

The D’s got off to a good start with Bish hitting a 3 and then Lunn going for 2 points. Ethan came on and immediately knocked down a 3 to get the lead out to 8-3. In the second quarter Pick ‘n’ Pop found their shooting touch to end the half up 21-11.  The 3rd quarter was more of the same with the Reds just unable to get their shots to fall. 

The 4th quarter got started with consecutive baskets from Lunny Snr, and then a strong hook shot from Connor to get within 11 points. From their Pick ‘n’ Pop took off again, in the end coming out winners 45-27. The Lunns top scored with Tom having 8 points and Ethan 7 points.

E’s vs. SSB

Starting the game with 5 we were fortunate to have Morgan hanging around after his game who was who was more than happy to fill in. It was lucky he did, after going scoreless for almost the entire first quarter and being down 0-16 it wasn't until Morgan subbed on and scored a couple of quick baskets that we settled things down.

Unfortunately though, the margin never really got much better than 15-20 points with SSB hitting 9 3's and was a game we'd soon rather forget. Final scores 35-66, Daniele and Morgan with 10 a piece, Hendo with 9 and Simon with 6. There were patches of some nice passing and cutting but it was too few and far between.

Thanks to Road Train for the good selection of post game beers and snacks and thanks for Morgan for filling in at the last minute.

2021 - Round 3

Only one game this week. Recap below:

A’s vs. Hubtitans

With the A’s playing a timely early game and a bye week for all other teams, the opportunity for the club to show its colours was primed, and the pub was booked for beers afterward.

1pm Reds faced off against currently undefeated Hub Titans, a young and tall lineup. Reds a little short this week, so Mike and Lachy filled in to give them 6 with Scott, Josh, Sam and Cotton filling out the roster. 

The game started off well for the Reds, jumping out the gate with some strong shooting by the actual A’s and doing their best to disrupt the Hub Titans good ball movement. With their superior size, Hubtitans found it easy to get the ball inside, but thanks to the length of Josh and Cotton, made it more difficult to finish once there. Scott and Sam made some open looks through a quick passing offence and A’s were looking strong going into the break. 

The game continued to tussle back and forth, but after spending a little too long in a man-to-man and some potential bailouts on the drive, Reds had to change back to a zone. Sadly it was a little too late for Reds to clamber back into the game. 

The cheering from the Reds on the sideline was silencing... oh I meant silent. No one came out to support... just Lachy and Mike made it to the pub and it was a disappointment to say the least. 

Reds down 74-70.

2021 - Round 2

 Down week for the Red’s going 1-4. Try and get out to watch the A’s at 1pm at PAC this Saturday (and to the pub afterwards)!

A’s vs. The Franchise

No report. Catford (The Franchise) led all scorers with 21. Kenny had 16 for the Reds.

The Franchise 62 defeat Reds 50.

B’s vs. Titans BC

Offering the A’s Brendon and accepting a cobwebbed Palk as replacement, B’s took on last year's B grade MVP in Titans with a little less firepower. 

Reds started off fairly slow allowing Titans to score inside, and Mike throwing a few poorly judged passes. Reds rallied like they did the week before, which is to say that Noah rallied, and hit some shots. 

Reds played 5 good minutes each quarter, able to stabilise outside of arms reach, even if the lead looked close at times. 

Another 3 votes for Noah, with anyone’s guess on the 2 and 1.

With 2 close early wins, the opposite of last year's season plus Every player got to the pub afterward, two truly positive signs for the season ahead.

Reds 55 defeat Titans 58.

C’s vs. RAVSTASS Ravens

No report. Sammy Higham top scored with 14.

Ravens 60 defeat Reds 46.

D’s vs. Top Heavy

The D’s started slowly again this week against Top Heavy, only scoring 11 pts in the first half. Top Heavy were forcing turnovers and creating fast break opportunities, led by the 2020 league MVP. Near the end of the 3rd quarter Top Heavy had pushed their lead out to 19 points and it looked like it was going to be a blow out. However the D’s started making their shots and finished the game with an exciting 19-5 point run. 

As the margin narrowed the D’s defensive intensity also ratcheted up, led by Manners who was getting amongst everything. The D’s had a shot to get within 2 points with 30 seconds remaining but missed. In the end Top Heavy won 39-34. Bish top scored for the D’s with 18 points including a pair of 3 pointers. Lunny, Jimmy and Max all added 4 points each.

E’s vs. SPOC C

After a good week 1, we were ready to keep the winning streak alive coming up against rivals SPOC. Without giving too much credit, 1 player scored 64% of their points and hit 7 threes. We should have stopped him and we probably would have won. 

We had our chances and stayed close throughout the game but just couldn't convert enough attempts, eventually going down 34-39. Troy was firing in his first game back for the year hitting 2 3 pointers, Road Train with 2 points, Simon with 4, Daniele with 5, Brad with 7 and Hendo with 8. Flair was 0 on the scoreboard however ranked highest in the trash talk stakes with a solid effort of getting under the Saints players skin. Onwards and upwards however and we will look to make amends in 2 weeks against Somerton Smash Bros.

2021 - Round 1

Welcome to the 2021 season! The Red’s went 4-1 with some big wins across the grades - a great foundation to build on. Recaps below:

A’s (by Liam)

Over the years, the Reds have had some epic recruiting classes, but even before taking the court those that had been around a while already knew this one is a special one.  As a unit we’ve had minimal time together, though the wonders of the Adelaide basketball scene mean we all have a solid idea of each other’s game. 

And so we took to the court, confident but a little uncertain about how it would all go. 

It’s fair to say it went ok. 

From the tip we had great offensive chemistry. Very unselfish. Always making the extra pass. And because of that we shot very well. Defensively we were solid, but to their credit SHOC shot well and were in touching distance at quarter time. 

So we went to man... and the game ended as a contest. We had far too much against a team missing some of its bigger players. We forced misses and we ran. 

With the game over we tested out some other D sets and chased dunks. So it ended 99-45.  I’m genuinely excited for the year, not only is there incredible talent and balance, it truly is a great bunch of dudes too. 

Sam dropped 31, Josh 26, Blake got a dunk and everyone hit a 3 according to the scorecard. 

Votes could go to anyone aged under 35.

*** Sadly that’s only the second highest match total for the Old Reds A’s. Still got work to do.

B’s (by Mike)

With a grandfinal rematch to begin the season, The B’s saw little change to their roster, losing Sibly and Fox, and replacing them with Francesca, Huezy, Stewart and Self. Sadly the last three were away this week, and Reds were running their first game with 6. A fairly ordinary game for all. The bigs were big, the small were fast and the reds won by 2. Mike got injured so the rest of the boys carried his ass.

C’s (by Kara)

C-Grade Red men fronted up for another season, up in division but with some big bodies and bigger hearts, we were ready to put the hurt on our opposition. We came up against former A-Grade mob The Schvitz who looked to be correctly placed in Division 2. 

We started out reasonably well scoring a few early baskets inside and getting to the line. The big men of The Schvitz also managed to get free for a few layups and dirty cherry-picking fast break points to give them an early lead. 

They held onto this lead for most of the game until a couple of quick threes in succession from Matt drew us back to within striking distance. In the end, we fell short and went down by 14 in a respectable loss but hungry to make amends next week. Given a few guys hadn’t played together before, this was a reasonable first outing for the team.

D’s (by Mark)

The PAOCBC D's came up against the Somerton Smash Bros in their first game of the season. With a full squad of 8 players available we had the numbers to overcome an apparent lack of preseason training. Early on neither team troubled the scorers much, though Lunny got going in the last minutes of the first quarter with a couple of inside buckets to keep ahead 6-5 at the end of the first quarter. A pair of free throws from newcomer Riley Kirpatrick pushed the Reds out to 8-5 at the start of the second quarter however from there the scoring dried up again and the Smash Bros worked away inside to take a 10-15 lead at half time.

In the second half Jimmy Townsend started to get going with a burst of layups and jump shots including a pair of 3 pointers. Meanwhile, Riley and Jarrod Bishop  worked away consistently to start to push the Reds lead out. In the end the Smash Bros couldn't keep up and the Reds won 39-26. Jimmy and Bish led the scoring with 12 points each.

E’s (by Caldy)

Coming in mostly unchanged from last year, with the exception of losing Lachlan Campbell due to work commitments and adding sharpshooter Nathan Graham the E’s were feeling as they do most years, happy to be back but overall unfussed at facing another season of action-packed basketball.

Coming up against newcomers “Savage Army”, whom all appeared much younger and fitter than us, we figured we would have a running game on our hands. Luckily for us, that didn’t quite eventuate. What did eventuate however was our big guys were able to feast on the inexperienced defensive structures that Savage Army bought. Savage Army were able to stay in the game for the first half with some nice shooting and driving from their youngest player (whom appeared to be about 14 years old) coupled with a “number” of missed shots from fast break expert Daniele Tosato. It is worth noting that Daniele did redeem himself with a nice 3 to put any comeback beyond doubt. 

The second half was a much more one sided affair with Hendo and Brad dominating down low, scoring 17 and 18 points respectively. Although not troubling the scorers, Flair had 3 fouls and G-man with an uncharacteristically 0 points had 1 foul with a number of excellent assists. Jon and Simon both had 8 points rounding out the roster in an overall great team effort.

My personal highlight was managing to find a carton of beers for $33.00 (Hollandia) for post game beers that for the price, tasted bloody great and I feel they may become a staple for the season. We were eventual winners 57 – 24 and now sit very uncomfortably at the top of the ladder.