By Connor Rice

Southern Tigers 108 | South Adelaide Panthers 71

Two teams and it appears two very different goals. For the Tigers it was to maintain their overall dominance and for the Panthers, to record their first win for the season.  Despite the scoreboard discrepancy, the Panthers came out to play and were determined from the opening tip.

South Adelaide has always been synonymous with tough and gritty play and this was especially apparent on Friday night. From tight defence, rebounding and getting up and down the floor the Panthers were certainly out to play. A huge contributor for them was star centre, Steve Pilkington who finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds - another great game for the player who has remained a positive constant for the Panthers. His interior defence and rebounding will be needed whenever the Panthers lace up.

Despite their best efforts, the Panthers ran into again another red hot Tigers line up who were just too good. The dynamic duo of Mitch Creek and Alex Starling yet again proved potent, combining for 40 points. In both rebounding and in transition, these two are absolute monsters and really do wreak havoc on any defence not up to the test.

Their attack inside adds to the teams overall spacing and they’re ready to drive and dish the ball out to shooters in most possessions. Todd Davies finished with three triples as well as the likes of Johns, Pinder and Ellison also adding to the total from deep. It’s incredibly difficult to stop an offense which is lethal both inside and out.

One area where the Tigers were lacking was on their interior roll defence as Panthers players, especially late in the game were certainly getting better looks at the rim. The absence of big man Jordan Dodman who is one of the leagues best interior defenders would explain this but it obviously didn’t affect the final score too much.

Ultimately it was a meeting of two squads on polar opposites for the season. While the effort and determination was certainly there for the Panthers, the overall talent wasn’t enough to match the Tigers staunch trap defence and inside offense.