By Kieren Vartuli

North Adelaide 80 | Eastern Mavericks 45

The 2^nd seed North Adelaide Rockets were looking to continue building their confidence on Saturday rolling into the final couple rounds before finals. They hosted the 3-13 Eastern Mavericks for their Beyond Blue Charity match.

Despite not having Jo Hill suit up due to injury, the Rockets had no worries on the offensive end of the floor. Both sides were playing quite evenly early in the 1^st term with the scores tied at the 6:50 mark. That soon changed after North Adelaide applied some excellent defence and forced many turnovers. North Adelaide was ferocious on the boards not only in the first quarter but the entire game. By midway through the final term, they had more than 12 offensive rebounds. Opal Mader finished the first term in style by nailing a buzzer beater with 0.6 left before the inbound pass. This closed the first quarter and gave them a lead of 10-points.

It looked possible to comeback at the beginning of the 2^nd term with a huge rejection by Caitlin Rose, which could have given Eastern some momentum. North Adelaide’s physicality left them in a tough spot though as they attained five team fouls with more than half of the quarter remaining. This was an opportunity for the Mavericks to exploit alas they were unable to. On the contrary, Brooke Basham was able to cut the lead back down to 14 with a beautiful post move after its increase earlier. Still struggling with turnovers, the Mavericks turned the ball over in their final play of the half resulting in the North Adelaide basket to end the half. This gave them a 20-point deficit to try redeem.

Coming out of the long break, Shannon Mckay continued her hot night from the field by opening up the quarter with another triple. Mckay was outstanding from deep and finished with 6-made triples. It only got worse unfortunately for the Mavericks due to the Rockets consistency. They were stringing many shots together and this allowed them to build a huge 36-point lead by the 3-quarter time.

The blowout continued into the final term and displayed the problems that the Mavericks can start working on in preparation for next season. On the other hand, the Rockets showed that it may be possible for them to take out the title with this dominant win despite the Mavericks ladder position. The final siren blew and the long and painful game was over for the visitors falling by 43-points.

Opal Mader and Shannon Mckay were dynamite for the Rockets offensively contributing 23 and 22 respectively, while Brooke Basham and Shayde Quintrell contributed 15 and 12 for the Mavericks.

Round 18:

Saturday, 23 July at 6:30pm – Sturt Sabres v North Adelaide Rockets @ Pasadena

Sunday, 24 July at 1:30pm – Eastern Mavericks v South Adelaide Panthers @ Adelaide Hills