Woodville Warriors (83) defeated North Adelaide Rockets (55)

The Woodville Warriors Men put on a spectacular show for their home court fans in the first game of the season, dismantling the North Adelaide Rockets 83-55.

Debut import for the Warriors Alex Starling made a rock star entrance to the CABL on Saturday night, thrilling crowds with his snappy footwork and graceful aerial intercepts not to mention the cascade of dunks that had the kids in the stands (some even dressed in Rockets gear) screaming for more. But it was Starling’s precision off the board and his pesky ,“glue like”, man on man defence that gave Rocket’s star Pero Visiljavec a headache.

It only took 2 minutes of play for the Rockets to call their first timeout and re-assess their strategy to account for the newcomer. The usually reliable strategy of efficiently feeding Pero under the basket for easy pickings and awesome rebounds for the Rockets was shockingly interrupted by a tight team of Warriors with a plan and in full battle mode. Woodville scored the first 7 points with no reply from North and the tone was set for the rest of the night.

The Rocket’s responded by switching up their personnel to a more defensive line-up trying to stem the bloodletting and focussing on boxing the Warriors out. Unfortunately for North this just opened up chances for players like Darren Ng and Daniel Sims to start a 3 point party. The Warriors defence remained clinical and Rockets opportunities to score were limited leaving the home team with a respectable 10 point lead at the first quarter break.

It was a case of rinse and repeat for most of the game with the Warriors extending their lead systematically during the first three quarters. That’s not to take anything away from the valiant assault the Rockets fought back with. It was a clean and skill-full game with exciting match ups and a tightly contested ball all night making it a spectators delight and an opportunity for the players to stretch themselves, take risks and play with flair.

Both coaches were throwing out new combinations every few minutes keeping each other guessing and chasing as the clock ticked. The final quarter was tit for tat with both teams scoring 12 points a- piece and the final score did not do the Rocket’s fighting spirit justice. Pero Vasiljavec stayed strong in a tough match for the Roackets and he was supported well by teammates Aaron Schild and Luke Mapunda. But the night belonged to Starling with 23 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists, he was everywhere he needed to be doing everything he needed to do.

Top Scorers Woodville
Alexander Starling 23
Daniel Sims 19
Ryan Clark 13

Top Scorers Rockets
Pero Vasiljevic 12
Brett Collins 10
Adam Schild 8