By Kieren Vartuli

Woodville Warriors 90 | North Adelaide Rockets 70

The 4-6 North Adelaide Rockets hosted the third seed 7-3 Woodville Warriors in their second matchup for the season on Saturday night. Last time these two sides met, the visiting Rockets were able to go home with the tight 3-point victory

Much like last time, Nelson Kirksey was the game top scorer and finished with a dominant 32 points. Kirksey was all over the court in the first quarter and was able to dazzle the crowd with back-to-back dunks in transition. Kirksey wasn’t the only reason why Woodville was able to gain a demanding lead though as the Rockets’ paint appeared to be Warrior domain. The Rockets were playing well but their shots weren’t consecutively falling and this caused problems on the scoreboard. At the end of the first period the Rockets were trailing by 17-points.

Coming out of the first break, North Adelaide were playing harder on both sides of the hardwood and they were forcing Woodville shots and securing rebounds. On the opposite end of the court they were not settling for jumpers as they drove to the hole more often and grabbed some strong offensive rebounds. Despite the better defence by the hosts, Woodville were shooting over 50% from the field with just over 3 minutes left in the half.

Kirksey once again stunned the crowd, executing a beautiful turnaround long-range jumper despite the tight defence applied. He also gave a highlight rejection later in the game, which demonstrated his large vertical.

As the half-time siren blew, the effects of the first quarter lingered as North Adelaide trailed by 24.

A couple of bright sparks for the Rockets was the work put in by Cody Rhorer and Luke Pike and they finished with 16 and 14 respectively. Rhorer had a few pretty plays in the third quarter, although struggled from the line. Luke Pike was also able to add 2 triples on what was a quiet 3-point shooting night by the hosts.

In addition to Kirksey, Woodville had another two players in double figures – Darren Ng and Luke Stanbridge. Sharpshooter Ng dropped 18 points off a variety of plays including a cross court catch and shoot from 3-point land and he finished with four buckets from deep.

Despite the commanding lead attained in the first term, the Rockets were able to hang with one of the top clubs as they outscored them 20-18 in the fourth. Both clubs were trading buckets back and forth in the final term, giving the audience a show but exhibiting some of the even aspects of their games. The visitors were able to take the match by 20 points evening the season series at one apiece.

Round 12: Saturday, 4 June at 8.15pm

Woodville Warriors v Eastern Mavericks @ Adelaide Hills

North Adelaide v Southern Tigers @ Morphett Vale