By Connor Rice

Sturt Sabres 93 | Woodville Warriors 74

The Woodville Warriors matched up with the Sturt Sabres at Pasadena on Saturday night. Both teams started off hot as they were trading buckets and stars for both squads, Nelson Kirksey and Daniel Johnson making it clear they’d set the tone for their respective team’s offenses for the night.

It was apparent early that the game was shaping up to be extremely physical and gritty. Both units were playing some incredibly aggressive defence and were very vocal from both the court and bench for any made or missed calls. This unfortunately seemed to play better into the Sabres hands as the Warriors’ aggression couldn’t be channelled into stopping the combination of Johnson, White and Klaosen for the Sabres.

Unfortunately for the Warriors they got little to no production offensively from their team outside of Darren Ng and Nelson Kirksey. While the duo are a premier set of league scorers against a team like the Sabres, it’s very hard to win without your bench guys stepping up. Special credit to Tim Klaosen who played some stifling perimeter defence on Darren Ng, not allowing him to get his usual early 3’s and making it hard for him to earn his 23 points. Klaosen was pivotal in the Sabres overall dominance.

Daniel Johnson however was the major turning point in how good the Sabres were. There has to be something said about how positive it is having a front court player who can stretch the floor and hit 3’s the way DJ can. Coming off both of an international stint and of course his work with the 36ers it is evident how smoothly refined Johnson’s offensive game is as he played great defence and poured in 29 points. Johnson will be a huge upgrade to the Sabres front court and should really see them on par with the Flames, Tigers and Warriors going forward. His shooting and size are the ultimate testament to their elite guard set and shooting from the likes of Isaac White.

Ultimately the inside and outside shooting dominance of the Sabres proved too much to overcome for the Warriors defence as the Sabres ran away in the second half.

A frustrating game both mentally and physically for the Warriors as they’ll look to their bench guys to step up and help the likes of Kirksey and Ng. While the Sabres should be looking to maintain implementing new recruit DJ into their system and try to maintain their top 4 spot with the Eagles and Bearcats hot on their tails.

The Men’s competition is really looking to come down to the last few games as the league is filled with elite teams and individual talent.

Round 15: Saturday, 2 July at 8.15pm
Sturt Sabres v Eastern Mavericks @ Pasadena
Woodville Warriors v West Adelaide @ St Clair