Southern Tigers (53) lost to Sturt Sabres (82)

Despite a conscientious 18 point effort from Lauren Fisher, her Tigers couldn’t get the job done on Saturday night, going down to the Sabres by 29 points in a heavy defeat at Morphett Vale Stadium.
 
An opening 15-point head start for the Sabres got the ball rolling, as Kara Hargreaves slotted 8 points early on. However Fisher helped herself to 8 points of her own, helping the Tigers back into the game, making it 24-16 at quarter time.
 
Kelsie Rutland made things interesting, bringing the margin to 4 points early on, before Natalie Novosel let loose at the other end, setting up a brilliant 10-point quarter for herself. The Tigers couldn’t make do with their small comeback, letting the game slip back out to 9 points at half time.
 
However after Fisher had held the Tigers together for majority of the first half (scoring 15 of their 34 first half points), a 27-7 third quarter was the trigger that Sturt ultimately pulled, blowing out any hopes the Tigers had of staying in touch.

Lucy Spalding made her presence known on the court by hitting a couple of very sweet back-to-back three pointers helping the Sabres take their lead out to an unreachable 29 point margin at the end of the third.
 
A much slower paced and inevitable final quarter didn’t include as many fireworks. The Sabres managed to take the lead out to 36 points, but couldn’t maintain it and closed out the night 82-53.
 
Hargreaves’ shots were magnets to the basket all night long, hitting 4/4 from downtown and only missing one of her seven shots from the field. Hargreaves finished the game with 16 points and 6 assists. Hannah Richards quietly achieved a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the night.

By Sam Tugwell

Top Scorers Southern Tigers
Lauren Fisher 18
Kelsie Rutland 11
Haley Bunce 9

Top Scorers Sturt Sabres
Kara Hargreaves 16
Natalie Novosel 14
Lucy Spalding 13