By Connor Rice

Norwood Flames 91 | South Adelaide 61

With only the one loss in 4 games, the Norwood Flames have established themselves as one of the competition’s strongest teams this season. With a quick motion offence and an elite defence to match, the panthers seemed to struggle from the jump. The Panthers, yet to get in the winner’s column, grappled to get any sort of movement offensively as the Flames made them pay in transition for any sloppy passes or careless turnovers.

Star big man for the Flames, Jacob Holmes was a huge contributor down low, causing all sorts of defensive headaches for South. Finishing with 13 points, 13 rebounds, Holmes was everywhere from the mid-range to the low post and will likely be a focal point of the Flames offence in the coming weeks as the season progresses.

Additionally, contributions from marksmen, Matthew Lycett and Ben Mrowka who both added double digit score lines and the Webber brother’s both with 14 points each, meant it was too much for a struggling South’s defense in the blowout defeat.

Both Steve Pilkington and Ryan Gardner had great games for the Panthers finishing with 20 points and 17 points respectively. Pilkington and Gardner have been double digit scorers across the season so far and the Panthers are likely going to need to rely on their efforts to maintain some stability offensively.

In the end, the combination of a stifling full court defence, a quick paced offence and a lack of production from the opposition meant that the Flames ran away with this year’s Blockbuster Round game quite comfortably. Now 3-1 for the season, the Flames continue their dominance with Sunday night’s 91-61 victory.

Round 5: Saturday, 16 April 2016

Norwood Flames v North Adelaide Rockets at Mars @ 6.30pm

South Adelaide Panthers v West Adelaide Bearcats at Port Adelaide @ 8.15pm