By Kieren Vartuli
Southern Tigers 112 | North Adelaide 75

With the Rockets’ season being over there wouldn’t be much to celebrate on the last round of the season. Although this is was no regular season closer for the Rockets. They were saying goodbye to four players, three to retirement and one returning home. Luke Mapunda, Tom Rowe and Brett Collins were retiring with a combined Premier League game total of 567. North Adelaide import, Cody Rhorer was also playing his last game in a Rocket uniform. The Tigers were coming into this one as minor premiers, as they were 8 points clear of 2^nd place Norwood with one loss throughout the season.

The visitors wasted no time to do some damage on the scoreboard as Mitch Creek opened up all scores with a nice triple to which North Adelaide replied with their own by Thomas Rowe. Alexander Starling, had an absolute field day as he was all over the court early with some strong blocks and points. Despite their ability to get out of the gate fast, the Tigers lead was cut after some great North Adelaide plays including a steal and conversion, by Brad Jonnek and Cody Rhorer respectively. The hosts were also able to finish the first term down 13-points after Luke Mapunda beat the buzzer with a three of his own.

The second term for the Tigers was much of the same as they slowly extended their lead out to 26-points despite an early push by North Adelaide. The Tigers had a variety of weapons on the field as 4 of their starting 5 were in double figures led by Creek (game high 37-points) and Starling (23-points). Starling was able to add to his box score with his phenomenal teammate awareness as he was racking up assists quite quickly. This was a stellar night for him as he flirted with a Quadruple-Double (23-points, 15-rebounds, 8-assists and 7-steals). One notable sight this evening was the Tigers team each having court awareness levels as each player knew where one other was supposed to be. As a team, the Tigers totalled 22 assists with only 9 turnovers.

With the margin set at 26-points heading into the second term, the Rockets continued to play hard. North Adelaide showed some good signs including some great ball movement and looking for the open man for a safe basket. Despite this positive, the Rockets were unfortunately no match for the rockets as they were excellent in transition as well as under the rim for put-backs. The visitors finished with 20-points from second chance efforts as well as an astounding 54-points from inside the paint. With this in mind, this can be a focus for the Rockets coming into next season. It was not all doom and gloom for the Rockets as Luke Mapunda and Cody Rhorer showed some great signs of life with 42-points between them (Mapunda-20, Rhorer-22). They also gave a quick thrill for those in attendance with a nice dish from Rhorer to Mapunda. As the sides walked to the bench for the final break, the Tigers were up 30-points with one quarter to play.

With the game all but over for the hosts, the Rockets still had their pride and teammates to play for. With the margin too large, their good play was unfortunately not enough to rally a memorable comeback. Mitch Creek was once again all business as he was able to finish a huge 4-point play which had many in attendance both shocked and excited.

As the substitution siren sounded late in the final term, the three retirees received a round of applause as they checked out of the game for the final time in their careers.

With the game closing moments later, the Tigers finished off their dominant season with an exclamation mark as they won by 37-points. The Tigers will be heading into the finals with some strong momentum with this win, whilst the Rockets will be turning to see how they can improve next season.