Rnd 17: Tigers Men maintain their League dominance
By Connor Rice
Southern Tigers 113 | West Adelaide Bearcats 93
Still on top and still with only the one loss for the season, it’s fair to assume that the Tigers are well and truly rolling. Likely to lock up the minor premiership as the season winds down it’s more so just important for the Tigers to maintain their consistent output. As for the Bearcats sitting at 8-8 (.500) they really needed to pick up some wins to keep their finals hopes alive, something that has really been a certainty in the league for almost the last decade.
A familiar Tigers display lead to an early onslaught that saw the men get up easily. An aggressive defense and early offensive pressure had the whole team working together to get very easy opportunities against an overmatched Bearcats unit. Another massive game from league PPG leader Mitch Creek really set the tone early for the Tigers. Finishing with a massive 32 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, his impact on multiple areas really helped his team mates play off that momentum. A double-double from Alex Starling (11 points, 13 rebounds) and double digit scoring from Todd Davies and Sam Johns really did prove too much as the Tigers managed to open the game up relatively early.
A big key to their victory was Cody Ellison’s 19 points and 6 rebounds off the bench. His role for the team has really been a 6th man spark plug and it’s really handy for the elite teams to have someone who can have solid production in only around 20 minutes of playing time. Both the run out style offense that the Tigers utilise and the intense trap based defense they play really hurt the Bearcats chances of ever getting themselves back into the game.
For the Bearcats, big man Blake Truslove had another good game with 21 points, as well as Braithwaite and Spear finishing with 15 points respectively. Good output really for any other team than against the Tigers who made the Bearcats 91 points seem really insignificant.
Finishing with 113 total and cruising to victory, the Tigers will be looking to roll this over as they try and secure that minor premiership in the coming weeks. As for the Bearcats, it’s to win now and win a lot as they fight for a finals berth.
Round 18: Saturday, 23 July at 8:15pm
Norwood Flames v West Adelaide Bearcats @ Mars
Southern Tigers v Woodville Warriors @ Morphett Vale
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